Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mrs Bella]

No I found it too lonely and I felt isolated both times,I gave it a fair shot but it wasn't for me.
I had a really bad accident and as I lay there on my own it hit me like a ton of bricks,I wasn't near family or hospitals and had to drive like that all down windy country lanes to get medical help,never again.x
I'm not trying to offend anyone if it works for you fabulous but I'm just telling my experience of it.x

Daisydot I love the feeling of being isolated. But in saying that, I have my husband, boys and loads of animals to keep me company. And if anything were to go wrong, I have my husband and workers who could assist me. As much as I love it now, I do worry about the future. I could not live this far out of town by myself. Like you were, I am nowhere near my family, hospitals or grocery stores. I would have to move back to the city.

[Mrs Bella]

I don't live there now penny and I honestly wouldn't have wanted any of those people near me I moved two weeks after accident,I moved into a retirement community surrounded by countryside again but five minutes in the car to the centre of town and plenty of small local shops around me that I can walk to if I choose to so really I feel I have the best of both worlds now and I'm very happy here.,my neighbours respect each other's privacy but they don't half really round if required as I do.

Oh Daisydot, I am pleased to hear you have found a place to live where you feel happy and respected! X

[Dorothy]

Tiddles, I don't think the level of curiosity your neighbours display is unusual in many rural areas, but the lack of care for you is.  I've lived in rural areas most of my life and in 'real' villages (places where people still live and work instead of just places people retire to/have holiday homes) there has always been a lot of real concern behind the curiosity.  When someone is ill or bereaved, people rally round, if you go on holiday, there is always someone to water the plants or feed pets and the extreme curiosity also means that people tend to know if the person on a ladder outside your house is the builder/window cleaner or a burglar!

Personally, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.  I've lived in big cities, towns and villages and the more rural the better for me.  But it does take a certain mindset and if you are from a city background, you have to be prepared for very big changes.  I always think anyone planning a move like this should maybe rent a place for a month in the winter (maybe January or February) and see how they get on.  I've seen a lot of people who love holidaying in the country in summer decide they'd like to live there all year and they often don't last the first winter!

It can be a little frustrating if you are in a hurry to post a parcel and have to wait while Mrs A shows the staff photos of her latest grandchild and Mr B describes his new arthritis treatment, but I'd rather that than an impersonal service where no one knows or cares about anyone else. 

It's good that different people like different places to live though - if everyone lived in the country, it would be so overcrowded it would be like town and none of us would like that!

[Daisydot]

It's good that different people like different places to live though - if everyone lived in the country, it would be so overcrowded it would be like town and none of us would like that

That's so accurate Dorothy,I don't mean to rubbish it or offend as I said previously,when I was in Scotland my children were brought up in a lovely rural cottage with only about a dozen houses on the road and being all farm hands and us townies from Glasgow they so looked after us it was lovely but I was so lonely with husband on the oil rigs and 2 small children I needed to be back near my family which I did after five years there.
The last house was a huge mistake for me my cats are my life now and I'd one neighbour who got great delight out of telling me the death toll of all the cats on the road at front of house even though she knew it distressed me.Then unfortunately the accident hit home about just how isolated I was so it was the best descision for us.Id never go back to that life now but that's my choice.xx

[CLKD]

May I giggle 

We aren't all like that in the countryside.  I was raised in the deepest Fens ........ it is said that everyone there goes 'high 6'  .  People kept themselves to themselves but still seemed to know B4 we did, when we changed our socks.

They seem to just want to be the first person to have new information that they can pass on.
.  Yep.  We had a neighbour like that when we moved here in 1980s, once she knew 'everything' she didn't bother with us again.  I soon found out the people who were genuine. 

The countryside ain't peaceful either.  Birds sing; day and night.  Sheep bleat.  Pigs snort.  Horses etc. etc., etc. and don't get me started on the cockerel at 3.30 a.m.  .  Dogs barking are my main problem, owners leave them outside for hours ...... and go away to work!!!   

We had the problem with the GP Receptionist talking about my neighbour, I put them right!  Told them that she wouldn't be pleased when I went back and told her the results of her tests B4 she knew them.  As a medical secretary I was very aware that they were speaking out of turn.  Also we could hear everything said in the consulting room so they put a radio in to cover conversations.

Right - off to read the replies thus far ;-)

[CLKD]

My neighbours don't bring our council bins in unless asked
They don't water my plant pots the way I would do it ......
They don't feed my wild birds
In the 1990s my car remained on our driveway for 3 months without being moved. Not one of the people down our road noticed 

If it ain't going to make scandal people don't want to know  . 

Broad band comes and goes.  We have a GP Surgery, busy shop which sells most of what we need including the post office.  Pub is trying to make a go of it.  Nearest towns are 7, 13 or 4 miles away where the main Surgery is situated.    Library still operates.  2 good Vet. Practicies 4 miles away.  Garden centres 4+ miles away.  Lovely scenery.  Lots of pretty towns and I'm not a town person but there are a few I could move to if I had to do so.  Charity shops++.


