That pretty much sums it up for me. Also, in the off season, it can be a pretty desolate place, with very little to do other than go to the beach and watch the waves smash against the breakers or go to the pub.

S

I was brought up in the West Country.

I left the day after I finished my A levels, drove up the M5/M4 and haven't been back since.

I wanted to get ahead in life, not end up an unemployed unemployable youth hanging out in bus shelters.

Cheers

Buzzy

Hi All,
We too considered moving away from Bristol and moving to Dorset/Devon.
My parents have just moved to live in Dorset after taking early retirment and finally doing what they've dreamed of doing since we were kids!We spent all our hols in dorset ( Parents had a big static van) as kids and love the place to bits ,but afetr viewing houses down that way and then looking for a job etc it just wasn't a goer.The house prices are savage in Dorset/Devon.
We have a caravan of our own near Croyde ( and No Hutch you can't use it!!Loved the bit about the Bowgie at Crantock by the way,spent many a night there as well!!!) and use that as our bolt hole away from the madness that is Bristol.As a shift worker who can only get away every other weekend it gives you somehthing to look forward to and the kids love it,out they go in the summer,hats suncream and water and they come back when they are hungry,they can't do that at home and really hate coming home.I suppose it's one of the factors in the plans for the move really,the outdoors life,sun and although where we intend to go is on the coast the house prices are within reach.If we could afford to live in Devon/|Dorset I think it would be a hard decision to leave the UK ..so sunshine coast here we come.
I ahve to say tho that if you get the chance to visit Dorset/Devon or Cornwall for all those that haven't please try before you leave the UK ...it really is stunning down yer in the west country!

if you get the chance to visit Dorset/Devon or Cornwall for all those that haven't please try before you leave the UK ...it really is stunning down yer in the west country!

Totally agree with you here, We also as kids used to holiday in Devon and Dorset, and for the past 13 years have lived in Poole and love it here, But time to move on to pastures new. Have been out with the camera the past few weekends pics to put in the album, Lulworth Cove, New Forest, Brownsea Island trying to get to Dartmoor, Bigbury, Burgh Island, Dartmouth, Polpero but rapidly running out of time but these places will always be in our memories, Plenty of other lovely places in the UK also. No doubt we will be back for a visit and hopefully this country will have changed for the better



Maybe not just had the budget today

John

Thank you all. Consider me enlightened

What a shame it's not as good as it looks.

Will try and get there in the future

Sums Cornwall up Bix. Nice place to look at on TV but the locals have a venomous hatred of outsiders - "emmits".

Good to see you back on line

Yep, yep, and yep.

I know someone in the WC whose husband cheats on her and has bloody awful rows with her all the time. She refuses to sleep with him or cook for him or .... pretty much near anything. They have two kids caught in this mess.

Why does she stay?

Because he has one of the very few good paying jobs in the WC. One that allows them to own a semi-detached in the posh bit of her home town. She sees her friends and family as often as she likes and she doesn't have to work or worry about money.

I love the WC ..... very comfortable and laid back ..... but the property values vs wages are insanity.

Mind you after the baby boomers have moved on to even greener pastures there will be a property surplus and maybe us baby busters/Gen-Xers can live there at the young age of 70.

i used to live in poole and felt like i was on holiday every day of my life to be honest ,i was back there for six months working around mudeford quay and we are returning most likely to that are we also are considering torquay i personally never found any trouble ingetting work but i suppose it is who you know .I came out to australia when i was 30 and my priorities have changed in 15 years here and one of them is i want more life ,because believe me poole/bournemouth has a lot more life than perth ,if people think the likes of say bournemouth are small wait untill you get here and experience the city centre of perth which is all of about 2 streets .Of course you have the faceless shopping malls to trawl around and the local suburban pubs here are a joke .

A great deal depends on what kind of job you want (or are trained/qualified for). There are plenty of professions for which there's simply no demand in the West Country and other rural parts of the UK.

For example, I work in the media, and no matter who I know, I'm not going to find a media job in the West Country that pays anywhere close to what I earned in London - and yet the cost of living in the WC is virtually on a par with London!

Actually that's not quite correct - I probably *could* find a media job that matched my London salary. The problem is, I'd have to be actually *running* the company to earn that sort of money in the WC, and it would still take me years to reach parity with what I earned as a humble employee

On the other hand, if you're not fussy about what you do and how much you get paid for it, then you'll probably be okay.

I work in construction and there seems to be work pretty much everywhere ,but i get yoor point i could earn anothe 1000 a month in london which if put towards amortgage along with what you where intentionally going to put toward a mortgage in say bournemouth you would end up with a nice house worth a substantial amount of money .Its alife style choice ,my income here roughly equates to 20%less here to the comparable job in the uk in bournemouth this goes quite a long way to closing the difference on the mortgage payment on a house in bournem,outh as opposed to perth ,not only that i often used to do shopfitting work in london where my income doubled and accomodation was thrown in and another issue to consider is the ease of making money in europe ,i was there in germany working for 18 months and the money was beyond belief for me and all cash too ,now i know germany is stuffed at the moment but it goes in cycles and construction workers where wanted there in the 50s,70s,90s it wont belong before it starts again .

We had lived all our life in Poole, Dorset and loved it we would not live anywhere eles in the Uk we left to give our daughter a better life in the respect of wife not having to travel to London every weekday meaning only seeing our 2 1/2 at the weekend only as she would be in bed when she left and when she arrived back home and could not find a job closer to home for the same amount of money

There is a kind of irony here...

....this is what a lot of people say they will do in Australia to get by

So why not in the west country.

G