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Bebo

Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 12590
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 07 8:46 pm Post subject:

Can confirm that Lewes is nice. It was an area we looked at when we decided to move out of London. Not sure about rental, but for buying it was a bit on the steep side for what we were looking for.

Uckfield is also nice and only a little over an hour on the train from London (think it's Victoria or London Bridge but can't remember).

We finally went a bit further east and a smaller town - Battle in East Sussex (or rather a little village about 3 miles away from it). Got better value for money than further to the west. Lovely surrounding countryside, nice local shops, close to the coast, Hastings relatively close for a slightly wider range of shops (although it's still a bit grotty) and less than 1hr 30mins from central London by train (Charing Cross, Waterloo East, Cannon St or London Bridge depending on which train you get).

Alternatively, if you aren't looking at a daily commute to London, Rye is a little further east. It's a lovely town and prices are good. Only possible issue is that it is very touristy in the summer. Has a train station, but its a bit of a slow plod into London via Ashford.

Earth Mutha with attitude

Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 40
Location: Near Forfar, Angus

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 07 9:16 pm Post subject:

What about Harefield in Middlesex? lovely little village about 6 miles from uxbridge or Ruislip tube or 1 mile from Denham trainline. lovely community, very friendly to "outsiders", small primary school that is excellent, secondary school being remodelled and looks like it will be very very good, New headteacher 2 years ago who has really shaken it up! no farmers market in village when we left 2 years ago, but uxbridge has one. Rental not too bad and usually lots available. If we had to live in the south again, we'd move back like a shot!

Helen_A

Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 1548
Location: MK, Bucks.

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 07 5:06 pm Post subject:

We've just abandoned Royston... 35 mins to london, but houses are scary scary priced or have those 5 by 7 bed 3's.... and the market is iffy (and the farmers market is not that farmers) and then there is Tescos... (and Somerfield who are OK in the main but!) no green grocers, no butchers etc. although there are some decent farm places around if you want to have to drive for 20 mins. Basically its a communter town and I never met anyone who didn't assume that we were HE'ing because of the schools (the choices are minimal and a *lot* of people fight tooth and nail to get their secondary age children over the border into cambridgeshire, or schol places, or over to Kings thingy at Baldock.

Actually - if you want a market town then I'd suggest Baldock or Letchworth before Royston, lol. Prices are more sensible and they both have, um, real shops...

Used to be just outside Hastings (Westfield to be precise) and would say that if you can afford it the area around there is pretty good for commuting, we left because we needed a shorter commute and more space for our money)
Helen_A (who has fled to Milton Keynes, where it is actually more rural than royston was and is only number 28 on the allotment waiting list for one of 200 plots, as oposed to number 75 on the list for one of 45....)

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 07 5:14 pm Post subject:

Bebo wrote:

Uckfield's OK as a commuter town but isn't really a "market town", has some excellent schools but is again expensive and most of the housing is on blandly anonymous housing estates (what's your budget?). For commuting it's about 75 minutes to London Bridge but the car park at the station has about 6 parking spaces (for a town of about 15000 population!).

If you're considering things other than market towns then heading north along the same rail line there are a few village options and a couple of larger towns (Crowborough - good schools, 60 minutes to london, plenty of parking at the rail station, not much of a town centre, next to Ashdown forest), (Edenbridge - nothing much to recommend it but nearer to London)

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 07 5:48 pm Post subject:

Helen_A wrote:

We've just abandoned Royston... 35 mins to london

...on a bright clear day with no molecules on the line

From Harlow - on the same train to which you refer - would take 25 mins and Royston is more than ten mins of West Anglia Great Northern tedium away!

Helen_A

Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 1548
Location: MK, Bucks.

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 07 7:23 pm Post subject:
Nooooo Royston train goes no where near Harlow - you're thinking of from Cambridge via Duxford surely? Royston one goes into Kings Cross via letchworth, stevenage, finsbury park ... Helen_A

bagpuss

Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 10507
Location: cambridge

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 07 8:04 pm Post subject:

Helen_A wrote:

Nooooo Royston train goes no where near Harlow - you're thinking of from Cambridge via Duxford surely?

Royston one goes into Kings Cross via letchworth, stevenage, finsbury park ...

Helen_A

indeed, the line which goes to liverpool st goes through harlow and bishops stortford, a far nicer town than harlow

Maxwell Smart

Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 607
Location: London Town

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 07 10:30 pm Post subject:

Thanks everyone - keep it coming!

Helen_A wrote:

We've just abandoned Royston...

I've ruled Royston out yesterday after driving through it...

