Living in the sticks

Born and raised in the big smoke moved around a fair bit including abroad I'm now living in a village. Thing is, I think it's time to move on in the next few years and thinking seriously of moving more rural. The idea is, secluded, no neighbours within view of the house, so really in the sticks. House, space for a veg plot and a nice garden, that kind of thing.
I know its an emotional thing mostly, but those practical things do get me to thinking, things like town utilities, decent broadband, handy to have the odd friendly neighbour, leaving the house empty when going on hols etc. Don't have to think about work ties thankfully.
Anyone on here living competely in the sticks or moved from town to the sticks have experiences to share? Would be appreciated.

 

Watch American warewolf in london, then decide what to do.

 

Be OK as long as he stays on the road!!!!!!!!

Val

 

From what i have seen on crimewatch, im not sure if i would feel any safer living in a big house in a rural area than living in a standard house in an urban area. I would still move to a rural area though there are more trees and it is a nicer area to be....if you stay on the road!!!

 

Stay off the moors, and don't go out on a full moon.

Villagers are a funny bunch. Just make sure you get yourself known. People will talk about you and form an opinion of you, so your best putting your face about so that at least their opinion is somewhere near right.

 

Since moving to the middle, we've had the kids bikes, a stone sink & my lobster pot nicked.

Drunk driver No. 1 killed the dog, No. 2 Demolished the front wall, No.3 drove thru the garden, over the rockery & demolished the back fence.

Oh, and I was told that the whole village thought i'd gone bankrupt because I was waiting for a building regs decision before starting the work.

 

If you go too far out you may have issues with utilities.
Telephone Lines, Gas supply etc. Broadband you may be limited to 3G.
Do the whole thing. Be a self sufficient hermit. You'll save a fortune - but you might get a little bored.
If there's an OH then you could also get mucho earache - she'll have no-one else to badger.

 

In answer to your question, there's a whole world of difference between 'secluded' and 'isolated' - I'm definitely in favour of the former but - having once lived there - personally want nothing further to do with the latter. Why? Well, in no particular order ...

Milkmen don't come should you ever find you need one
The postie doesn't necessarily bother to drag all the way down your lane to deliver one postcard
Should you need one of the emergency services it can take them much longer to get to you.
You may not need to go to work, but if you've got a doctor, dentist, optician, hair or any other appointment, be prepared to not get there if it snows - you'll never see a snow plough or gritting lorry.
You'll need a decent dry/dark/cool rat/mouse free place to keep extra supplies - see above!
In 1987 (following 'the hurricane') we spent almost 3 weeks without power and couldn't get to relatives or indeed to the nearest village for over a week because trees blocked all the access roads and the electricity men who would have repaired it, couldn't do so because they had to wait for the tree clearing men who were busy elsewhere!
We also had an overhead phone line in those days - that didn't work after the hurricane either!
Because of the isolation, there was no mains gas - bottled gas is a pain, electricity expensive, oil prohibitively so, sold fuel needs to be delivered.
Ditto main drainage - waste goes into a septic tank or cesspool - plus side .. you don't pay sewerage charge, negative side ... you have to be careful what you flush down your sinks and drains - chemicals such as ordinary bleach or white spirit are a definite 'no-no', washing powder, fat, grease even some medicines can lead to a whole heap of trouble, and of course you do have to pay to have it emptied periodically - prices and how often it needs doing vary according to the size of tank, (ours was about £80 a time) but even if it doesn't need emptying, it also pays to have it inspected at least annually.
Because of your location, house insurance is usually much more expensive, likewise car insurance can be too.
It's something of a myth that crime is more prevalent - who's going to bother going right out 'in the sticks' to turn over one house? Apart from which, your local Crime Prevention Officer will come and do a free survey of the property and make security suggestions.
Public transport is often non-existent. Fine all the time you (or both of you) can drive - if you can't, not to put too finer point on it, 'you're stuffed'.
If you're going to have your shopping delivered - be prepared to be the last on their round. Do you want your shopping turning up at 11pm, or worse still, getting a call at 9pm telling you it won't now come until tomorrow?
Do you really want to spend the rest of your life patiently explaining to every delivery man how to find you? And when they've given up, having to drive however far to the nearest sorting office or depot to collect it? Or sending maps with metre by metre instructions to friends and family?

On the plus side, those annoying people you met on holiday don't turn up out of the blue because they '... were just passing'

Wherever you choose to live, speaking as one what lives in a tiny village (one Church, two pubs, shop shuts Wednesdays) just remember, even when you've lived there for 50 years you'll still be known as 'the new people' or 'them there grockles what moved in recent like'

 

Move to the island Fens. You get the best of all worlds here and the crime rate is very low. The only draw back is the 'grapevine' works very quickly here. If you don't let people know your business then they can only surmise. If you sneeze it'll be round the island within an hour.

I live in a village and most of them don't know I exist.

 

As long as that? It must be very laid back on Man.

 

Clueless there are people that have lived here all their lives and not seen the other end of the island. It's only 35 miles long.

 

Oh yes - I forgot the 'jungle telegraph'. 'How's the building going?,' I was once asked, 'Fine, thank you' I replied automatically - the way you do. It was only later we realised that the man delivering the bricks and sand had stopped to ask for directions and the man he asked must have told his wife, who probably told the lady in the shop who, most likely, told ... everyone. In fact I reckon the whole village knew even before the wretched bricks were unloaded off the lorry!

 

The spin and gossip is the worst, what they don't now they will make up, if your face dosn't fit you will get problems

lots of people will sit on a big wide fence and jump to one side or the other

lots of people will load the bullets,and get other people to fire them.

It can be nice if you find the right place.

Crime can be low in some places, but it may because it dosn't get reported, if you report things you may get bricks through windows (you now what i mean), you may have to turn blind eye to some things that go on :WINK1:

There is also alot of this

Don't do as i do, but do as i say

 

Mind you, when I lived in the city there was a bloke opposite, always polishing his BMW & scowling at us. Never spoke to him but I found out he'd been telling all the neighbours we were heroin addicts.

Just before we moved out I made sure everyone knew to knock on his door if they wanted to buy cocaine

 

In my dad's village crime doesn't get reported. Not for fear of repercussions, but because it would be a waste of time as the coppers can't be bothered with the 25 minute drive to come and talk to people.

I said it doesn't get reported, that's not quite true. What I meant to say was that it doesn't get reported through the official channels. Instead it is dealt with within the village, usually much more swiftly than if it was dealt with through the proper channels.