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Your thoughts on St Austell

71 replies

paddypaws76 · 24/09/2013 15:56

Hi I posted something like this in this forum before but thought I'd try again seeing as the babys now here, doing well and 6 months old already. Hubby and me still want to move down to St Austell, just wondered what you good people who live in and around think of the town in general, primary schools and areas to avoid. We don't drive and would like to be able to walk to the beach in an ideal world, so would need to be no more than about 2 miles inland. And a strange question, but on all the property pics on right move its always cloudy, a local told me it always is in that area, is that true? He said it had something to do with the clay pits. We have family in Hayle and St Agnes but its just too pricey there, and st austell ticks all the boxes. We also liked Par, closer to the beach but not so much choice. Is that also under the same grey cloud that seems to bug St Austell. Coming down in a couple of weeks, and would like to have a look at some property. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks X

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noisytoys · 24/09/2013 16:03

DB lives in St Austell. It's about as far from the sea you can get in Cornwall. I know they have a big Asda so that might be useful Grin

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absentmindeddooooodles · 24/09/2013 16:18

Im going to be honest....im not a fan. I live in cornwall and have spent alot of time there. Miles away from rhe beach too!
Charlestown is not far and is beautiful. Not sure about prices but its a little harbour village. I woils live there in a shot!

St agnes is goegeous....but like you say pricey....so how about surrounding areas? Perranporth, mt hawke, porthtowan?

Have you looked into falmouth at all? Close to a beach not too extortionate in some areas and nice on rhe outskirts ( wouldnt move into the town)

I live in redeuth. Near to truro. Im a 5 min deive feom beach. 15 mins feom rruro/falmouth and all the facilities there. Great position. The property is very cheap. The town is fine....not great, supposedly one of the rough areas of cornwall....but if you go to the outskirts you can find some stunning houses and villagws.

St. Day, lanner, crofthandy, mount ambrose.
Lovely country areas. Probably about 10 mins feom the beach ( pprthtowan and portreath)

If you want to walk to the beach, portreath is one of thw cheapest bech towns. Porthtowan is nicer but double the price.

Sorry about all the mistakes and probably useless info. If you are set on st austel im sorry for rambling. Cant hwlp it when I see something abour cornwall. Haha.

Good luck!

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absentmindeddooooodles · 24/09/2013 16:20

God ive just seen the number of mistakes.....my phone will not let me correct anything without deleting the message all the way back. :/

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snozzlemaid · 24/09/2013 16:38

There are certain areas around st austell known as the clays that you would probably be best to avoid to live - st Dennis, st Stephen, Bugle, Stenalees, Roche, penwithick. They are all around the clay pits and are the more deprived areas. St Blazey is also not great, but parts of Par aren't bad to live in and Tywardreath is close to Par and is a nice little village. Par and Tywardreath (said tower dreth) are close to beaches.
As someone said before Charlestown is lovely and Carlyon Bay too. But they are the more expensive areas,but close to beaches, although lousy developers have completely ruined carlyon bay beach.
St Austell town centre is not great, it had new shops built but I'm afraid loads are still empty. But St A isn't too far away from better shopping at Truro.
There are a number of good primary schools around st austell. Better ones are the ones closest to the town itself rather than the outlying areas. Good ones I can think of are Charlestown, st Mewan, sandy hill, mount Charles.
I think Penrice has the best reputation an results for secondary schools.

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 10:09

Hi guys thanks for all the info. I'm sure St austell isn't as far from the sea as you can get is it? We were looking at south of the town anyway so more like carlyon bay, holm bush and within a mile or so of charlestown. Like i said we don't drive so need to be quite close to the main train line for access to the rest of the county and visiting family up country etc. We love Falmouth but I guess the sticking point is having to go into Truro to get anywhere else. Portreath and porthtowan lovely but very busy in the season as i'm sure is all is? I suppose what I'm saying is, the practical choice is st austell, near to the coast and on the mainline, good access to truro and the coast around st agnes, portreath, hayle etc. What about somewhere like Illogan? Could you walk through the woods to portreath quite easily and also get into Redruth for shopping? Sorry for all the questions, and thanks again for the advice

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Cluffyflump · 25/09/2013 10:16

I don't like st Austell and agree with everything snozzlemaid said.
I lived in Penwithick for about a year and it was g.r.i.m.
Quite deprived with a drug problem.

