Too anyone who knows.. i want to know the pros and cons of living in a village, obvious and not so obvious things to be aware of,im a towney looking for a change..sort of escape to the contry type of thing..
I enjoy the prolific wife swapping, so I am am very much at home in a village. The interbreeding of families does concern me however. As does the price of biscuits at the village shop. Otherwise, a village is great. Friendly people etc. If you do have problem with someone you tend to know their name and address, so sending malicious mail is very easy. The is much fun to be had from opposing planning applications too. Village life, it's great.
In a small village everybody knows everybody else's business. On a daily basis you have to meet the guy you had a row with last year, the woman who saw you doing something stupid five years ago, the shopkeeper who short-changes you, etc etc. Intolerable! Give me a big city any time, where nobody knows you from Adam.
con :- as above everyone knows who you are, what you have and 'your business' sometimes before you do which could lead to someone pilfering something pro :- you will know who it was.. con :- it's a long way to get to decent shops and essential items need to be stocked well ahead. pro :- I can't complain about the countryside bit, it's all too easy to take it for granted.
If you like the sound of banjo's it's for you... Squeal!!! To be fair I live in a small village, I have a small high street about a miles walk away with most amenities I need, there's a Tesco express and next door a Co-Op, plus 2 indian restaurants (no others LOL) butchers, post office, hardware store, hair dressers usual stuff I guess. Plenty of nice local pubs serving real ales and cheap food too! They always seem to be having some promotion and beer festivals . It's pretty quiet in the evenings, there's no major traffic etc it's a fairly tight community and I don't know of any trouble other than the odd horse rider blocking some traffic every now and again. Downsides, not many and they don't outweigh the good points.. if you want fuel or a good shop you need to travel, I'm only 5 miles away from a big town to no problems there plus I have easy access to the motorway and rail links, some may not
I lived in small(ish) vill for many years.. Chris has pretty much summed it up TBH. I also liked the lack of street lights, the pub lock-ins were mental, All the girls had large norks... Country side was nice in summer, but a bit bleak and mis in the winter IMO.
I used to live in a really pretty village up north. Beautiful house in a beautiful part of the world. I lived here for seven years. Downside was you had to have lived there for at least fifty years to be accepted. Plus there was only one pub and the post office was someone's front porch. If you wanted a pint of milk or even a paper it was a 5 mile drive and a real pain in the arse to get to. The wife hated it. I now live in another pretty village and have done for the past ten years. We now have all amenities within 300m (that was one of the stipulations when looking for a new place). The people here are really friendly (they made us feel welcome from day one). I love the countryside and wouldn't swap it for the city at all. Horses for courses I guess :smile:
Town: great if you don't want to know anyone and you don't want them to know you. Village: if you like actually recognising people and don't mind them being interested in you. Actually, I think that living in town is all about human interaction and creations (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, shops). Country is all about nature and people and their doings take a back seat. I live in a village of 200 people. It's a real village with real villagers, not a load of bourgeois people with 4x4s who work in town. They are full on farmers, very helpful and friendly (mainly). So long as you show yourself interested in countryside stuff (look after garden, make own schnapps etc) you are quickly accepted. They lend you things you need and do stuff for you out of the kindness of their hearts (or for not much cash). You can buy fresh produce cheaply. You can look at the stars at night, don't have any noise (apart from tractors - and cowbells here). You have space. You watch things grow and are aware of the seasons. You go for walks and chill out. Cons: it's not exciting, if you need constant excitement. It can be more complicated to organise some things, but other things are very simple: you don't need to organise parking permits. If you want to wash your car you have the space to do it (if you choose your house wisely). When your car is off the road, you're stuffed. I vastly prefer it. I prefer the peace and quiet and if I want excitement, I drive into town. I like having space, rather than living a crammed existence. I don't worry about neighbours on the other side of a wall. If you're frightened of cows, need everything handy a stone's throw away, don't want to garden, don't care if you can see the stars at night or not, you might not like village life. If you're bored of the rat-race (but don't necessarily want to be a recluse) and like saying good morning to people who actually say it back, you might be a lot happier out in the country.
I live in a small, tranquil village where nothing ever happens, that said there was a murder here a couple of days ago...
No that would have unleashed a savage bloodletting on a scale never before seen. Fortunately this one had nothing to do with me.
