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Pure curiosity on my part. A job came up near there which is right up my street but I've decided not to go for it. We decided we don't need the expense and upheaval of moving across the UK at short notice.
Still, that didn't stop me from spending all week scouring Rightmove, checking all the local primary schools, commuting routes etc. On Google maps I can just see endless miles of gravel roads, forests, hills, quarries, etc. All ripe for exploring but not sure how much of it is actually accessible. Plus I bet the local riding outside BPW is next level.
I know the town centre is past it's best (I haven't been there since 2018) and all the negativity focuses on how run down it is. But, I'd be at work 5 days a week anyway not hanging around in town. As long as there was plenty of weekend entertainment and stuff to keep a young boy busy we'd be alright.
The main reason we won't go is that our family is in Newcastle and the Mrs. is up and down the motorway all the time visiting and they come here quite a bit. If it was a 6 hour drive rather than 2 we'd never see them.
Anyway. Still interested to hear from anyone who lives in the area especially if you moved there from England. Do you speak Welsh? Would my kid get bullied in school?
Has it go to be Merthyr? Plenty of other towns in the vicinity as with commutable distance. Abergavenny is only 30 mins away.
Moved from the area 30plus years ago but still have family down there. No need to speak Welsh although its now taught in schools
Well in reality it doesn't matter now, but for this particular job I was looking at Merthyr. Anywhere between Edwardsville and the junction of A470/A465 would be an easy bicycle commute. More central would be on foot.
I haven't driven to work in over 6 years and I'm keen to delay it as long as possible. I did look at houses in Abergavenny and it's considerably more expensive. A bigger mortgage, plus running a car will dramatically cut my spending money.
However, in the fantasy version of this scenario I have a WRX STi in my double garage so I'll commute in that occasionally.
If you stay within 5 miles of BPW you can get a cheaper season ticket : https://www.bikeparkwales.com/mountain-bike-season-tickets
On Google maps I can just see endless miles of gravel roads, forests, hills, quarries, etc. All ripe for exploring but not sure how much of it is actually accessible
Like most of south Wales it's all mostly completely accessible. And yes, there is tonnes of great riding that's not BPW.
The only thing worse than Merthyr is Treharris! What a pit of a place to live
Still interested to hear from anyone who lives in the area especially if you moved there from England. Do you speak Welsh? Would my kid get bullied in school?
So, I'm Welsh but I've been brought up all over the world so I don' have a Welsh access. I moved back to Wales in 2011 (from England at that time) and even going into uni I got picked on for not being properly Welsh, and that was CARDIFF!
That said, times have changed and your kid would probably be fine - depends on how old they are I guess. Going into secondary in Merthyr being English would be a shock to the system.
I've lived all over Wales now and it's always friendly enough, I don't speak Welsh and you wouldn't need to in Merthyr... if you wanted to move to Dyfi or North/West Wales then it would definitely be worth picking it up.
I haven't lived in Merthyr but lived in Ebbw Vale (10 mins up the road) for a while. We've moved down to Cardiff, mainly because there wasn't really enough for us to do - like, yes, it's great for getting out in nature and there's loads of brilliant off piste trails cut in, but for entertainment that my wife enjoys too we were really limited.
Like @IdleJon says there’s lots and lots of accessible places to ride, and lots of fun lanes linking them. I moved to wales just over 22 years ago and now I’ve been here half my life. It’s a very welcoming place and i work all over the principality* with nary an issue about where I was born or what language I can speak. I’m near pontypool so a couple of valleys over from Merthyr and yes it is bleak that way some times, but there are many, many other places I have been across the UK that are just as bleak and many that are bleaker.
*and I toot my Subaru outback all over the place to do it.
The MTBing is stellar. In addition to all the gravel, any bit of steep woodland in the whole of SE Wales is rammed with unofficial bike park stuff. And there is a hell of a lot of steep woodland.
The problem is that the Valleys generally are pretty insular - like many of the most depressed post-industrial areas but with the added problem of nationalistic friction. Unless you've experienced that level of parochialism (and it's not limited to the Valleys) you'll be amazed. They think people from Cardiff are big city slickers from far far away. The teachers in the school my wife works at are amazed that she comes 'all the way' from Cardiff - it's a twenty minute drive. Many of those kids have never been to Cardiff or Newport.
To be honest that sounds like the people I worked with in Rotherham when I used to travel 'all the way from Sheffield '.
