Our search is still rather vague and general; we haven't even narrowed it down to a single county, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire are all under consideration. We drove across country on Friday, in order to see a little more of Somerset but I'm afraid that we were disappointed. Earlier this year we visited the pretty villages in the Chew Valley, this time we wanted to check out Midsomer Norton.
We expected pretty, what we found was grim. I daresay lots of people make the same mistaken connection as we did between Midsomer Norton and the television series Midsomer Murders. They too will be totally unprepared for the slag heaps on the fringes of the town. The town centre is really a single street with the unique feature of a river running through it. This could be lovely but is, in fact, really ugly and made me think more of open sewer systems than Somerset rivers. What a difference a few flowers and seating areas could make. Midsomer Norton is not for us then, especially since a Google search shows it as the original home of the Chav!
On Saturday, Andrew and Anna took us to see Bradford-on-Avon and I fell in love with the architecture, the narrow streets, the river, the restaurants and just about everything. This is definitely heading my shortlist of potential places to live. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera so the tourist board views will have to do for the present. Second on my shortlist is Chipping Sodbury. I would be happy to find a house on the outskirts of either of these towns, to persuade my daughter and her husband to move to the area in time for the birth of my first grandchild, to be less than an hour from my son and to live happily ever after.
I don't care what it looks like, any place called Chipping Sodbury is worth living in by definition. Forget the chavs and slag heaps, you would have the coolest address in the world!
ReplyDeleteSome of the English villages and old market towns have wonderful names. The children used to love driving through Puddletown and Tolpuddle in Dorset. One of my local favourites is Zeal Monachorum.
ReplyDeleteWhat Peter said. You must live in Chipping Sodbury. It reminds me of the wonderful exit sign on Cape Cod:
ReplyDeleteMashpea
Sandwich
Now I've seen Sandwich, Cape Cod, I want to live there!
ReplyDeleteAnd fair or not, these kind of names conjure up wonderful images of an other-worldly, isolated mindset of their inhabitants. I recall at the opening of a trial I was trying to give the court a snapshot of the life of my young, non-too-sophisticated client, who hailed from a tiny hamlet no one had ever heard of called Ompah, several hours away from the city and far off the beaten track. "Can you tell Her Honour exactly where Ompah is?", I asked, to which she replied: "Oh, it's just down the road from Flowers Corners."
ReplyDeleteI'll bet there are no chavs there, Peter. (Please don't disillusion me)
ReplyDeleteNope, no chavs. Not much of anything else, either.
ReplyDeleteYou're certainly welcome to settle in Sandwich. Not only would it solve my critical chocolate cake shortage, but the idea of someone moving into Massachusetts would be so exciting you'd probably be met by the Governor and a brass band.
ReplyDeleteI see from the Cape Cod website that Sandwich is close to Barnstable, Pymouth and Falmouth - home from home for us! It looks good in the pictures, are you just trying to keep it exclusive?
ReplyDeleteWe had the same phenomenon happen to us here and we also went house hunting trying to find a place that had not yet fallen to developers. We had hoped never to relocate again and after a couple of months, we rationalized that with some adjustments, we could just ignore what was happening around us and stay put.
ReplyDeleteThat's now. If things get worse, we'll rethink that decision.
Anyway, good luck with your search,
While we can't match the matchless English village names, we have some interesting ones too. I've never been there and have no idea what it's like, but I've always fancied an Apopka address.
If only we could ignore the traffic! Barnstaple, our nearest town, is 7 miles away. At the height of the summer season it could take anything up to 90 minutes for us to drive there; it's a coastal road with a river to cross, so no alternative routes. Now that people holiday all year round, we have a constant traffic problem.
ReplyDeleteTotally empathize. Our traffic hasn't reached its full potential yet. We are having the nightmare of a full mall milieu with every franchise known to man represented including a multi-plex cinema and 2,700 new dwelling units. The ground is just about broken for the new development. Once it starts in earnest, we may be singing a different tune.
ReplyDeleteWe also a have a bridge nearby, but luckily we're on the mainland side, so we have several options for getaways.