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 10:55

All good info, like i said we were thinking of the south of the town so that would be more like between the coast and the town centre itself rather than clay country. Although I have to say theres something quite amazing about the andscape around the clay trails out towards wheal arty. I totally agree with the mess at carlyon bay, what a shame. I don't remember it as a nightlife spot because I was young when we used to go there, but we used to visit friends in mevagissey and spend the day on the beach at carlton bay, lets hope its not too long because they sort it out, and maybe even apartments would be better than what they've got now. St austell in general though seems much better than i remember it as a child. Thanks so far for all the advice.

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beaglesaresweet · 25/09/2013 13:03

just had a holiday there in august! I'm amazed people say it's miles from the sea. We stayed near Carlyon Bay in a hotel on the Sea Road that's like a millionaire's row of houses, with great views over the sea (you walk along the cliff)! St.Austell's Asda was walkable from their , even though good 20 min, Charlestown is very near if you lived on the South side. Nice pub near ASDA, train station good. I'm sure it can offer better value for money that in towns where the High st is picturesque, but it really has all the essentials, huge supermarket, and proximity to seaside/golf course is great with views btw, if you can afford it.

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beaglesaresweet · 25/09/2013 13:06

Btw also, there are good bus connections - yes, they are not very frequent or running late, but for that pace of life they aer fine, and you can get to mevagissey easily and carlyon bay etc. We had no car on the holiday but managed to see quite a lot in 5 days. Truro is 15 min by train (or so), and we went to St.Ives which is less than an hour by rail.

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 14:01

Pretty much what I thought. Don't get me wrong, st agnes, perranporth and that stretch of the coast is amazing in every way. But that comes with its price, and living in cornwall without a car means relying on trains and buses etc. For example, when we stayed with family last year near st agnes, the taxi was £25 each way from truro railway station. Thats why we kind of thought st austell was a good compromise.

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anythingforaquietnight · 25/09/2013 14:07

Falmouth has a great little train link to Truro though ( by Kernow public transport standards!!!). It runs pretty much every half hour and takes 12 mins from Faltown to Truro station. I lurves Falmouth.

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Sixtiesqueen · 25/09/2013 14:09

I love Cornwall, we go every year, however I lived there as a child and it was unspeakably grim in the winter. Admittedly we lived at Indian Queens, which isn't quite the clay pits but isn't far from there and god, it was just bloody awful!

Where are you moving from? Is it a big change of scene?

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 14:27

Sixtiesqueen We are moving from Worcester, so not a massive place and very rural as soon as you get out of town, but I suppose anything would be a change of scene compared to cornwall. Like I said I have some family down there and basically spent every summer in and around st agnes when I was young. We still go every year and always out of season so know how different it is in the winter. Just had a look at buses between portreath area and st agnes, perranporth and there basically isn't any out of season. This would mean going into Redruth to get anywhere. Maybe, with your help I'm starting to narrow this down a bit. I will always love the north coast, but am starting to think it would be very tricky to do anything without a car. Is it really always cloudy in St austell, it wasn't last october when we went, but that was only one day. Thanks again Everyone.

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StarfishTrooper · 25/09/2013 14:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

anythingforaquietnight · 25/09/2013 15:08

The default position for the weather in Cornwall is overcast and damp. Warm, wet and windy, most of the year round. I live here, and I love it (especially Falmouth). BUT is it not wall-to-wall sunshine. Everything goes green. The windows, the window frames, the walls of the house, the garden furniture, the decking etc etc. I pressure washed the green moss of the car yesterday. I'm sitting in sea fog today. Can't see much beyond the end of the garden.

Its a peninsula sticking out into the Altantic and the first landfall for the prevailing sou'westerlies that dominate the weather in the UK.
The clay pits have nothing to do with it. We are completely surrounded by water.

A well travelled sailing friend tells me peninsulas have odd weather anomalies. Certainly here, the sun always seems to shine on St Ives. Frequently when enduring the lashing rain over at Gwithian/Godrevy you can look across the bay to see the sun shining down upon St. Ives.

Similarly, Falmouth has its own micro-climate, tucked in as it is on the south side of the Carrick Roads and sheltered from the south west gales. There are banana trees fruiting on a roundabout in the middle of Faltown.

