What's it like to live there?
There are some incredible houses there for very low prices. I am rather tempted to move there since as a mobile worker I can live wherever I want.
Would take a bit of courage to move to the sticks though even so, because if I were to lose my job it could be tricky.
Have you been looking at those 7 bed Victorian places under 200k ? I did as well .Dont know what its like to live in but its pretty remote nice countryside though.Does have a train station which is a bonus
We used to live between Builth and Llandod.
It's a nice old spa town, couple of OK pubs. Middle of f******* nowhere though. Takes an age to get to civilisation (England) 😉
Rhayader has a nicer feel, Builth seems more alive, but can be a bit rowdy too.
Unfortunately we lived there before I was into mountain biking. D'oh.
PS train only runs twice a day and it doesnt go anywhere useful!
Nice looking place with no work. Also see Kington and Knighton.
Llandod is ok, gets a lot of troubled people shipped in on Housing Benefits. Has lots going on whether Welsh 2 Day or all sorts of fair's and music events. New Road from Builth is a bonus.
Can agree it is a bit isolated and some of the locals have weird ideas.
Nice looking town, lovely part of the country, but there is nothing going on. the tesco and aldi have pretty much killed off the local shops. the town needs an injection of life/money.
Builth is more old school farming town. Nice but mental on a saturday night, especially if you are English/not local.
Rhayader would get my vote out of the 3, more tourist focused, but not touristy. Slightly nearer a big town. Have looked at moving there when the kids have finished school.
I'd look west of Shrewsbury (well i did), I used to live west of Oswestry, and once you when over the boarder the house prices fell like a stone. But people are catching on.
It's great for after hours drinking.
Well... It's got a bike museum...
I need access to the trains, London, the South East.
If I were to drive from LW to Hereford it wouldn't take a lot longer to get to a typical London workplace than from my current house in Cardiff, due to me having to cycle to the station and being delivered to Paddington rather than anywhere useful.
However, it's still a bit of a trek. Rhayader is even further away though. Shrewsbury has good transport links but I dunno how easy it'd be to get into the station in the morning.
molgrips - Member
I need access to the trains, London, the South East.
Then you [b][i][u]REALLY[/u][/i][/b] don't want to be considering Llandod. And that's before you get to the fact it's a decaying, lifeless shell of a town.
****ing shit hole of epic proportions. Although I will admit I may be coloured by the fact I only ever visited the place to see my fathers grave. It always seems depressed to me. Builth seems nicer.
molgrips - Member
I need access to the trains, London, the South East.
as above. It's bad enough going to that London from Malvern (same line as Hereford), and that takes 2:30 hours. The fastest train service is nearly 5hrs. If you drive the hour to hereford, you then [i]only[/i] have another 3hour train journey ahead of you!
As I said up there, Llandod is miles from civilisation, it takes forever to get anywhere from there.
My folks live out that way and they loved it for a while, but even they are selling up and moving to the coast. It's dead as doornail with deep-fried pub food and a long drive from anything. Great if you love the outdoors. If you really love the outdoors. I too prefer Builth or Rhayader but much prefer Malvern to either for many reasons, one of them being can visit those places easily on short notice yet still live in semi-civilisation with rail/road links on the doorstep 🙂
I'm west of shrewsbury (eastridge) when i go to that london, i drive to wolves. Straight throu to Euston.
An hour to Hereford station is hugely optimistic, if you want to guarantee getting there on time.
i've heard positive things about the place from an ex colleague who grew up there. her parents still run a B&B there.
If you drive the hour to hereford, you then only have another 3hour train journey ahead of you!
Yeah but it takes me about 3.5 hours to get to the City as it is, from Cardiff...
Went there the other week.. As we arrived our 4 year old spewed up all over the back of the T5.
There's a bigish tesco there that doesn't sell many girls clothes.
There seemed a very high rate of odd feral people about town.
Thought it best we leave before the sun went down.
What about Brecon?
I work in Brecon - houses are quite expensive but there are some great tucked away little villages near by.
Yeah Brecon is an option. Was originally thinking Abergavenny, what with having an actually useful station and all, but then you're in the realms of normal house prices rather than buttons.
If I were looking for somewhere, with good value housing, welshish, access to hills, not too remote, Id think about the area due east of the Offas Dyke section of the Black mountains between Dorstone and Pontrilas.
I want a small town, not the sticks. 90% sure anyway.
Ross on wye or Monouth are v nice, but I think prices start getting silly.
How often do you go up to town?
Depends, as a consultant I might be assigned to a project in London, or the SE, probably 2/3 of the time I am away - or somewhere else altogether. This time last year I was finishing a 10 month stint in Southwark, now I've just finished a 3 month job flying, but I can technically leave from any airport.
When you're on a project and "away" I assume you take a hotel room, so how many journeys "home" do you expect to make when on a job per week?
My brother was on a 4-5day a week contract near Heathrow doing 4 journeys a week, staying over, driving from Tewkesbury (c.1h45m), it's brutal.
Fortunately he has a new contract with an old client near hereford, but can do 4days a week at home.
Always in the local paper for drink and drug offences, probably more so than Ystradgynlais. Bit run down and as mentioned above, seems to be a place for housing the less desirable.
Talgarth or Hay for Abergavenny and Hereford stations.
Yes, I stay in hotels. A four hour journey each way is still a bit of a ballache though, but I should be able to manage it. Some of my colleagues travel much further - got people in Glasgow and Prestatyn and other places - but some clients get arsey about it.
However I'm now a bit more experienced so I can 'push back' as they say 🙂
Having said that - it took me almost 4 hours to get from East Cardiff to Southwark, and I managed there. I'd probably end up driving somewhere to get a train if it were London again.