Moving to Newbury

[MiSac]

Hi all,

I hope this is the right place for this post.
We are looking to move to Newbury (2 adults, 2 kids 5 and 2) as it seems be the best option for our jobs (one in London, one in Swindon M4 Jct 15). We also looked at Reading, but the west side of Reading is not very nice, still quite expensive and would take both of us too far from home (and the kids' school/childminder)

The requirements are that it needs to be fairly close to the train station (I am hoping to be able to cycle to it, rather than pay for parking, and ideally no longer than a 10 minute cycle). A good school in the area would be good as well. From what I have seen, any area from Wash Common to Donnington seems to be nice and ticks the boxes. And all of them should be walkable to the town centre. Speen would be great, but hard to fit in our budget of say £750k for a 4 bed detached with a garden.

We dont really know the areas, so any advice would be welcome. Hopefully realistic advice as I have people telling me things like "Newbury is not nice, move to Winchester instead" and so on :D.

thank you for reading. Any thoughts much appreciated

[EBearhug]

Newbury has an outdoor heated lido in the summer. :-)

I don't know Newbury well, but I suspect it's like Reading in that the traffic can make a big difference to how easy it is to get around. The main road through can be very busy, and its one-way system can be interesting.

[essaytwenty]

Anything up the Andover Road is nice. Be aware that the walk/ride back from the station will be all uphill though!

[MiSac]

@essaytwenty

Anything up the Andover Road is nice. Be aware that the walk/ride back from the station will be all uphill though!

Thanks, I hope i can manage the uphill. I am fairly fit.

What about areas like Greenham? less nice, pretty much the same as Wash Common etc?

[essaytwenty]

Greenham is OK although, depending on where you are trying to get to, the traffic can be bad due to the proximity of the retail park. Uphill from the station again.

Don’t be tempted by Thatcham.

[MiSac]

May I ask what is wrong about Thatcham?

[SFHJ]

Greenham is where I’m originally from if it’s the old racecourse estate Westwood road and houses coming off of there that is nice. Steer clear of pigeons farm or nightingales estate.
Wash common is lovely, with Falkland school which used to be good and a great secondary park house, there is st barts nearby which is also good.
Speen and donnington are nice. Massive new development being built in donnington at the moment access from Vodafone roundabout.

I originally moved out of Newbury as couldn’t afford to buy and bought in swindon. We lived reasonably near to the train station and I think there wasn’t much in it with times into London.

If you are planning more children newbury doesn’t have a maternity hospital, you have the choice to go north to Oxford west to swindon south to Basingstoke or east to reading!

However I do now live in the north due to my dh work.

[MiSac]

@SFHJ

Greenham is where I’m originally from if it’s the old racecourse estate Westwood road and houses coming off of there that is nice. Steer clear of pigeons farm or nightingales estate.
Wash common is lovely, with Falkland school which used to be good and a great secondary park house, there is st barts nearby which is also good.
Speen and donnington are nice. Massive new development being built in donnington at the moment access from Vodafone roundabout.

I originally moved out of Newbury as couldn’t afford to buy and bought in swindon. We lived reasonably near to the train station and I think there wasn’t much in it with times into London.

If you are planning more children newbury doesn’t have a maternity hospital, you have the choice to go north to Oxford west to swindon south to Basingstoke or east to reading!

However I do now live in the north due to my dh work.

Thank you this is great. No more kids, I am confident we are done :D

Would you rate Wash common as better than Speen or Donnington?

[essaytwenty]

May I ask what is wrong about Thatcham?

It’s overdeveloped. In my opinion anyway.

I’ve moved away from the area now but lived in Thatcham and Wash Common. I still visit.

[MiSac]

Thanks, much appreciate all the responses.

[Namechg3]

Hi I live in Newbury. Personally I'd look at catchment for secondary schools, even though your DC are young. For that reason I would go within a mile of St Barts. The Fifth Road area and all around there. You have the battlefields for miles of country walks and are not far from the canal. DC can walk into town without having to go through a load of underpasses. It's a flat cycle to the station. Your life will be much easier if you can walk to town and the station. Wash Common is a bit far out for that. Racecourse is a hack to the secondary schools for DC. You get to a point where DC want to wander into town to meet friends. It's nice if you don't have to keep driving them. It's a safe, nice place for DC to grow up on the whole.

[essaytwenty]

I used to walk to and from the station from the far end of Wash Common every day. Mind you, I was younger and fitter then.

[SFHJ]

I walked from almost Newbury racecourse to park house daily from year 7 to passing my driving test 40mins so wasn’t too bad, had a set playlist on my iPod I listened to.
Wash common and speen are both lovely, old donnington I don’t know anyone who lived around there so can’t comment and new donnington developments near donnington valley hotel no idea, I’ve been away 7 years now with only visiting every now and again.

[MiSac]

How easy is to cycle on Andover Road? Is it a deathwish with the car traffic or doable?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

@MiSac

How easy is to cycle on Andover Road? Is it a deathwish with the car traffic or doable?

You can cycle up Fifth Road/Elizabeth Avenue that run parallel to the Andover Road, but are much quieter.
Greenham has some newer properties that would fit you bill on the New racecourse estate or capability way and would 15 mins from the station by bike.
There is also a huge volume of housing in the St John's and West Fields area that would fit your bill and is even closer to the station.
Donnington tends to be occupied by empty nesters partly as families can not afford the properties in that area.
I have loved in St John's, West Fields, Greenham, thatcham and several villages. They were all great for different re

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Reasons.

[romatheroamer]

I visited a while ago for the first time in years and was surprised how good and thriving the shopping area is....compares very favourably with Winchester, has that department store still going strong.