Anyone from Newton Abbot?? Or near??

[Tink78]

Hello (I love this little smilie - it always make me giggle!!)

Anyway, does anyone live in or near Newton Abbot?

DH and I are thinking of moving to the coast sometime, so I thought seeing as I was bored at work today, I would have a look at some areas.

I checked out crime/schools/transport links etc. and Newton Abbot appears to be somewhere nice to live, but I wanted some 'real' feedback from 'real' people.

Can anyone help?

Or what about Torquay or Paignton?

Thanks
Bye

 

[jen_uk]

Portsmouth in on the coast and its nice here! Good shops, beaches, the second best college in the Uk is here, good schools etc, plus you are only an hour away from London!

 

[Tink78]

An hour from London by train or car?
Surely not by car to Central London?

Does Portsmouth have beaches or nearby beaches?

What are the nice areas of Portsmouth?

Does it have a shopping centre?

 

[jen_uk]

Portsmouth has 2 main beaches, Southsea and Hayling, both of which have sand and stone parts. Southsea is very nice, its got a lovely pier, it has lots of lovely parks with fantastic flower displays, lots of pubs and nightclubs and a good shopping centre with shops like John Lewis, Demenhams etc.

Portsmouth has a good shopping centre, it has a high street and an undercover one called the Cascades, all the main shops are there.

I grew up in an area called Clanfield which is a village about 7 miles from Portsmouth city centre, there are lots of nice villages around here. In Clanfield the schools are very good, the bus service is good and its very scenic with views over the South Downs ( I sound like an estate agent!).
Waterloovile and Horndean are also nice areas. It depends whether you want to live in the city centre area or just outside it?

I can drive to the outskirts of London in about 45 - 50 minutes, I think it takes about 1 hours and 20 mins to get to Waterloo by train. Gatwick (thinking of holidays!) is about an hour to hour and a half depending on which way you go.

 

[Kernow_Clan]

Tink

You need to decide what you are moving for, if you want the quiet life (both peacful quiet and pressure quiet) Cornwall, South Devon and Dorset are the best options.
North Devon is okay, but the road network is very difficult to traverse.

We live 30 minutes from the coast in the centre of North Cornwall and it is brilliant being back here after living all over the world, ending up in Harrogate (awful place).
Pick the kids up from school and be on the beach in no time

Portsmouth and the South Coast is obviously much more "active" than the South West, so would be ideal if you still need that urban contact. It is all down to what you want from your new life.

Whatever you decide good luck and I hope it all goes smoothly

 

[Tink78]

Hmmm, something to think about then. Thanks.

It's so hard when you do searches on rightmove.co.uk etc. as some of the houses it brings up look nice, and look good inside but as I don't know the area it could be on a crap street, or in a rough neighbourhood.

I will have a look into Portsmouth too.

Anyone else live on the south coast?
Where do you live and what's it like?

Thanks to Jen.

xx

 

[carolfoy]

As I live a couple of miles from Ade (Kernow-Clan) I can definately vouch for Cornwall although our water rates are the highest in the country and its a long way to go if you want a night at the cinema or theatre, or good shopping or an airport, hang on lets do a house swap!

 

[Tink78]

Tink

You need to decide what you are moving for

Whatever you decide good luck and I hope it all goes smoothly

Hello

I have always dreamed of living closer to the coast.
We want to move somewhere on the south coast that is both lively and fun, as well as being beautiful, or close to some beautiful scenery.

We want to have kiddies in a few years, and I love the thought of being close to the sea and taking them to the beach regularly.

Want somewhere safe and friendly, but also looking for a shopping centre, tesco or similar close by, pubs and cinema/bowling etc. as we don't want kids just yet and even when we do, we still like to go out do fun stuff.

We ideally need to stay put until next June as we needed to have been in our mortgage for 2 years to avoid a heavy get out penalty.

But by then, I want to have decided or at least narrowed it down to a couple of areas.

Both our parents live in Milton Keynes, so going as far as Cornwall might be a bit too far for them to travel regularly, so that's why I was thinking Devon, as Brighton/Bournemouth etc. are too expensive for us, and we don't want to live in a flat as we have a little bunny.

Thanks

 

[Tink78]

As I live a couple of miles from Ade (Kernow-Clan) I can definately vouch for Cornwall although our water rates are the highest in the country and its a long way to go if you want a night at the cinema or theatre, or good shopping or an airport, hang on lets do a house swap!

Think Cornwall might be a bit too far for us to move to this time round.
We still want our parents to come to stay.
Or maybe that's a reason to move to Cornwall!!

Cornwall is beautiful though.

 

[jen_uk]

Move to Portsmouth!!!

