Wimborne. Can you help me sell it on a day trip?

[greenduck]

Everything I have read about Wimborne appeals to me but before we rashly sell up and move there on my whim we are going to visit to do a recce.

Apart from a couple of hours in Bournemouth, we know little about the area.

Can you recommend places to go, have coffee, eat lunch, areas to drive around to look at houses, etc. to sell it to the rest of the family please?

[greenduck]

Anyone?

[in2theblues]

Oh yes, the model town of the town is a wonderful opportunity to speculate infinite regression. The town hall clock is quite special.

10am Breakfast in the greasy spoon.

11am Browse around the antique shops - have a game of Bargain Hunt with an agreed budget and see what you can do with the results on ebay or the white elephant stall at the Christmas WI.

1 pm. Watch the clock. Visit church. Glass of wine in posh wine bar.

2 pm Model town.

4pm Tea and cake.

5pm Hotel to freshen up. Fish and chips.

7pm Town hall for local pantomime.

10pm Another glass of wine and so to bed.

HTH.

[PigeonPie]

We had a lovely morning at the Priest's House in the summer holidays. Just a lovely little museum (with a mummified cat in a chimney) with lots of social history which the DSs loved including a little room of old uniforms including a brownie one which I wore and a cub one which my father wore!

[SugarPlumTree]

Number 9 and Tickled Pig good for food. What sort of place do you want to live ie. do you want to be rural and what sort of school considerations do you have?

[greenduck]

Thank you all.

I quite fancy living close to the town especially as the DC get older so they can walk to friends, go out, etc. School wise I'm particularly interested in Canford and so possibly Dumpton but in one of my earlier posts, SPT suggested (thank you!) looking at St James First in Gaunts Common. One of the reasons we're looking at Wimborne is to be closer to DS who is at school in Somerset so definitely keen on Wimborne and north rather than south or east.

[SugarPlumTree]

Oh yes so I did

To be honest if you Dumpton or Canford I suspect there would be very few local friends to walk to from school as think they come from quite a wide area. I have seen one Canford Uniform out locally in about once in 12 years. However there are local Cubs, Brownies etc that would help on that front .

St James is pretty rural and I'm not sure where the catchment area starts - possibly Furzehill . I don't know the current situation on admissions outside catchment. Castle Court I hear good things about occasionally.

Colehill is worth a drive through whilst you're down. Part of it might be getting chopped offhand coming under Wimborme. Quite sprawling so variety of housing. I'm making assumptions here about your budget so apologies in advance . Look at Greenhill Lane, Park Homer Drive, Giddylake, Northleigh Lane, Lonnen Road then the area around Beaucroft Lane, Wesley Road etc which is more into Wimborne. All easy to get into Wimborne. There's a new building going up for the local Youth club in Colehill by the Church.

Gaunt's Common up by St James is lovely but you will be driving children around all the time.

Other places to have a look whilst down are Honeybrook Farm depending on age of children (and if open) plus Walford Mill Craft Centre. The local sports centre is on outskirts of the town. The Tivoli is a lovely old fashioned cinema and theatre. In the summer there's a bridge called the Eye Bridge where you can paddle and a boat hire place by the market where you can hire boats and Barford Farm makes the best ice cream in the world that you eat in lovely gardens.

Canon Hill Plantatiion handy for dog walking and cycling as it links up to the Castleman trail. Take them to Moors Valley for a bit driving from Wimborne up over Holt Heath rather than A31. It's like a mini New Forest when the animals from the Kingston Lacy Estate are grazing.

One of the major benefits of here is the easy access to variety of places. Eg beachs, New Forest, Bournemouth, Winchester. If we goto London we usually take coach from Ringwood as you can leave your car easily. Other friends drive to Richmond and go in there.

We moved down from Somerset and go back every so often, pretty easy drive depending where you are going. That's a bit ofvadisjointed Braun dump, hope some useful bits there. I feel quite nostalgic as remember when we came to look around . We'd gone to Fordingbridge but weren't keen so drive back up via Wimborne. It was a lovely sunny day and we sat on the Green outside the Minster eating ice cream from the Quarterjack cafe and I thought to myself that this was where I wanted to live.

It is a bit of a bubble here and breeds not very streetwise teens if I am honest. I grew up in Bristol and my very good friend from School is down here and we saying how very naive a lot of teens are. The Head at local Upper School commented in this when we looked around a few years ago. And multicultural it absolutely isn't and sadly there are some underlying quite racist views lurking.

But no where is perfect and Wimborne at one point had one of the highest life expectancies and lowest divorce rate in the country which I think is comforting !

[Wellwellwell3holesintheground]

A new microbrewery is opening soon...

[SugarPlumTree]

DH says could you say more about that please ....

[SugarPlumTree]

Think I have found it, that's a bit if Christmas sorted, thank you.

[greenduck]

Thank you SPT - I really appreciate your time in replying and as for not very streetwise teens...that sounds great!

It is the idea of discovering a new area that really appeals and you've given me plenty to look at. As I say I like the idea of being close to the centre so that we can feel involved in a new area quickly rather than being stuck out in the countryside and driving everywhere. We shall have a drive around and check out the roads you mention. Of course, it all depends on when we can move and what houses are available but it's helpful to have some references to get a feel for the place.

Enjoy the microbrewery! That does sound good.

[Wellwellwell3holesintheground]

Called 8 Arch Brewing I think - first brew should be done in a few weeks depending on getting their kit set up . Really nice couple own it, met them at a work thing the other day.

[denakunit9]

Anyone want to meet in Wimborne for. Chat my children grown up