Every day they used to ask if I had my Afghan passport with me so I could get home.
Many of those kids have never been to Cardiff or Newport.
Well, they aren't missing much by not going to Newport. 😀
Unless you've experienced that level of parochialism (and it's not limited to the Valleys) you'll be amazed.
It is quite tribal, not necessarily unfriendly, more pointlessly competitive. I remember a woman I worked with years ago getting overly worked up about whether some castle in west Wales was better than Swansea castle, as if anyone cared. (Certainly, nobody in Swansea cares but she was from Llanelli, 6 miles from Swansea and with a huge chip on her shoulders.)
The problem is that the Valleys generally are pretty insular - like many of the most depressed post-industrial areas but with the added problem of nationalistic friction. Unless you've experienced that level of parochialism (and it's not limited to the Valleys) you'll be amazed
Oh yes.I was in Ebbw Vale for 3 months working. One of the ladies there was telling me she moved away for 14 years when she got married, I presumed 50+ miles away. No, she had gone from Ebbw to Tredegar, at least 3 miles away! What complicates it for the locals is that the next town, a few miles away, is in a different valley, and they have been brought up thinking everyone over the hill is a burglar/rapist/murderer etc, so they never venture over yonder. As it happens, I loved the area, and would have gladly moved there if my OH had agreed, she didnt, so we ended up in Scotland.
I was in Merthyr and Ebbw Vale recently for a couple of days. Everyone was perfectly nice but it was a bit bleak. The weather was cold and wet, which didn't help, and the buses didn't seem very reliable. I have to say I wasn't tempted to stay longer. I'm sure in summer it's got a lot of pluses if you're an outdoorsy person.
I worked in and around the valleys for around 15 years. (Though never lived there)
My analysis of valley folks is sometimes a little mistrusting of outsiders(rightfully so after some of the shit they've had to put up with)
But once you get to know them a really down to earth bunch you can have a proper laugh with.
On the outsiders subject I also had a regular call in Newport and one of the guys there refused to believe that I travelled there from the midlands every week.
Just totally mind blown that it'd be possible to do that.
He'd never been outside Newport and was in his mid forties.
I'd sooner live there than the south of England that's for sure.
Mrs family all either come from Brynmawr / Beaufort / Blaenavon and the FiL used to work in the Ebbw Vale steel works but most are now down towards Abergavenny. Merthyr and areas are grim. It really is another level of living in the National park north of Heads of the Valleys. It can be pretty insular (I’ve been visiting for +35yrs) and in the villages everyone knows everyone (and plenty are related) and everyone’s business. Great riding. I can be serious wet weather-wise. Lovely people if a bit insular (as said above).
Id move to Aber/Crick/Breacon but no way would I wouldn’t recommend Methyr.
I have worked in most of the bigger South Wales hospitals. As others have said, there is a very noticeable difference between working in Cardiff and the 40 minutes drive away to Prince Charles hospital in Merthyr.
The 'valleys' people were a lot more down to earth and rough and ready, but in a friendly welcoming way. The nurses who lived local could bring order to a rowdy and chaotic A&E dept on a busy international day quicker than a dozen police officers .. a vocal valleys female is something to experience!
It was often repeated by more experienced members of the team whilst in PCH that further you head down the A470 the more difficult and entitled the patients become. Sadly that was true.
I stayed on site whilst there. But outside of the old industrial areas there were some lovely big homes scattered about.
Moved from the midlands and spent second half of my life in Pontypridd, I do like it, beaches and mountains with an hour away, Cardiff on the doorstep for gigs, Bristols not far away for more gigs. Locals are welcoming, worked all other the valleys and there's always a few different takes on things like anywhere I guess.
That next valley over - they've got two heads / eat their first born I can never get my head around but those comments are usually from people with 'different takes' - also, win lose or draw I absolutely never mention the Rugby, I don't really have an interest and even the dog in the pub seems to know and have opinions of who should and shouldnt the Welsh bench so I stay well clear - unlike the other young English guy in the office who after we beat the All Blacks in the WC that time loudly and proudly declared the Springboks would be a cake walk in the final - I did say to keep his mouth shut at the time...
The hills, mountains, beaches, West Wales, Mid Wales bothys and wild camping, Cardiff for beers are all great though and there's no way I'd move back 'home' to the midlands (Newark)