I think you would really like Southsea or the outskirts of Pompey. Southsea is really nice, theres always loads of family stuff going on there, just in the last month we have had the Southsea show and the Kite Festival down on the common. If you live on the outskirts like I have most of the time you are only 10 mins away from the city centre but its nice and scenic. In Petersfield there is the Queen Elizabeth Country Park which is basically a huge country park where there are walking/mountain bike/horse trails, BBQ areas etc. There is a huge Wallmart here and a big Tesco Extra and lots of other big shops.

 

[Tink78]

Move to Portsmouth!!!

Ok then, see you in a few hours!!

Seriously though, it does sounds pretty good for us.
A bit closer to the parents too, so maybe a good step for us to start with, and then maybe we can move further away once we get a bit braver!

Hmmmmm....I wish we could move now, but we still need to finish upstairs of our house to make it look it's best and get the most for the house.

It's a lovely house, wish I could bring it with us when/if we do go for it!!

Depends on work too.
How is the employment down there?
What kind of wages?

I work in a sales office, and they pay really well so I know I will have to take a wage cut (doh!!) unless they want to keep me on and then maybe I could work from home?

Oh well, we will have to see.

If anyone reading this has any comments to make on other south coastal areas, feel free to post and I will check back in the morning.

Have a lovely sunny evening all

Karen (ooh - is that the first time I have used my real name?! )
xx

 

[orlando novice]

I live in Poole, Dorset and its absolutely georgeous. Beautiful beaches, a fantastic harbour with lots of islands to visit, Bournemouth is a ten minute driveway and Southampton is great for shopping. I wouldn't live anywhere else...............

 

[KayleeUK]

Hello Karen

 

[Miffy2003]

I live just up the road from Newton Abbot (about 12 miles away).

My aunt lives about 1 1/2 miles away from Newton, and I have friends there as well

I'm sure you realise this but Newton isn't on the coast and the road to Torquay is a nightmare! It is (obviously) bad in summer when all the tourists descend

If you like a small town atmosphere then I'm sure Newton might suit. Closest large city is Exeter which is (apparently) one of the most desireable places to live in the UK just now. Sadly house prices refect this!

Employment is very high here but wages are much less than the cost of living here (which is higher than a lot of places except London & the South East). Also depending on what occupation you are in there may not be the type you are looking for?

If you let me know what areas you liked the look of in Newton I can ask someone local what they are like

Cheers

Karen

 

[Tink78]

Hello Karen

Hi

 

[Tink78]

If you let me know what areas you liked the look of in Newton I can ask someone local what they are like

Cheers

Karen

Thanks for the info.
We talked and we think we won't move until 2 years time, as we want to get the money straight first (loan to pay off etc.).

I will do lots of research tho, so may have some Q's from time to time.

However, after speaking with Jen yesterday, we like the sound of Portsmouth at the mo, so today I am going to research that area.

Bye for now.

 

[jen_uk]

Is it too soon to get out the welcome banner?!

What kind of area do you want to live in, city or outside of city? I can give you a list of places that are nice depending of what kind of area you want to live in.

 

[Tink78]

Yes, a little too soon for the welcome banner.
It won't be for another 2 years sadly.

We would probably want to live fairly close to sea in a town type area, but not in a street where there is no parking.
Maybe a newer property but near the sea??

Or, in a nice smaller area with a nice local but not somewhere cut off from everything.

We like to be able to walk to the pub/shops etc.

A list of 'nice' areas would be really useful.

Thanks

 

[DisdreamerUK]

Hi, I live just outside Newton Abbot

I would say its pretty central South Devon - 15mins to Exeter, 15mins to
Dartmoor, 20mins to Torquay & Paignton (although this can take up to 1 hr in the Summer!!!)20-40mins to the South Hams (pretty towns & beaches)

There are lots of lovely villages around this area, the schools are good, easy access to Exeter & Plymouth. Exeter has even got an airport from which Flybe operate (one of the budget airlines) Most people think there are only tractors around here!!!!!!

And of course Bristol is only 1 and a half hours drive away if you want big city stuff.

If you change your mind about Portsmouth, feel free to ask some more,

Jen

 

[Tink78]

Hi

Thanks for the info.
If you could tell me what areas around Newton Abbot or close by to that area, are really nice to live in. Nice houses, nice neighbours, nice schools etc.

We live in Wellingborough at the mo (we moved there from Milton Keynes cuz the house prices in MK were sooooo high) and altho we love our house, the area isn't very nice.

I certainly wouldn't want to have kids here, or at least if we did have kids, I would want to get out before they had to start school as I don't like the local kids round here.
There are loads of Chavs, and even the little kids seem to be troublesome already.

So we are not necessarily looking to live by the beach or anything, altho that would be an extra bonus, but it would be nice to have a quick drive to the sea, but still to live in a nice area.

We like to be able to walk into our local town, to the pubs etc.

Any help or advice would be gratefully received, so we can start researching.

Thank you.