My parents moved there when I was 6 and my sister was 4, lovely place back then to grow up early 70s onwards. Family still live there sister owns a stables near Lostwithiel and has a good life my parents are both retired and live just outside of St.Austell in the family home. I left for the Army in 1983 and never went back, love to visit but work is very hard to come by decent pay even harder unless you work for a national company or the public sector. Changed beyond all recognition with conjested roads and very high house prices. Communications still not good with single track A30 in places, Newquay airport limited flights. Weather is dismal in the winter and everything gets damp, my wife wont visit between October and March and shes a geordie!
I was a keen surfer love the North Coast, Watergate Bay my favourite, stunning, I go for long weekends in the summer and enjoy it but steer clear of the school holiday peak, June and early July and September is the time to visit.
A lot of people retire there, many move away again after a few years when friends and relatives find the distance to visit difficult to cope with. Services which are taken for granted in other parts of the country difficult in a rural area, main hospital in Truro a bit of a hike for instance depending on what part of Cornwall you are in, high speed broadband still not prevalent and cable services non existant as is public transport.
General population of the county is ageing fast which is putting pressure on social care, the young due to lack of oppurtunites tend to leave after college and or uni, my village I grew up in has very few young families in it, the school bus stopped 9 years ago when the children using it fell below 3! My sisters daughter's school is due for closure in three years because there is not enough new intake to make it viable after that, they are already down from 5 to 3 teachers in 4 years.
Hope this does not sound too negative because it is a lovely place with some stunning scenary and I do enjoy a visit, but for me living there will never be an option again.
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Topic: Cornwall (Read 5719 times)