Rebecca with her daughters Laurel and Claudia
(Picture: Luke Pilling @abersapp)When she turned 40 Rebecca Hinde threw a big party for all her London friends. Two days later she packed her bags and took a plunge into the unknown.
She and her two daughters — both of whom were “distraught” at the prospect of leaving the capital — moved to the seaside village of Llanbedrog, Gwynedd, in north Wales in 2019. And although it’s a very different world from Brockley, south-east London, the family is thriving.
Rebecca, 43, had been brought up in Chester but spent most of her adult life in London. As well as raising Claudia, now 14, and Laurel, 13, she ran an art gallery, Someth1ng, in Honor Oak Park. Having separated from the girl’s father she and the girls were renting a two-bedroom house, paying £1,600pcm.
At first the business thrived, and life was good. But slowly things started to change. “I don’t know if it was Brexit, but the gallery started to really slow down and financially it was a bit of a struggle,” said Rebecca. “As the girls got older, I knew we were going to need more space, but couldn’t afford it. And although I really love London I did start to get more and more worried about crime — a young girl was bottled right outside the gallery by another group of young girls for absolutely no reason.”
Rebecca’s mother had already made the move to live in north Wales, where the family had a long-term holiday home, and her sister and her family lived nearby. Rebecca decided she wanted to be closer to them. “We went up one year for Christmas and it was just magical,” she said. “That really made my mind up.”
Rebecca now works as a freelance writer and researcher and pays £650pcm to rent a four-bedroom farmhouse. “It is on the top of a hill with views of Snowdonia and Cardigan Bay,” she said.
Claudia and Laurel, meanwhile, were plunged straight into life in Welsh speaking schools and — after a term of intensive language lessons — handled the change with aplomb, while also learning to surf and hanging out on the beach with their new groups of friends in their downtime.
The move has, naturally, been a culture shock. There is a lot less diversity in Wales than the family was used to, although Rebecca says they’ve not faced any anti-English sentiment, and there are obviously far fewer options when it comes to culture. Rachel also misses her busy London social life — “If you like your gastropubs you are going to be disappointed” — although the fact that Claudia’s asthma has cleared up since the move is a big compensation, as is the sheer beauty of the surroundings.
“The landscape here is so incredible,” said Rebecca. “I don’t know whether Covid has changed my perspective, but I feel very safe here with the kids, far away from the chaos in the rest of the world. I don’t worry like I used to.”
