Should I move to Dorset?

Bridport to be exact, I’ve had a job offer there. Never been to Dorset before?

Where do you live now?

Dorset could be quite a shock for some people 😯

Merseyside at the moment – I’ve lived in rural areas before, but Bridport doesn’t even seem to have a train station, Wife doesn’t drive.

No.

It will be a shock to the system.

However, if you are going to be paid loads of money and it is only short term….

Well, Dorset is next to Devon.

Bonus if you like sea fishing 🙂 I really enjoyed a week down there… reckon I could adjust to it.. maybe.

I’d be working as a community nurse, so not raking it in. Looked at some flats and its fairly expensive. Would only do it for a couple of years though. Looks like it would be good biking though.

No.

France (or pretty much anywhere on the continent) would be better.

Britain: just say NO!

Slight problem with only speaking GCSE French – I can only just do the job in English, let alone French

Dorset doesn’t have a motorway running through it, or even to it. No one ever goes there, or leaves. That’s about all I need to know about it.

What about the M27? That runs to it 🙂

There’s some good riding around Dorset, granted it’s no Afan but plenty to do none the less.

I am in that area now on holiday. It’s a lovely part of the world if you like a quiet life. Don’t know about the riding locally though. Clearly it’s an improvement on living in the north though 😉

bit like Royston Vasey welcome to Dorset youll never leave

You know those bits when Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall goes to those delightful markets and hustles his wares to posh/odd looking folk in strange clothes?

Yeah, that’s Bridport. 😀

I’d live there though.

I grew up in Weymouth just down the coast from Bridport.

Bridport is (as with many small rural towns) a strange mix of rich retirees and Hugh F-W types with holiday homes vs. minimum wage locals with not much in between. Is suspect as a community nurse you’d be dealing with mostly the latter.

Dorset also has one of the largest gaps in housing affordability due to lack of decent jobs and high property prices due to second homers.

Being without a car and living in Bridport would be pretty limiting, you’d probably better off living in Dorchester, Yeovil or Weymouth and commuting in, allowing your partner to utilise the better public transport links in the larger towns.

I’d gladly move back to Dorset tomorrow if there was any work down there.

mum lives in bridport 🙂 i’ve been visiting there for 24 years, several times a year.

i love it, but i’m biased. busy in the summer, even busier on market days. the surgery is a pretty new building with a very supportive team (mum works there but is off sick at the moment – cancer treatment and stuff).

You’ll fit in much better if you have at least 6 toes on each foot.

chojin – Member
What about the M27? That runs to it

There’s some good riding around Dorset, granted it’s no Afan but plenty to do none the less.

eh?

M27 stops in Hampshire about 40 miles from Bridport.

Its a lovely little rural seaside town in the World Heritage zone that is the Jurassic coast. Not farm from where River Cottage and all that stuff is.

Without a car, Bridport may send your wife potty.

Bridport, the town that never sleeps…

Would be a massive shock from Merseyside I’d have thought, but I’d move there in a shot if I were offered a job there. Lovely area.

West Bay… home of Harbour Lights… whats not to like :-D?

You will need a car each unless you live in town and your wife is happy to stay in town. Forever.

Charlie The Bikemonger ain’t so far away in Swanage too – double bonus.

lovely part of the world but definately the middle of nowhere.

if you don’t mind regular car journeys of an hour or so to do just about anything then it should be ok.

I spent the first 15 years of my life in Dorset, but over on the slightly more developed side (Bournemouth) and it was a great place to live. You dont mention if you have kids or not, but if you do it would be a nice environment for them to grow up in, although they would no doubt get quite bored with the small town scenario.

Every time I go back to vsit the old folks (4-5 times a year), im always shocked by just how much it has changed for the worse (stag & hen doos, subways on every high street etc) but that seems to have happended to almost all seaside towns. Bridport wouldnt have the same extent of these issues.

Go and have a look, if nothing else its a nice place to visit for a couple of days.

And anyway, you must of had some inclination towards the place in order to apply for a job there??

bridports great for kids, the carnival each year, jurrasic coast, fossils, rock pools, west bay harbour, west bexington and the blue anchor cafe, abbotsbury with its cream teas & art gallery that does felt making courses and other such stuff & animal park thingy!

my nieces love growing up in bridport it seems 🙂

Looking out now on the beautiful countryside in the sunshine, birdsong in the background, the dogs running round the garden. What more do I need to say? Miles of bridleways, good road riding, couple nice forests close by, sea’s not too far. Slight downsides are it takes an age to drive anywhere due to the lack of motorways. Public transport is cack TBH. If you like living in a rural area its perfect, if not I’d imagine its hell. After spending most of the summer driving round the country there isn’t many places I’d rather live.

