To move to Warwickshire? Leaving woods behind?

[Nomad64]

I often ask this myself when I look at the local economies of people I know who have opted out of the metropolis. Seems like a lot of the time the answer is write a successful autobiographical novel

I suspect the market for such autobiographies and even the cook book spin offs is now pretty much saturated although I have high hopes for the book I am writing on the Welsh weather - working title; “Fifty Shades of Grey”!

 

[Tengu]

Well, its very nice to have a choice.

And not be close minded. I remember my visit to Sheffield; Full of grotty southern prejudices against a northern town.

Its not like that at all.

(Still shamefully obssessed with footie, IMHO...)

 

[C_Claycomb]

It is sort of nice to have a choice, but the people here who have been most cheerful about relocating have had less of a choice. Seems that having a choice is good, but having to choose between things which may be very closely matched, but with differing pros and cons, isn't as good.

The folk who have had no trouble making the choice have had spouses who won't or can't move, children that local family help with, lots of friends in London or locally, houses that they have only just bought, or that they have put a LOT of work into, or who hate where they are living now and have been wanting to move, or who have more friends and family further north already. All things that clearly weight the scales one way or the other. My scales give different readings every time I look at them from a different angle! Heh heh, hey ho

It has been good hearing other people's thoughts and having some place names to focus on.

 

[petrochemicals]

Bigger forests include

Wyre forest
Canock chase

There are lots of smaller patches, kinver edge Clent hills and lots of walks through fields.

 

[woodstock]

Yeah; but the armed response teams kept getting called out

I had forgot that, me thinking at the time bloody helicopter scaring the rabbits so packed up and started to exit the field when I heard the sirens and thought someone's in for it, that person was me balanced on top of a fence with some twitchy AR shouting for me to stay still and uttering all sorts of profanity, to which I replied there is no reason to use that language and declared I have no live rounds,detonators or explosives on my person that seemed to calm them down. the thing that really struck a nerve was when my rifle came back from chrono at 9.9ftlb i was gutted they must have put 20 different pellets through it and that was it, oh and the helicopter had a sniper you couldn't make this up.

 

[baggins]

i didn't really have a choice in moving to Cov. My partner lived here (a northern lass exiled to the midlands), and i was living in a caravan that was due to be demolished. Neither of us really want to be here, but work and a our own roof over our heads, means we are comfortable. And no matter where we are, we can always escape, even for a few hours. Some pretty good foraging around and some nice areas that are surprisingly quiet.
Besides, where you live can be a state of mind. At the end of the day, i'd rather be here with my good lady than in the back of beyond on my own.

 

[Nomad64]

One take on the pursuit of happiness!

 

[Laurentius]

Yeah; but the armed response teams kept getting called out

Many years ago when I was a youth of less than twenty years, I was the cause of an armed response team being called out. They apparantly had a bit of trouble finding me because I knew where I was going, but they didn't think I wouldn't be taking a short cut through woods that I knew well. It was of course an over zealous security guy at the Uni who called them out because in some delusion of his I looked like I was carrying a rifle, which I was not.

 

[jimbo75]

Hi, I'm also originally from herts area. now living in midlands... its true, not much walking/woods about.
but you do have a good choice of meets.
Northwood is exellent!

 

[Tony]

It might be a bit further away for you but within an hour you've got a few choices for good places to walk and explore, South, South west, north west and a bit further away you're into Shropshire and Wales. If you do move I think you'll explore and discover a whole host of nice places to walk and have adventures in...

On the other hand, if you decide to go down a different route, just make sure it gives you the highest possibility of giving you what you want from life.

 

[Ed the Ted]

Solihull is a shoppers paradise, built for and inhabited by people happy to flog themselves all week so they can shop till they drop on the weekend and wave their consumer lifestyle around in the hope that they will finally win the rat race and reach a kind of twisted valhala where everyone drives a bentley and is a member of an expensive golf club (which is not so far from what solihull is actually like - most of it anyway).

Oops sorry my cynicism got carried away. I grew up in south Brum and went to college in Solihull. The town is, in my view, awful, though its redeeming features are:

1. Easy escape to Warwickshire countryside (which means easy commute the other way around too). Pretty, nice, but probably not many big woods (open to the public - they definitely exist, i've worked doing felling in some).
2. An outstanding cycling club.