Have since decided we want to be in a small village/hamlet but close to a big town. It would have to have a post office, school and farm shop. A friend warned me away from Market towns saying that they tend to get quite loutish on the weekends and night...

Fen Diton had one or two interesting buildings in it but not much else from what I could see. There were some interesting looking possibilities for an office but they looked all occupied.

I think what I have come down to and now its a matter of lifestyle really is Dorset or Cambridgeshire. I think we will drive down to Dorset this weekend and then maybe look around Cambridgeshire up to Ely next weekend.

Problem is finding a small place with character that I like in Cambridge area and Peak District is a little too far.

pricey

Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 6444

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 07 11:25 pm Post subject:

gnasher wrote:

Behemoth wrote:

Maxwell Smart wrote:

How long is the train to Waterloo?

About 100ft?

about 2 and a half hours

my god what way does your train go?

Helen_A

Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 1548
Location: MK, Bucks.

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 07 8:32 am Post subject:

We seriously looked around Ely for a while - but it is a) very flat and b) a bit prone to flooding if you get somewhere that has a local farmer lax at paying his pumping charges....

Ely to kings cross is abut 65 mins atm, but again any flood issues and you get cut off.... sigh. However houses around there are lots cheaper (when we looked last year we found one place with 5 beds, 3 receptions 3 acres and a go cart track for 180K, but it was in the middle of a fen, lol. We have friends in and near Soham who love that little town to bits, lol, and there is a *lot* of cheap ag. land around to rent as well, and no shortage of allotments if you want one. Out the other side of Ely you find a couple of nice villages with OK prices and the elusive post-6pm buses as well! Stetton is worth a look, certainly.

Helen_A

Vic

Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 387
Location: Sherborne, Dorset

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 07 9:24 am Post subject:

Maxwell Smart wrote:

Have since decided we want to be in a small village/hamlet but close to a big town. It would have to have a post office, school and farm shop. A friend warned me away from Market towns saying that they tend to get quite loutish on the weekends and night...

I really wouldn't automatically rule out market towns, especially if you want a few facilities (finding a small village with everything you mention might be tricky, or hideously expensive). I'd highly recommend staying overnight anywhere you might fancy, especially on a saturday night - that way you can see if the atmosphere is 'loutish' and intimidating, or just lively. And which would you rather have, lively or completely dead after 5pm?

Pricey - trains from Dorchester go via Poole and Southampton (I think) so yup, they're going to take that long. Can't think of anywhere in Dorset which would be much faster - Sherborne is 2 hours 20 mins to London as well.

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 07 9:37 am Post subject:

Helen_A wrote:

Nooooo Royston train goes no where near Harlow - you're thinking of from Cambridge via Duxford surely?

Oh, oops.. sorry

pricey

Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 6444

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 07 3:49 pm Post subject:

[quote="Vic"]

Maxwell Smart wrote:

Pricey - trains from Dorchester go via Poole and Southampton (I think) so yup, they're going to take that long. Can't think of anywhere in Dorset which would be much faster - Sherborne is 2 hours 20 mins to London as well.

So they do

Sorry, I was thinking straight from B'mth to London, is 1hr 15.

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 07 4:16 pm Post subject:

Lewes is horribly up itself (in my opinion), and incredibly expensive. You have to be very much a certain kind of person to enjoy living there (wealthy, to start with). Nice to visit though.

Cambridgeshire is lovely (home to me, originally), but Dorset (where my parents come from) is better in my opinion - it's by the sea!

Friends moved to Downton in Wiltshire a few years ago (a large village, close to Salisbury) and love it. Some of their other friends from Brighton have followed them there.

natty

Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Posts: 186
Location: London

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 07 7:16 pm Post subject:

I don't recommend soham at all, I grew up there and its not as quaint as it looks, it has a really very good school but also kids hanging about drinking and causing trouble in the town, pubs can be a bit anti 'outsiders' too - and I certainly would'nt bringing up kids there, but some of the outer villages are very nice (wicken, wilburtun, haddenham, earith they all have lots of little community events, beer festivals art events. . Friends recommend heading out towards Huntingdon-cambridge side more. -lovely villages that way - they live in St Ives and and commute to london by train (possibly from huntingdon though)
to be honest though i have lived cambridge side, hastings side and brighton side of london and from the garpe vine the place to go is dorset- so many people have moved there and love it- they seem to find more community and an easier pace of life. in the camb villages and places like lewes people can just be a little too snobby- if you garden isn't nice then you are blight on the community!- or maybe thats just because I am!

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