Next door dot com/"know thy neighbour"

When we moved here 20 years ago, there was a lovely friendly atmosphere and we used to have fairly regular get-togethers. We were a mixed bunch age wise which seemed to work well. Then, one couple split up, three families with children up-sized and our immediate next door neighbour died.

It's sad that, although we have friends in the village which is quite a friendly place itself, our immediate neighbours are now so disparate. So disparate, in fact, that I notice a neighbour over the road having a visit from the district nurse the other day and then appear in the garden with no hair and I am at a loss about what to do.

They have been here for supper a couple of times, along with a couple of other people, but have never asked us back. Any advice welcome!!

I live in a row of three rows of town houses. We all moved in together and were 25 couples and about 50 children. Before the houses were finished we met to decide on garages and such things and decided on a few basic rules. No TV or radio in the gardens and privacy when sitting on the patios.

It helped that we are near a large school complex and half of us were teachers! We've been through the moped stage and then the stage when there were too many cars parked, and now we are all retired and most of us still living here. Some close friendships have been formed and there is an underlying comfortable feeling that there are people nearby, who would step in in an emergency.

I must say we are blessed to be living in a very friendly village and our neighbours are great on both sides.Helps to live in a detatched house I am sure!.

However we did live for a while next to neighbours who were thoughtless and I KID YOU NOT went mental at the time of a full moon??? I am not joking.

Neighbours from hell are certainly no joke and can ruin a persons life.

Like Maniac, I have superb neighbours. I live in a similar environment and I also take in parcels, feed cats or whatever. In return, when I had major surgery a while ago, my bins were taken care of and I was taken to and picked up from hospital and the essentials like bread, milk etc bought for me. I was driven for appointments until I could drive myself again.

Two of my neighbours brought down my computer table and computer to my lounge from a bedroom, set it up for me and when I came home, made sure that it was working.

They also asked if I wanted a single bed brought down here so that I could live "on the flat" but as I have a stairlift and although using crutches I was weight bearing so could manage.

Many of the houses are rented but most of the occupants say hello. I am exceptionally lucky.

For last 5 yrs I've lived in a mid-terrace house in a close of 17 houses
Next door neighbours friendly from day 1.He cuts my front lawn,she cuts my hair!!I make them a cake sometimes to say thanks.
I'm surrogate grandma to 2 Anglo/Japaneses children in the close. Another neighbour has a spare key to my house.
We had a street party for Royal wedding which helped to meet others.
Most are out at work so postman often leaves packages with me.
In the ice/snow neighbours asked if I was OK - offered to get food essentials.
I'm lucky to be here.It was a good move!

I live in a small village in Suffolk. We were renting 6 yrs ago while we did this house up, and before we had even moved in someone had been round with a selection of 'nice boys' for DS to play with, an invitation to a barbecue and many discreet enquiries as to general talents and potential future usefulnesses to the village. Our village is ruled by several strong-willed ladies who visit each newcomer as they arrive, run a village newsltter, hold monthly lunch groups for all over 60s and raise masses of money for charity. They are amazing, and through them I had an incredibly social life after only a few months. Next door neighbours on one side are lovely, on the other side, he is vile but she is nice. Same goes for the next house along. So those two horrible men get along very well with each other. (They are both bullies to their wives.) The people opposite are really nice as well - we knew one set of them through work in Kent, so it was very funny when they moved in across from us.

I have lived all over the UK and have always had lovely neighbours. This is the first time I have had an unpleasant one, but his very nice mum lives along the road so no-one says anything too rude about him.

I have lived in the same street for 41 years and I speak to a neighbour maybe six times a year. DH does the garden and cleans the car so speaks to anyone passing by. It is not like the old days when women stayed at home, our street is dead between 8am and 6pm.

What lovely neighbourly tales! Seems like GNetters don't need "Next Door".

Malvern is a very friendly place. Our road is in 2 halves and we know everyone in our half apart from the people who moved in last week but I dropped in a card and they were out but have already emailed me and we will be meeting at the street party on Sunday. We are all different but get together on odd occassions, sometimes a lot and sometimes not. We always look after our next door neighbour's dog when they go away. We also know a few in the other half of the road. It is great for us having previously lived in Surrey in a small village where everyone was very busy and we all drove everywhere so didn't get much chance to meet and chat.

