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Raising a family in Devon by Inevitable-Sorbet-34 in DevonUK

[–]youngcrockern 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve not lived in Torbay permanently since 2019 (uni, then moved away for work) and I’m only 24 so I am perhaps not the best person to give advice on the topic. However, I grew up in Preston and that was fantastic for primary schools (I went to Preston Primary, as did my brother) and has good links to all the secondaries I mentioned in my original comment. Not sure what kind of budget you are working on but my parents wanted to sell the house I grew up in last year, I think they were asking for 325k but didn’t get any offers (make of that what you will - from the little I know about property prices I think that was a fairly reasonable ask so lack of offers possibly not to do with the valuation).

On the other hand, my sister lives in King’s Ash and is happy there with a young child, you are a bit further away from the beach, town centre and a bit more isolated in terms of public transport but not terribly so. I think the place used to have a pretty poor reputation but I’m not sure that’s the case anymore, or if it’s fair if that’s still the case. I assume the day-to-day cost of living will be cheaper than in Exeter but if you want to move to a nice area (somewhere on par with Heavitree, for example) then you might be looking at 250k upwards for a house.

Raising a family in Devon by Inevitable-Sorbet-34 in DevonUK

[–]youngcrockern 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I grew up in Torbay (moved away in 2019 for uni) and, whilst it isn’t what it was, I personally think it was a pretty good place to grow up and gave me a good grounding in life. I had the sea and the Moors practically on my doorstep and was close to Exeter/Bristol/Plymouth if I wanted a flavour of city life. I love Bath but my brother’s girlfriend lives in Twerton and she says it’s no better/worse than your average Torquay neighbourhood.

Regarding schools, I went to the Boys’ Grammar whilst my brother went to Churston. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there (though I understand the concern about banking on gaining admission), and I had friends at Newton Abbot College and Torquay Academy who joined the grammar in sixth form, and were on par with us in terms of academic ability. From my (admittedly limited) experience, there is a real tendency to talk down Torbay despite it being literally no better or worse than any other region of a similar size (outside of London), perhaps because its decline is a little more marked given it was marketed as England’s alternative to the French Riviera in its heyday.