Londoners ditch four-hour commute after falling in love with Shrewsbury
Moving to the Shropshire countryside was the ideal life change for a family who’d been unable to step on the property ladder in London – and had previously faced four hours commuting to and from work each day.
Londoners Tash Dutrieu and James Wentworth-Bowyer had already made the move out of their home city with their two-year-old son Theo to nearby Guildford, but were still stuck in the rental trap.
When they started looking for somewhere to buy their own place, Shrewsbury ticked all the right boxes with access to town and country and good transport links to Telford for James’ work as an IT programme support manager.
There was also easy access to Shropshire’s road networks for Tash, who as director of a property inventory company is based from home.
They moved into their new four-bedroom home at The Spinney, off Oteley Road, in July 2020.
James, 37, said: “We had been renting for a few years and had been gradually moving to the outskirts of London. We wanted to purchase our first property but London was just too expensive for what we wanted.
“We have family in Birmingham and when we started looking for properties, we found Shrewsbury and fell in love. We really liked the location of the development because it was close to both the town and the countryside."
Tash, 42, said: “We are only 10 minutes from the town centre and then have fields on the other side of us.
“We are members of the National Trust, so we love that places such as Attingham Park are only a short drive away and there are farms and zoos close by, which Theo loves.
“There are great road links, which is what really sold the location to us, as James’ commute is cut down to about half an hour, as opposed to the four-hour round trip he was doing from Guildford to London.
“As I am self-employed and based from home, I am well placed for travel as we are right next to the A5.”
