Moving to Wales

Builth always felt nice to me. Small but big enough for the shops you’d need, a nice river and great biking.

Moving to Wales is a great idea – the biking here is awesome, and generally, the people are really friendly. That said some valleys towns are really rough and will hate you just because you’re English.

Your best bet is to actually go there, walk around, make sure you can actually go into the local pub without getting into an argy-bargy then move for better biking!

they’re actually working towards moving some of the trails from ‘tolerated’ status to ‘official’ if nothing else to stop some of the wilder building.

Are they really? That’s awesome news!

Or jokes about unpronouncable names. Ha **** ha, how long did it take you to come up with that sparkling wit? The names are all perfectly pronounceable, you’re just ignorant.

I worked in the food industry years ago, and was at an industry exhibition in London. Two reps from some company were attempting to sell something to me, but they did it with some blokey ‘where’s your sheep, eh Taff?’ weirdness. Obviously, they got no business from my company. In the years I spent living in England I encountered sheep jokes with such boring frequency that I probably started to get rather aggressive about it.

I can sort of understand the place names thing. Welsh place names can be difficult even when you live here – my wife queries the way I pronounce local place names and she was only born 10 miles away. Mind you the person taking the mick about it is probably Sinjun from Lemster…

I went to school in Bridgend and now live on Gower. Coincidentally I went to Bridgend last week for the first time since my mother died 11 years ago…..god it seemed small and run down.
If I didn’t windsurf and surf I’d probably choose Abergavenny as a home….nice size, stuff going on, good biking in easy reach.
Can’t see myself moving…just finished our new build, got great beaches in easy reach, can bike from my door, or drive 45 mins to Brechfa or Afan.

I live in North Cardiff. I play in a band and have spent dozens of Friday nights in various valley towns with less than stellar reputations. Fights happen occasionally but despite my very English accent I’ve never personally had any trouble.

The valleys are beautiful and the riding is fantastic, with tonnes of off piste digging.

Having said that the deprivation is real and spending some time in your preferred area to get a feel for the local pubs/community is sensible.

Also it’s really cheap.

Good luck!

Ysbyty means Hospital. George Thomas in Cardiff at least was rebranded, something to do with old George being a wrong un back in the 70s

I met him in about 1985, and he seemed a decent person, but then I was only a politically naive 17 year old, and I certainly wouldn’t agree with his views today. Wiki reveals rather more – I’m surprised that he’s been disgraced enough that ‘his’ buildings need rebranding? (assuming we’re talking about the Speaker of the House of Commons.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39277106

The valleys are beautiful and the riding is fantastic

Parts are beautiful, but I agree the riding is immense, especially if you like technical gnar. That stuff is springing up everywhere. Basically every bit of forestry or natural woodland is now threaded with homemade trails and it’s amazing.

Welsh place names can be difficult

No more difficult than any other language. It’s not that they get the names wrong, it’s that they take the piss. The issue is a combination of monoglot Anglophones and fashionable derision for anything to do with Wales. People don’t seem to go to France or Spain and mock the place names and language that much.

I hope it’s better on your side but over here it’s either expensive or pretty bland and rubbish looking – St Ederyn’s. They’re building a school though and there are three or four retail/food units, but they’ve been empty for ages. I hope they fill them as we really need more than token offerings in places like these.

They’re building, or have sort of built a few ponds and stuff like that and some open spaces, nothing earth shattering.

*crosses New Zealand off the list*

People don’t seem to go to France or Spain and mock the place names and language that much.

They do – it’s not just limited to Wales. I’ve stood in a French supermarket listening to a loud English accent demanding to know why ham is called jambon in France. As a joke, obviously, but it came across as completely ignorant.

@P-Jay. Yeah I picked up on that. Presumably, even though it was shelved it was serious enough to tarnish anything to do with him. I wonder if the link with Leo Abse also linked him with Jeremy Thorpe in some way?

@molgrips

No more difficult than any other language. It’s not that they get the names wrong, it’s that they take the piss. The issue is a combination of monoglot Anglophones and fashionable derision for anything to do with Wales. People don’t seem to go to France or Spain and mock the place names and language that much.

Hard disagree here. I think you’ve a bit of a chip on your shoulder about it if I’m honest.

