fayemd

Hi can anyone give me some information with regards to Devon or Cornwall i.e.good/bad areas,whats it like for bringing kids up e.t.c.
We are planning on moving to the south west from NZ and just want to get as much information as possible having not lived there before.Beer looks nice as does Truro and Exeter.Thanks in advance.

Ex Aucklander

I lived near Truro & loved it. No kids though so cannot answer that. Nice & clean & mild climate compared to further north & pretty villages.

edmontron

If I were returning to the UK I'd love to live in these areas of the country. Are you looking for something there that you didn't find in NZ?

the troubadour

Equally like both counties very much.(along with Dorset and Somerset)Don't have kids so can't help there but work options are limited in Cornwall but we are keeping it in mind as a place closer to retirement.

chris955

You can't really go wrong with Dorset, Devon, Somerset or Cornwall. They are all beautiful. Obviously there are good and bad areas but my experience is there are many more good areas than bad. We are moving back to Somerset at the end of the year, you will love it down there. Apparently work is harder to get in Cornwall and wages lower.

fayemd

No been in NZ for 8 years and have itchy feet again.Really want to be near Europe and family bored with this side of the world now.

fayemd

I need to go somewhere where there is a bit of life as I have a teenager and I don't want him getting bored, thats why I was thinking of Exeter as its a university town has anyone been?Whats it like?

janeyk

I am a ping ponger and lived in cornwall before I went to NZ and when I returned for 7 months, it will depend on work not sure what you do but be prepared to rely on car/s a lot, we lived on the Devon/Cornwall border I travelled to St Austell/ Plymouth Truro and Camborne for work as well as Exeter everywhere was at least an hour,
Cornwall is lovely but can be remote where we live we were an hour to Exeter 2 hours on good runs to Bristol not sure where your family are but you need to factor this in. There is a limited travel network to the Euroupe, Ferry to France is 6 hours one way, flights mainly from Bristol but a few more from Exeter in recent years,
Trains and road to London is 4 hours. Exeter is a University town so will have lots of barss etc but can be pricey. Public transport around these areas is very limited the village I lived in had a bus service twice a week!
Dorset is more sleepy unless you go to Bournemouth I have a much younger Borther living there with my Dad and he seems to have a good social life but Bournemouth from where I lived is 2 hours.
Having said all that its fantastic countryside and can find many things to do in the summer avoiding the emits(tourists) or Grockels (in Devon).

fayemd

Thanks for that, can I just ask why you came back to NZ? My husband is a carpenter and has always managed to get work easily whereever he goes.He is thinking about setting up his own business doing loft conversions.We will need to rent a house when we get there but I am just a bit worried as we have no history in the UK as we have been away nearly 8 years so how do letting agencies do credit checks?Has anybody had any bother getting a rental property?

janeyk

we had moved on, Cornwall had changed so much even in the 18 months we were away, it will always have a special place in our hearts, howver I struggled to find work even after substantially widening my area. We did find we missed NZ although not Wellington weather, we are now in Auckland! somewhere I never thought we would live coming from a village with 200 people.
There are a lot of people doing house renovations , plummbers etc what we also found is a lot of people have moved there from other parts of the country as they can work from home which has meant house proces have remained very high. We managed to rent very easily even without jobs but paid 6 months up front, we went to a small agency just outside Callington the bigger ones did want nothing to do with us and plainly stuck up!

NZ is great for now, if we ever returned to the UK not sure we would go back to the same part of Cornwall but would look for somethig very similar would even consider lake district. One thing about COrnwal is the local wages are very low although cost of living and houses etc are high one of your biggest expenses is Petrol and you have to make sure you are always topped up. Discount/ larger shops are distants apart and those on the main routes have hiked up prices for the tourist.
when we returned we rented a holiday home for a few weeks while waiting for the container!
its worth speaking to Kenpom on here he moved back fro Dunedin last summer to the same village we lived in, he is now looking to return! Its a long way to go is it not worth looking to work somewhere else in NZ or Oz first?

fayemd

My husbands wages have not changed in the 8 years we have been here infact they have went down and yet everything else has went up food,houses e.t.c. We have struggled in NZ trying to make ends meet and we are sick of it you are constantly paying out in this country with very low wages.We want to go back to UK as food prices are cheaper,better wages,free dental and doctor visits for our kids.As for my husband getting a better job there are no good jobs in NZ for a carpenter they are all badly paid.

janeyk

fair enough, just be warned Cornwall/Devon are not swiming with work either, I am a qualified accountant with 20 years expereince and I really struggled to find any work, i could not even find any vaccancies in the local supermarkets etc.
Okehampton has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country with 3 factories closing down in the last 12 months, people are living on food parcels.
As I said people have moved down their in droves pushing up house and rental prices and working from home, partners soaking up any part time work there is. Seasonal work is monoplised by Eastern Europeans. the biggest employers are public sector which are now shedding jobs like no tomorrow. Even though you indicated you do not work in those areas wages are low like NZ and people do not have the money to do renos etc.
Yes food is cheap but electricity, fuel , rates etc are not. Water rates in Devon and Cornwall are double the rest of the country, I was paying for 3 person house on a meter 500+gbp a year and that was below average. If I had lived in Northamprtonshire it would be more like 300GBP

Although its a beautiful place!

cheeky_monkey

Exeter is much bigger than Truro..has a lot more going for it in terms of work socail life amenities and communications etc..overall IMO Devon is a lot better place to live than Cornwall..i find Cornwall a bit backward and isolated and the Cornish do have a big chip on their shoulders about a lot of things..a bit like the Welsh..lol...i certainly wouldnt bring my kids up there.

janeyk

yes I tend to agree whats amusing is the further West you go the more thats the case you will find most 'outsiders' live in the East of cornwall not many infiltrate west this way they can make a quick escape over the boarder! hehe!

janeyk

I wasnt trying to sound negative in my post I loved living in Cornwall for the best part of 6 years but there are some downsides, I was telling somewhere here at work today we used to have to fill up 3 times a week with petrol we knew all the cheapest garages etc but at 60-75GBP at time this became expensive we moan in NZ about petrol but it certainly does not cost me $150 a tank! yet!!!! times that by 3 and you see what I mean, to get the good bargins you needed to travel, The nearest Asda was 20 miles each way, Morrisons 15 miles return, Tesco 20 miles, Marks, TK Max 45 miles return

What also shocked us on return last year was how you had to pay to park anywhere, we went to the local beach and Cornwall has the same price in every car park countywide! 20p for first hour, 2.50 for 2 hours 3.20 fo 3 and 9.00 for 4 hours plus if you went for the day thats a lot of expense some people tried to go back every hour but as there was traffic wardens circulating you could face a bigger bill!
good luck in your return I would be intrested to know how you get on, pm me if you want to know anymore!