As 4 rifling through your hair to make a comment about the colour, I would have used my knee/fist!  That isn't 'normal' behaviour where-ever one lives! 

I like visiting towns.  I like museums, Council parks, river walks, different shops: i.e. Warwick, Leamington Spa, Banbury, as well as driving to the North for holidays.  We usually stay in a village so that we have towns/cities to investigate. 

We live 2 hours drive from those we *have* to visit regularly.  They don't travel this way as they are too old  .  It means that we can live how we like to without them passing comment and they won't be dropping by.

Right now a male blackbird is singing in a bush behind me, a robin is calling his young out of the nest and it's drizzling ......

[Daisydot]

As 4 rifling through your hair to make a comment about the colour, I would have used my knee/fist!  That isn't 'normal' behaviour where-ever one lives! 

Your plain scary CLKD  🙀

[CLKD]

Us Fenlanders have to know how to defend ourselves  - think Hereward the Wake .........    one wouldn't touch another person unless one really knows them!!

Countryside is lovely until it snows 

[Pennyfarthing]

Us Fenlanders have to know how to defend ourselves  - think Hereward the Wake .........    one wouldn't touch another person unless one really knows them!!

Countryside is lovely until it snows 

a lot of the Fen villages are built alongside roads or droves arent they?  I have often remarked when we drive that way that it seems an odd way to live all in a row.  Our village is very large and sprawling and we have lots of lanes, a few housing estates, some “lokes” and more isolated dwellings. We do have a village centre which is good though.

[Krystal]

We moved from a busy city to semi rural life. Fine. We live on a new housing development where the community within the estate is beginning to grow slowly. These things always take time. People will say hello and pass the time of day. This area has been designed along the lines of a garden suburb where there are many open green spaces and it is not simply lines upon lines of houses all the same. Care has gone into the design. The biggest bug bear is the hostility of the locals from the nearby village. They did not want this development to be built and strongly opposed it. The planning went through nearly 20 years ago but the hard core of locals still live with animosity against anyone remotely connected with our area. The library, some local retailers and our local parish council treat residents living on this development like lepers. It has given the local community a lot of money through Section 106 agreements and the local precept via the council tax we all pay. Yet if anyone from this development wants to use the facilities or join any clubs within the village faces are pulled and you are told there is a waiting list. Needless to say any incorrectly delivered post is treated with distaste and redirected with such anger the contents of the envelope is scored and damaged as the pen has been used with such force I hope they protected their table top. The parish council have one answer no and never to any request or suggestion. I love my area but find village life and people archaic and wanting. Offcumduns are we and proud of it!!!

[jillydoll]

Completely forget what I said on the other thread'places youd live'
I'll stay in the city, sounds better. 
Most people just ignore you, they couldn't care less about your hair colour,
or what you've had for dinner...lol...
Most people keep themselves to themselves..getting on with their own lives. 

I'll stay here, pollution an all....lol

Jd x.       

[Two hoots]

I live on the outskirts of a town, the farmer at the end of the road has been out cutting grass today and has now spread something very smelly over it  so there is noise and pollution everywhere 

[CLKD]

That's not pollution Two Hoots that's muck  - it's happened local to us this evening too and don't get me started on the smell of oil seed rape after the rain 

Krystal - sounds par for the course sadly.  What ever locals 'say' regarding planning, it's likely to go to the Government who will tick 'yes', knowing full well that Parish and Local Councils have no money to fight that decision.  For years locally we were told by Anglia Water that the area cannot take any more housing - well it has and AW have changed their minds .......... also Councils get monies from those moving into new housing developments, I can't see for the Life of me what it's spent on though  .  Get onto the Parish Council ;-)

20 years ago a new 'village' was built about 15 miles from here.  But there was no GP Surgery, Library, Bus route .......... a small area for children to play in.  But no one wanted to move there as there was no 'heart'!  The nearest town was 8 miles away 

[Hezzalady67!]

It's the cottage itself which I find hardest. Only ever lived in fairly modern 1970s + houses before.

Was not prepared for the relentless dust, slug trails, woodlice, occasional larger visitors ( who occasionally die in unknown locations stinking the place out) which come with ‘original Victorian features' such as original quarry tiles laid to earth etc...

It's okay in winter with the fire lit, ventilating everything, it's okay when it's really hot in summer,but otherwise is hard to manage. Much smaller than my previous home, thought cleaning would be easier, but it is a non-stop cycle here rather than a weekly job.

Small rural town, in the sticks, not too much nosiness.

[Daisydot]

Agree Hezzalady67 I felt like I cleaned non stop especially with a wood burner,well dual fuel actually,huge big inglenook fireplace it was so dusty and the dark brown beams in the cottage were like cobweb heaven.I'm just too used to mod cons I guess and prefer the clean look on my walls and central heating and don't not even go there with the visitors my eyes were constantly revolving I was scared of everything crawleys I'd never seen before would turn up in my cup or on my bedside cabinet you could hear the screams for miles lol typical townie I guess lol.