This morning I had meetings with greeks, indians, chinese, maltese, my boss is French. I publicly lament my inability to speak their languages, which are great and sound wonderful.

I also wish I could speak Welsh. But eff me – other than Chinese (which I can’t read a bit of) I think translation from letters to pronunciation is one of the hardest things to decipher.

I think translation from letters to pronunciation is one of the hardest things to decipher.

It really isn’t that hard….30 mins on a pronunciation website and you’ll have the key letters/combos sorted. Have a look at some English place names….they bear no resemblance to the letters involved!

Btw you can do Welsh on duolingo now

My wife and family her family is from Abergavenny or the valleys. It’s a great compromise for transport and outdoor activities. The valleys can be rough (like other parts of the UK) and unless the OP wants to find a really low cost property I would say that there are nicer places north and west of the valleys to move to.

@twodogs

It really isn’t that hard….

Yeah, if you’re a welsh speaker. For everyone else? Nightmare. Sorry – but:

Turning this: Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch into > how it sounds < by just reading it is, for the vast majority of people who aren’t Welsh speakers, an absolute impossibility without some serious study.

Same goes for the much smaller words.

I just got off a call with a colleage who’s lived in Bermuda all his life and his opening sentence was along the lines of “welcome to the guy from the place with the famously unpronouncable language”.

The fact that the Welsh get the mick taken out of them a bit is generally gentle ribbing. But we all know that gentle ribbing repeated for your whole life can become really really annoying. And because of that a lot of Welsh have a chip on their shoulders – in the same way I’ve a couple of Glaswegian mates who are really triggered by any anti-Scot jokes.

Of course, we could hate-speech the entire world up so nobody takes offence at anything because technically it becomes illegal for them to hear it.

Or people could just grow thicker skins eh?

Born in S Wales, lived in the valleys for many years, have many friends living in the Rhondda, know but not lived in Ystrad Rhondda. What P-Jay says is pretty much bang on the money. I’d be looking somewhere else tbh.

Welsh is easy.
‘ch’ is the same noise you make trying to relieve an itch in your upper palate.
‘ll’ is just ‘L’ and ‘h’ said together. Not really but its the closest most English will get to the proper sound .DO NOT SAY ‘TH’,as in Bath, th is th in Welsh.
‘ng’ is the same Ng as in shopping.
‘Dd’ is the same noise as the ‘th’ in ‘the’
‘F’ is v, so its ****ing avan, not affan.
‘Ff is f, as in laugh. So Welsh is weird , but g and h make “ff”? Cheeky ****.
‘ee’ is ee, but so is U, which is also ‘uh’, and so is “i”, and so is Y when its not busy being ‘uh’,or ‘i’ as in the word ‘inn’, along with U which might also be ee, or ‘i’ as in ‘inn’.
‘si’ is ‘j’, but there is no j in Welsh, but loads and loads of Joneses, but no Sionses, unless some Deddf Iaith clown is trying to prove a pointless point. There are plenty of Sion though, which is pronounced shoooorn, very long ‘o’, not a w.
‘Si’ is also ‘see’ depending on if it feels like it.
‘c’ is ‘c ‘ as in crack. There is no K in Welsh so that would be spelled crac.
You can get by in Welsh by putting an ‘o’ on the end of most verbs, such as joio (enjoying), paintio (painting) , scetcho ( sketching), etc.
Words such as cwtch , which has no real English equivalent, but nominally means a great hug, or sometimes a hideaway, or to hide, has no vowels, it is not mis-spelled. You dont always need vowels where you’re going, so bring em only if you want to.
Freshly bestowed with this wisdom, go back and try out Welsh place names again. I reckon if you were paying attention they’ll sound much more accurate.
Oh, and sheep shagging jokes. You are not the first to say it, it aint funny anyway, we can be a fiery lot, just dont bother. If youre from the North or the Midlands you might get cut some slack due to the assumption that you are from a similarly skint ,working class area . If you have a Home Counties accent or are obviously well-to-do, just give it a swerve, we will feel like you are taking the piss too much and behave accordingly. Thats just how it is, I didnt make the rules.
Scots and Irish, crack on boys n girls, you can get away with mostly anything in my experience.
Now you’ve conquered Welsh , and never ever say THE Welsh here, even for a joke, you will be fought.

