does anyone know anything about Ashtead, Surrey????

[Carameli]

Hi,

we are thinking of looking around Leatherhead area for moving. Does anyone have any experience of Ashtead?

[geogteach]

The school I work at is there - what do you want to know?

[charleepeters]

my fil there seems nice i think house prices are expensive thought. what do you want to know??

[Carameli]

I suppose really what schools are like and shopping or do most people shop in Leatherhead?

Is it a quiet area, pubs, restaurants etc etc?

[geogteach]

Locals are very proud of calling it a village but it is bigger than that really, no proper supermarket but lots of local shops, people shop Leatherhead or Epsom, my impression is that property is expensive. Schools, loads of good state primaries, couple of prep schools, Catholic secondary and other state secondaries in Leatherhead, Epsom and Dorking. There are restaurents and pubs but i'm not familiar with them.

[andif]

I'm in Kingston. A good friend did lots of research into where to live in the Surrey area and chose Ashtead. She has since moved, but for other reasons. Schools are good. Epsom and Leatherhead have most things you could want. We lived in Epsom for a while, have to say the whole area is very 'suburban'. Depends what you're after, but prefer Kingston myself!!

[Carameli]

yes I know its quite suburban. I don't mind that too much. Dh would really like to be out in the middle of nowhere if he thought he could persuade me. I am happy as long as I have decent road access to other places or no more than 30mins on a train. So we've been looking in Leatherhead and Cobham area but not found the perfect place quite yet. So I just wondered what Astead was like. I think we might try and go for a drive around there next.

[charleepeters]

shopping quite good, so are resturants bars ect theres a few to choose from, its quite an up market kinda place (fil v.rich) but from what i know its a nice place to live.

[ggglimpopo]

Message withdrawn

[geogteach]

No Grange Road

[Ameriscot2005]

I spent a summer living in Ashtead when I was doing a work placement in Leatherhead as a student. I'd say that Epsom was a better place to shop than Leatherhead, but both places, along with Ashtead have everything you need.

I liked the area. Coming down from Scotland, it was exactly what I thought Surrey would be like (unlike the part of Surrey I live in now).

[titchy]

Don't know Ashtead that well, even though it's v.close! If house prices are an issue then maybe better than Epsom as there are some cheaper (i.e. 250-400k) family houses within catchement of good schools (West Ashtead, Greville and St Giles rpimaries), wheras with Epsom and I think Leatherhead the good primaries are in expensive areas. Therfield secondary in L'head os good though.

Cobham much better for pubs and restaurants though, but school not that good.

Have you looked at East Horsley or Fetcham/Bookham - also nice with good schools?

[Carameli]

Geogteach, is that St Andrews? Do you know anything about St Peters? We are looking for somewhere if possible near an RC primary and perhaps secondary for the future as we are RC, there does not seem to be many RC schools in this area.

My dh grew up in East(or was it West) Horsley, I know I will say the wrong one:-)
We have also looked at some lovely properties in Fetcham, so just keepng our eyes out at the moment. But Ashtead/Leatherhead is closer to RC schools.
Found a lovely property but was on the A24 so no sure about noise etc from that road.
But we'll keep on looking.

[geogteach]

Yes St Andrew's. St Peter's has an excellent reputation, if i'm honest St Andrew's is less good but probably on the up. If you sent your kids to St Peters you wouldn't be the only parents who considered places other than St Andrew's for secondary. I'm on mat leave but St Andrew's had promising OFSTED last year

[Carameli]

where do other parents go for. DD is only 20mnths so we may be living somewhere else by then but I think its worth checking out right now in case we did stay in the same place. My parents stayed in the same house for the past 30 odd years, so makes me think.