Anyone familiar with Bromsgrove?

Diddums

Diddums

Diddums

Caporegime
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You'll see a pattern emerging with these threads I create: every time I leave London I want to move somewhere else, and this weekend is no different. For reference, I live in Streatham Hill in London.

I pay £1200 a month rent for a two bed flat with no garage or garden (it's a lovely flat though, we specifically paid more for it) and that's excluding bills. We get on well with our landlord and as such our rent has been frozen for the last three years, the market value is currently estimated at £1450. Again, this is without bills. I only mention these figures for reference, please don't take anything from it.

Now I've been forced to leave London this weekend to go to Bromsgrove. I went to the local Asda for some bits this morning and the craziest things happened:

People talk to each other. People are polite and friendlier, it's considerably less stressful than doing a basic shop in London.

I never heard a single car hoot, or a single siren. I saw one police car which looked like it was just parked at an officer's home.

Being the dunce I am, I lost my parking ticket. Last time I did this in London, it cost me the full 24h price, £40. Here? "Ah hold on a sec, I'll just print you a new ticket".

I think you get the idea. I've just looked at renting out here and for less than a grand I can get a 4 bed fully detached place with garden and garage.

It's honestly enough to make me wonder why I'm still living in London.

I'll need to see if I can maintain my salary out here, perhaps work in Birmingham which is only a short drive. I should have no issues finding another job, I've got a fair few very high profile jobs on my cv.

Now obviously I have an initial good first impression of this place but has anyone got any experience here? Any hidden nasties?
 
Having lived and worked in London most of my life I now consider it a crap hole and want to get out.
 
I lived in London for 5 years and then moved to Watford and initially it was a bit strange without the hustle and bustle but it didn't take me long to get over it. Now whenever I go back into the city all it does is remind me of what a good decision it was.

As long as you have good travel links back into the city or as you say, can maintain your salary out there then it is a no-brainer I feel.

Can't help you with Bromsgrove but I was just commenting on the move out of London in general :)
 
Cheers guys. This is why I want to move out, in London all life consists of is work, sleep and drink. It's time for me to achieve a better quality of life, and London isn't going to suffice in that regard.
 
I love down the Road in Redditch,

Bromsgrove is a lovely place - quiet but enough local amenities nearby that you have everything you need. The midlands is generally a nice place to live, Kidderminster and Birmingham are close by if you need big shops and shopping.

Avoid the nightclub love2love - its horrendous :P

I personally couldn't live in a city for the reasons you stated above!
 
I'm from redditch too, bromsgrove is a nice place, houses are nice, decent area.

Close to Birmingham, Stratford, Worcester Solihull and Evesham, quick access to motorways too if you need them.

Just around the corner from the asda you have the dolphin centre which has a massive pool and gym if you need that.

The high street has everything you could need, though if you like clubbing they only have one called Love so you would have to venture out for a better night.
 
Cool, come buy me a beer later :D


The more I look at this, the more it makes me wonder what the blithering hell I'm doing with my life in London. I can get a 4 bed fully detached place with a mahoosive garden for less than 300k. Our flat is valued at 450k. I always knew London was more expensive but come on, that's ridiculous. Obviously that's getting ahead of myself a bit but these are things I need to think about.

I need to see if my employer needs people around here as I'd really prefer to stay with them, their perks are fantastic too (British Telecom).

On a serious note, and in reference to the thread about the polish folks using their neighbours garden as an ash tray, what are folks around here like towards filthy stinky forriners? I'm a south African but I like to think I'm a decent upstanding person, but would being foreign put me on the back foot? (Be honest here, I've heard that some smaller communities can be rather inhospitable towards foreign folk).

This is obviously quite a big thing for us.
 
People's attitude to foreigners tends to boil down to being brown, or whether you are Polish. Nobody has ever complained about Canadians moving into an area with their traditions for being nice to other people not being the British way.

As you probably know though, your salary will take a hit, but your buying power probably won't change too much. It sounds like you aren't really enjoying London anyway, so put a price on quality of life and you'll end up making a net gain.
 
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Its one of the reasons I moved out of London after 3-4 years living there, I love London but the people take some tolerating after awhile (family was originally from London so spent a fair bit of time there as a kid aswell so not a stranger to it).
 
No -- Not Bromsgrove - My SIL lives there and she is EVIL - You don't want to be withing 20 miles of her -- Total bitch evil evil evil !!!!!

Has been for 40 yrs

Must now go wash my hands in acid for mentioning her.

By way Bromsgrove was my stamping ground when young along with amusements at bus terminus at end of Bristol road just over the hill from Bromsgrove -- Up the lickies

Dave
 
Clov!s said:
Not at all, you'll be treated the same as all of us are. :)

Oh and the visitors buy the beer ;)
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Gah, I'll be out for most of the night but otherwise I'd be more than happy to buy you a beer.

Dave: it's fine, at least my wife will have company :p
 
Clov!s said:
Can i ask why you have chosen Bromsgrove?

It is a nice place but i could name far nicer areas i'd be looking at.
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Ive only seen Bromsgrove and a tiny bit of Redditch. I left the hotel for a pizza last night and asked the pizza place what people do on nights out, his reply was "Wetherspoons" which came across as that being the only thing to do when you want a night out. The place was dead as a doornail at 9pm on a Friday too, I like a bit more hustle and bustle than that.

I've been chatting to my wife about this for the last few hours and she's also keen to get out of London, I only mentioned Broms because it's the only place I've seen around here which looks nice (excluding Redditch, haven't seen enough of tjat to pass judgement though).

We might extend our hotel for a day just to cruise around and see what the surrounding areas are like, what other towns would you suggest looking at?
 
Bromsgrove is a fair bit more upmarket than Redditch. I've lived here for 4.5 years now. That said the shopping centre in Redditch is bigger and better. We never head into Brum...too busy. Look at Marlbrook, Blackwell, Alvechurch and Barnt Green. Avoid Sidemoor and Catshill districts.
 
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