I escaped to west wales at 18, did a stint in the highlands, never *ever* moving back to West Mids!

 

[Janne]

You create your happiness, it is not the surroundings that create it.

This may sound stupid, but if your new abode has a garden, then you can plant up a corner with something fast growing and create your ‘wilderness mancave’ you can play in.

I did that for a couple of years when we moved to Mayfield from Sweden, as all land around was off bounds, and I did not want to break any laws.

 

[Klenchblaize]

I work for an aerospace engineering company. Some of the chaps I work with are looking at keeping their families down in Herts / Beds and doing a combination of weekly commuting/boarding and working from home. I am better and worse off. I have no wife or kids to worry about up-rooting, but I don't have anyone who will keep the home fire burning while I am away for the week. So its a choice between moving my home, or changing job/career.

Current commute is 35 to 55 minutes down a fairly busy B-Road. Last location was a blissful 16 minute car ride to work down little country roads with almost no traffic. I doubt that I will have it so good ever again.

The job I have had has been pretty good so far, it has had ups and downs, but has generally been interesting, has paid fairly well, has had decent benefits and I have had understanding bosses. Some of those things will continue after the site move, but others...??? impossible to know. The company business model is changing, and the senior leadership. Goes without saying that a lot of the old team will not be making the move.

We are all being asked to make our decisions over the next few weeks, but the actual site closure will not happen until the tail end of 2019 or even start of 2020. To meet the terms of the redundancy offers, if we are going to leave, we have to work with the company until such time as they have a replacement for us who is up to speed. Makes good sense for them, but means that no one can really look for other work until late next year. Six months after Brexit's exit date.

Do you really have a choice in such a specialised field of endeavour? Redundancy package allied to planned retirement age aside, I would think very carefully about jumping ship but I do fully understand the challenges of leaving easy access to the woods & meadows you've grown to love.

It's a bummer and tuff one make no mistake.

K

 

[C_Claycomb]

Thanks chaps.

I have been away for the last week, and just before I left I had one of our monthly one-to-one meetings with manager where I told him I did not plan to move with them. There were a lot of other reasons and I would be lying if I said that access to the kind of country I like didn't play any part, but in the end it was not a deciding factor. I would say that had I moved, then all the suggestions that folk have made would have been very useful and would have helped with picking an area to concentrate house hunting.

In answer to Klenchblaize, I don't think that my role is all that specialised, I am a mechanical engineer with experience of designing the mechanical parts of motors and generators. Electric motors and generators appear in a lot of products, but even if I look at another area I have transferable skills. Only one of the designers we have taken on have had previous experience in motors, the rest have just had some experience with rotating machinery, and they have all worked out fine.

Thanks again folks. You have been a great help!

 

[Nomad64]

Thanks chaps.

I have been away for the last week, and just before I left I had one of our monthly one-to-one meetings with manager where I told him I did not plan to move with them. There were a lot of other reasons and I would be lying if I said that access to the kind of country I like didn't play any part, but in the end it was not a deciding factor. I would say that had I moved, then all the suggestions that folk have made would have been very useful and would have helped with picking an area to concentrate house hunting.

In answer to Klenchblaize, I don't think that my role is all that specialised, I am a mechanical engineer with experience of designing the mechanical parts of motors and generators. Electric motors and generators appear in a lot of products, but even if I look at another area I have transferable skills. Only one of the designers we have taken on have had previous experience in motors, the rest have just had some experience with rotating machinery, and they have all worked out fine.

Thanks again folks. You have been a great help!

Hope the “non-move” works well for you - financial security is always nice but the best evidence suggests that you only get one go at life and if you have choices (many/most do not), unless you are happy where you are (or what you are doing) then IMHO, you are not making the best of a one time opportunity!

FWIW there are some interesting (and cutting edge) engineering opportunities in some out of the way but very scenic parts of the UK - I was chatting to a couple of members of the team (ex-RAF and F1) working on a hydrogen car project in the wilds of Wales the other day.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/big-reads/riversimple-rasa-hydrogen-car-wants-save-world