Words such as cwtch , which has no real English equivalent, but nominally means a great hug, or sometimes a hideaway, or to hide, has no vowels

Yes it does…W is a vowel in Welsh

Anyone remember reading a feature in FHM magazine about the time The Lush, I think it was, went out for the night in Neath? I have a vague recollection of two English journalist fellas asking me directions to the best pubs in Neath on a night out.
If my memory is correct, I think the locals took against them. Am I imagining all this?

Well yes, w is a vowel in Welsh, but i wasnt tongue-in-cheek explaining Welsh to Welsh speakers or people with a knowledge of Welsh (except, seemingly, yourself, well done).

So why bother even mentioning the vowel (or lack thereof)?

Because to English people used to seeing a,e,i,o,or u, functioning words without them look strange. Its a common comment I hear from people from the Midlands,etc who come here to work, along with what does the word araf mean, because they see it painted on roads.

But explaining that W is one of 7 Welsh vowels makes it easier to understand, surely?

Anyway the point is Welsh isn’t any harder to pronounce than any other language if you learn a few simple pronunciations.

Why would English people casually commenting on a funny looking Welsh word give a shit about Welsh grammar? Lighten up mate , its not lefel A.

Still say you’re wrong @Twodogs – I can get by in Spanish much better than Welsh, and I live here and try. But can agree to disagree 🙂

But frankly this @johnnymarone

Oh, and sheep shagging jokes. You are not the first to say it, it aint funny anyway, we can be a fiery lot, just dont bother. If youre from the North or the Midlands you might get cut some slack due to the assumption that you are from a similarly skint ,working class area . If you have a Home Counties accent or are obviously well-to-do, just give it a swerve, we will feel like you are taking the piss too much and behave accordingly. Thats just how it is, I didnt make the rules.
Scots and Irish, crack on boys n girls, you can get away with mostly anything in my experience.
Now you’ve conquered Welsh , and never ever say THE Welsh here, even for a joke, you will be fought.

Is the sort of 1980’s working class hero low-rent jealous-of-everyone thin-skinned inherently-underconfident crap that means I’d advise the OP to give huge swathes of South Wales a swerve.

Like I said, it is what it is, just cos you dont like it doesnt make it untrue.

It’s worth considering practical things like transport, jobs, doctors, schools etc as these can make a big difference.
Getting around is easy East to West but very hard North to South.
There are 8 public schools in total (read into that what you will)
My nearest doctor is 10 miles away (I live in a town of 10k people) and A&E, 40 miles away (in England!)
The language is only heavily used towards the coast and everyone will speak English but it’s interesting and fun to learn even if you have no idea what’s being said.
The Welsh (IMO) are humble, thin-skinned and romantic but equally welcoming and full of history.
Biggest weakness – crap marketing but that’s OK ‘cos it keeps the numbers low!

Welsh place names can be difficult

No more difficult than any other language.

This is clearly not the case. There may indeed be more difficult ones, but to say that Welsh place names are the easiest in the world to pronounce is just a little bit… wrong.

If your mates in Caerphilly move to Caerphilly? Loads of nice bits all over South Wales, I’d think about renting for a year and exploring. I live in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan and plans are afoot for a graaaavel network.

I’ve enjoyed these programmes about Welsh places (in Welsh with subtitles)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09vbn6n/cynefin-cyfres-4-llangollen

I think translation from letters to pronunciation is one of the hardest things to decipher.

Is it bollocks. That LlanfairPG place name (you know it’s a Victorian publicity stunt right, not a real place name?) was taught to me by my dad when I was about 7 or 8 as we walked across the Barmouth Bridge, which isn’t much more than a km. It’s not even that hard compared to other European languages, not least because it’s phonetically written – all you need is a fairly small number of rules (compared to many languages) and you can pronounce any word spot on first time. Much simpler than English. Also try nailing the difference between dessous and dessus in French, or have a go at the word kaytöohje in Finnish (hint – it’s got 5 syllables). It was written on our coffee machine and every time I made a coffee I had to practice it in my head. I’ve muddled my way through a few words of many languages and Welsh really isn’t one of the hard ones.

As for vowels – English has at least 14 vowel sounds but most native speakers think it only has 5. How’s that for bonkers?