If you don't drive its a nightmare. Western Greyhound pulled the plug on its bus services in West Penwith last week, and First Group are mulling over cutting some very vital services between Falmouth and Redruth which serve lots of villages in-between. Don't move to somewhere where you will have to rely on buses!

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snozzlemaid · 25/09/2013 15:49

We do have sunny weather here in St Austell. It's not always grim and cloudy. Sunny days are beautiful around the coast. And the areas you mention are not miles from the sea. You would be near the coast and it's very easy to get around from carlyon bay, Charlestown and Holmbush. You would find it a lot harder using public transport if you lived out in the clay areas.

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 16:06

Actually thats kind of how I like the weather. A sunny day is a bonus. I heard about the changes to bus services down there, will be hard on a lot of people I should think. I think not being able to drive under lies the whole cornwall location thing. So maybe st austell isn't the most pretty, has its problems like most large towns, but when you think about getting around the rest of the county via public transport its starts making sense? The wind and rain certainly don't bother me as uch as some.

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 16:32

snozzlemaid, Would you say you could walk to town from those areas? don't mind a bid of a hike. And any idea what the latest situation is concerning access to Carlyon bay beach? Keep hearing they are trying to stop people accessing it.

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snozzlemaid · 25/09/2013 16:45

Yes town is within walking distance from Charlestown, carlyon bay and Holmbush. Also asda is very close and there is a tesco at Holmbush which is going to be bigger than it currently is, sometime in the future.
I don't think there have been any developments with carlyon bay for ages. You can still access the beach, but the buildings there are all derelict and it's very sad when you can remember how fantastic it used to be.
Close to those areas you have great schools - for primary there is Charlestown which has always had a great reputation around St Austell. Penrice academy is a great secondary - outstanding ofsted report and very good GCSE results.

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 17:55

Great info thanks! Can I just ask what you make of Pentewan and Par beaches, not within walking distance I know, but we've only ever been to porthpean, charlestown and Carlyon bay in that area. Just another quick question, We'll be popping over in a couple of weeks, usually go to the pier house for a meal, would you recommend anywhere else in the charlestown area with a 7 month old? He's very well behaved, I know the wreckers have a sitting for families, but we've never been there.

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cherrypiesally · 25/09/2013 18:34

Hi, my in- laws live in Carlyon bay and we visit a lot.
Pro's
Pretty area, nice houses and some are even affordable although not many.
Nice walk to Charlestown which has a nice summer regatta and other events.
Can walk to asda and tesco.
Walkable to a large soft play area, although expensive.
Primary school looks nice and Penrice did well this year.
Cinema in town.

cons
Nothing to do for kids in Carlyon Bay, not even a playground, although there is one near the library but it would be a long walk.
Long walk to town.
Traffic awful, especially in the summer.
Not even a newsagent in Carlyon Bay anymore.
Town is still dull
Beach is awful

However weather is usually ok, cooler than London where we are.
Nice place to eat in Charlestown called Charlie's boathouse, you will need to book.
If there are other areas that interest you look there first.

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snozzlemaid · 25/09/2013 19:47

Pentewan beach is nice, but wouldn't go there in peak summer as it's so busy. You can eat there at the seahorse, where there is also an indoor pool, gym and small soft play area.
Par beach is ok. Very big, so you can always have your own space, but tide goes out a very long way. There is the caravan site there but nothing else - there used to be a beach shop but that's shut now.
Sorry can't give recommendations for places to eat as we don't often eat out ourselves.

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absentmindeddooooodles · 25/09/2013 20:04

Re illogan....ive lived there, and its a lovely walk through the woods and to the beach. Portreath isnt tio bad in the summer either. Bus links are nit the beat, but easy to get into redruth or camborne.
Falmouth public transport is fab. St austel is quite a trek into teueo. Not tooooo bad by train though.

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paddypaws76 · 25/09/2013 20:39

you've all been very helpfu. Seems like no one has a bad word to say about falmouth, it is nice though. We've only been to the harbour area and gully beach though so would need a bit more looking into.

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Clargo55 · 25/09/2013 20:40

I grew up in St.Austell and now live in Redruth due to work commitments. I would pick St.Austell every time. There are no shops in Redruth, bar a few charity/pasty/betting shops/hairdressers. Trewoon is a nice village and is close to St.Austell town centre. IMO it has the second best shops to Truro.

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