Iain

Bridport is a nice little town, very rural but nice.
It’s very relaxed and laid back. Quite a shock from Liverpool 🙂

Dorchester is only half an hour away for the train and the bus service is every half an hour as well. Great countryside and all that goes with it.

Don’t trust Truckosaurus though, as he has siblings that are obviously ginger and they would fit in well (Hullo Guy, been a while) 😀

Dorset is magic imo. I’d love to live there.

Just had a thought once again a super biased opinion but, I spend term time in London and I’m not the biggest fan. The argument presented to me for why living in a city is so great is always there is loads of stuff to do and living in a rural area is boring. Now then for not too much money in London, I can pop out to the cinema, go to a pub, pop to one of the clubs, see some comedy, a concert, football match etc . All well and good but here for a similar amount of money, I could go paint-balling, drive a hovercraft/mini off road/quadbiking for a bit, clay shooting, Zorbing, caving in cheddar, kayaking, rock climbing, pop to Poole and hire a jetski, windsurfing and all manner of water-sports. If you happen to have a knackered land rover there are plenty of BOATS around for a laugh, if you happen to have a motocross bike there is several good tracks within a short drive. So whilst there are plenty of opportunities to be fleeced £5.00 for a pint in a city there are a vast number of ways to make an arse of yourself outdoors out in the countryside and I know which is more fun.

Iain

Dorset or Merseyside?

* enters meditative state of deep, enlightened thought *

Dorset every time – the insular thing grows on you over time and the rocks down there have dinosaurs in them. How cool is that?

(I live on Merseyside and I’ve spent time in Poole/Swanage etc so I am perfectly suited to provide the definitive opinion on this thread!) 😀

France (or pretty much anywhere on the continent) would be better.

Britain: just say NO!

Go on then, bugger off.

Lots of Shane Ritchie-esque Laandaaners in Dorset.

“Orlwight?”
“Orlwight! Orlwight?”
“Orlwight!”

Don’t trust Truckosaurus though, as he has siblings that are obviously ginger and they would fit in well (Hullo Guy, been a while)

I knew I should have picked a different username. 🙂

there’s a musician called ‘Jinder’ who lives in bridport, he’s rather good.

camo has it nailed though, dinosaurs in the rocks.

move there x

Mmm, PJ Harvey country.

My mum worked as a nurse in & around Bridport for a while. It’s a beautiful part of the world, if you can handle the rural “isolation” (i.e. peace and quiet, endless dogwalking…).

I have a mother in law there, nice place. Palmer’s Ales, the sea, seafood cafe at West Bay, the cafe on Burton Bradstock beach all get ticks.
House prices may be an obstacle. Trouble is they’d be more expensive the closer you got to mainline railway town like Dorchester, Crewkerne has a station but is not a busy town for my measure of busy-ness. A35 gives a speedy commute from Dorch to Bridport though, 14 miles-ish so road bike-able.

Thanks to everyone for the input. STW is great, isn’t it?

I think I’d adjust to rural life, as long as I can ride my bike I’d pretty much handle anywhere. I think it would be tough for the missus though, she’s born and raised in Queens, NY, a city girl through and through – Dorset would indeed be a big move for her. She likes rural Cheshire and Shropshire and we have lived in Scotland, she liked the countryside there, it was just the NEDs who scared her.

Its just the HFW types, I can’t seem to accept them. I like nice food and beer and markets, ect, I just can’t stand that smug/organic/upper-middle class attitude that goes with it. Bah.

We could go for a year, see how it goes and then take it from there – nothing is for ever I suppose.

Lots to mull over.

Thanks agin for everyone’s thoughts.

philconsequence, hope your mum’s getting on ok.

Dorset is ace… good cycling, climbing, surfing, fishing, cider, beer, cider, apples for cider, cake, chicks, gigs, cheese, cider, trails, bikemongers, dog walking, dogging, rock pooling, curry, chipcs, seafood, cider, hills, valleys, cider, bivi’ing, camping, tramping, hamper’ing, beaniks, picnics, pumpkins, bumpkins, comedy, blues, jazz, folk, and even a bit of punkry and western.

What’s more we have best ratio to dare – devils to chicks in the country.

Bridport is cool town. Beardy mart lives up the road.