Seen the house now – it’s really nice and on a nice little road that spans two main roads with one end blocked so it’s not a rat run.

Great views obviously – area also seems fine – big sports centre across the road and a bowls club that might be handy when I am older…

After speaking with those ladies in the bar last night I had a chat with the hotel owner who said he would choose further up in the Brecons personally, but I want to be in easier reach of my mate in Caerphilly so Ystrad is nicely placed.

I got there a couple of hours earlier than my viewing time and was just walking around the outside when I met the lady owner at the gate and she asked me in for a viewing which was great and much better than the agent viewing later.

She’s from Sussex originally and is trying to go to Spain for warmer weather as her arthritis is playing her up – but complications as she divorced a while ago and has to prove both her and her new partner are a couple with decent resources, etc (Brexit…), so thinks that it nmight take 6 months to complete.

I said I would try and accomodate this, as it might be tricky with any chain above me, so I might have to end the chain with me and rent for a little while. Hoping that willingness to accomodate might give me edge when the offers are in.

Exchanged phone numbers and then pretended that we hadn’t met when the agent was there later!
The agent used to do ironmans and mountain biked in the area and confirmed that it was indeed very good.

I then went sightseeing and went over to the sports centre for a look around. Accosted some young guy in his Alfa Mito to see where he got it serviced, but he’d only just bought it. There was also an Alfa 159 sportwagen by the sportcentre, and I saw a few more Alfas around, and another SW, around so hopefully there might be a decent independant nearby. No Shell garages though for V-Power 🙁

There was some sort of community meeting going on at the little skatepark near the sportscentre- some painting project – and I had a long chat with two of the female police officers. There did seem to be the faded outline of a swastika that had been painted on one of the ramps, but maybe it was the religious version of it…

So it all seems great to me – everyone friendly – didn’t really see any ‘ned’ types around – a lack of restuarants and pubs maybe – and only a slightly tired look about bits of the place. Ystrad seems less tired than Treherbert where the hotel was.

And it comes out very favourably compared to some of the nasty areas in the south east here – like Croydon, Crawley, anywhere around the Heathrow corridor, etc. But then again so does the majority of the UK… The Welsh accent is also vastly preferable to anything sarf london.

So I’ve got my fingers crossed 🙂

Ooh don’t mention syllables…you’ll be accused of using grammar 😂

Seen the house now – it’s really nice and on a nice little road that spans two main roads with one end blocked so it’s not a rat run…….

All sounds positive..good luck!

@ OP sounds very positive. 🙂

Interestingly – whenever I mentioned that my girlfreind had lived in Dolgellau for a while, no-one (policewomen, ladies in the hotel bar, or the hotel owner) knew where that was.

I tried using Barmouth as a reference but that didn’t work either.

When I holidayed in Barmouth earlier in the year we did stop off and look at a new build on the road between Dolgellau and Bala, and I spoke to the young guy in the house nextdoor as I saw that he had several mountain bikes hanging in his garage.

I asked him what he did – he said he drove for Toyota.

Turned out it was Elfyn Evans…

Just missed out on that one though as some lady had just offered on it.

You know North and South Wales are different countries, yes? 😁

I’d go for Builth Wells or Llandrindod Wells. Mainly the latter because there are loads of massive fantastic houses for very cheap, but I think this might be related to the rumours that it’s a bit rough…

I think the ship might have sailed on Llandod. Was there last month, chatting to a lady who had bought a 5 bed house with shop and basement for about £80K three or four years ago, reckoned the same sort of thing has been going for 250K this year!

It didn’t feel rough though it did seem a bit run down and there were a lot of ‘odd’ characters around. My dad has a story of kipping overnight in a camper by the lake in the 70’s, when a large SPLASH announced that some pissed up lads had crashed a car into the lake, and were running away. He phoned the police to tell them what happened, and the officer on the phone just says ‘oh, not again…’

Wouldn’t count on Brecons getting you much favour in the Beacons.

Find most of the valleys are fine, they are very deprived areas in places, so a bit off putting if that’s not what you’re used to, but everyone I’ve met has been good.

I’d go for Builth Wells or Llandrindod Wells

Builth always seems much nicer to me….although I have reasons for being averse to Llandod