We had great neighbours in our last house in UK - the immediate ones were at least 30 years younger than us but it made no difference - we were able to be like grandparents to the son of one of these neighbours - a single mum - when she needed help due to a big hiccough in her working life. We collected from school and often gave him tea etc - even now some seven years later when he sees OH he immediately hugs him and wants to sit up close to him.
That was one of the best places for neighbours we have ever lived - and it was high in a South Wales valley - many of the community were ex miners - the pits around had closed years ago and everywhere was green again. There was a great Male Voice Choir and we enjoyed going to their concerts.
Since we decided to sell our house and move full time to France one neighbour has died - she was a lovely friend and we were there to say goodbye - and two have moved away and a third has divorced - I hope the new people all have as good an experience as we did.
In France we are in a very rural spot with our nearest neighbours a few minutes walk away but they are great too - and a wonderful source of eggs and manure as they are retired farmers.

When we moved from the north 10 years ago to South Bedfordshire, friends said we would not like it as southerners were unfriendly. What load of tosh!

People are lovely if you reach out to them (there are exceptions of course as in all things) and we had good and kind but not over-friendly neighbours.

We move to the south coast last summer and have been lucky enough to find great neighbours again - welcoming and approachable but not overly so.

I have come to the conclusion that it is up to you to be a good neighbour and generally the rest will follow.

I live in a cluster of four houses and have done so for the last 16 years. We know our neighbours in all the houses. Three of us get together every five years to re-gravel our common access road. We chat away whenever we meet outside and all have been round for a meal at sometime or another.

Across the road, which is quite some distance because of ditches, verges and a causeway (we live in a village) is the school and four bungalows. the occupant of the nearest is a local builder, whom we know well as he does work for us and we are also on nodding terms with his next door neighbour, but I do not know the occupants of the other two.

My road is well over half a mile long and I do know several other people in the road and am friends with one.

DH and the guy in the adjoining semi chat a lot and give each other a hand when needed. The wife and I acknowledge each other. The other side of us are hardly ever there. We chat to some of the other neighbours others ignore us.

We live on a coast road so we are right on edge of town. Four houses past us then nothing until the next village.

My neighbour on one side is wonderful. If I'm away on 'bin' day, I can always rely on her to put mine out. On the other side, it was only when she put up a for sale sign on her house that I discovered that she had terminal cancer. I knew she was away, but the last time she disappeared for any length of time she had gone to New Zealand; this time it was to hospital.

We live in the end house of a terrace, so nobody to the left of us. Our immediate neighbour is the nasty old git who swore and yelled at me that time 18 months ago, in front of my, then 3 and a half year old grandson. So therefore we don`t have anything to do with them at all. And the rest of the row are foreigners, several to a house, and they change every few months, so no chance to get to know anyone. We live in (not so splendid)isolation!

Amazing neighbours. Never see each other except in passing but all of us are there to help at the drop of a hat if needed. When my marriage broke up they came round a lot to see if I was ok but as things improved they disapeared into the background. I'd love to downsize and move away but neighbours like this are to be treasured. We all tell each other if we're going away and check each others houses, and I keep a spare key with my neighbour in case I lock myself out. A lot of people in this road have been here since the houses were built.

Too well. When it comes to GOM next door. She's lovely.

Good neighbours all the way up our row of small terraced cottages. We have dinner sometimes with next-door but we don't overdo it, and we don't hang over the garden fence day after day nattering (just occasionally)!
Perhaps because we live in a village it's easier to say 'hello' to people as we meet them. We keep an eye on each others houses while they're away, putting bins out, and watering plants in the greenhouses when needed. It's a friendly community in the main.

Our nearest neighbours are half a mile away......perfick

We've lived in this house for nearly nine years and I feel we barely know the neighbours. It's a two-way thing, we've not made much effort to be on more than nodding terms as a way to prevent the extreme over-familiarity problems we'd encountered in the past. I've had the neighbours from hell in the past so our current situation is a pleasant alternative but I think it's a sad statement about modern life. When I was a child, and later as a new bride, I remember fantastic neighbours - the sort you could borrow an egg from or leave your baby with. Even now, about fifty years later, I can tell you the names of all members for six neighbouring houses but can't name my current ones.

We are quite friendly with our immediate neighbours , one man swops me apples from his tree for the odd apple pie from me. We nod and wave hello to the opposite 2/3 houses but as for he rest of the street I hardly know any of them.. they are mostly all at work/school when I am about during the day so I guess our paths just don't cross.