Market town vs village

[IggityZiggityZoom]

We are moving out of London and debating whether to live in a village or a market town. DH more inclined to live more rurally. I'm wondering if it will be too big of a jump and we'd be better off with a town. I've only ever lived in cities and am not a Brit. Any opinions?

We live in a small market town.
DC's school is in the town and serves all the local villages so their friends live up to 8 miles away.
And there is no public transport.
My own DC can walk into town and have access to cafes, library, coffee shops, a clothes shop, 2 supermarkets and a small cinema, so they have far more independence than their friends who have to rely on lifts to do anything.
I'd actually rather live in a city, but this is a reasonable compromise. I grew up in a village with one bus every two hours to one local town, and hated every minute of it, but at least my parents were prepared to drive me if I wanted to go out with friends somewhere else; DH grew up in a tiny village very rurally and basically did nothing but play football with two neighbours for his entire childhood (and well into his teens) because there was nothing else to do in his village.

Moved to a village, hated it, moved to a small city. Thinking of moving to village attached to small city with train station once kids leave home. I think villages are fine but not for school aged kids, nothing to do without driving

So it's places near Oxford. I lived in Whitney and worked in Oxford many years ago. Lovely little town but we would go out in all the surrounding villages as the pubs were so nice! There are quite a few villages west and north west of Oxford which are big enough to have amenities and have some lovely character properties. Was never so keen on south of Oxford but that's a long time ago so might be better now.

Your DC are young enough now that it's not an issue, but you must consider their need to flit about here there and everywhere as teenagers.
We live in a village, a village we love and will not leave till we go in a pine box all being well, but there's no bus. There was when we moved here (which is why we chose it over the real "arse end of nowhere" cottage) and we decided that it was advantageous for DS to have a bus to allow him and us a little independence as he grew up.
Now the buses have been cancelled and we need to drive DS everywhere. We're not at the stage of parties till two in the morning yet, but even at 14 it's a PITA.

What some people describe as a village I would describe as a little town, to me at most, a village has a church, pub and a village shop.

@Doubletrouble99 But why do the private school parents not live in the towns? I realise this may seem like a stupid question but I'm not a Brit and I feel like I'm signing the kids up to something I don't quite understand.

We moved from city to village to market town. I loved the village but it was hell with 3DCs and it would be even worse now that they are teenagers. Now we are in town DCs can walk to school/cinema/pizza express etc. We are an hour away from London by train and 40 minutes from major cities.

I would highly recommend.

Maybe the private school parents live in the countryside to save money for the school
Fees. 😊 Housing in Oxford is very expensive and you can save a mint by living in the surrounding villages

If you have kids then I think it's best to live in a town rather than a village. It's nice for them to be able to go out and about on their own when they are teens. I know they can even if they live in a village but it's easier if they live in a town.

I moved from cities to a large town which would have been a market town once and still felt quite small and with lots to do... but when we moved we ended up finding our lovely house in a village with a bigger garden, rooms that are all a decent size and a wonderful village community!

I would say that I was clear that I needed some kind of ‘hub’ eg school or pub or shop and I feel this was a good idea; most of my friends have been met through school and then extended by drinks or coffee at our lovely pub.

It also helps that as we are a 1 hr train journey to London there are lots of incomers to the village, and fewer die-hard locals - people work at welcoming and socialising in a different way as a result. The locals are all lovely too, rather than fostering a them vs us atmosphere.

I do notice there are lots of people I meet less who don’t use the village school, and I suspect there is a subset of villagers who network and socialise separately, but I don’t really mind as there are plenty of nice people who are involved in village life. Tonight has been our book group night with plenty of drinks, and 50:50 catch up chats / book discussion. Tomorrow is the school PSA night out for me, and there will be a few drinks here and there over Xmas. I think the key is that I am confident that I don’t need village life to meet all my needs and so don’t get overly caught up in gossip or social angst... I love some of that but my oldest friends and family are elsewhere, I work out of the village so it doesn’t become my bubble of existence.

We moved from London to a village six years ago, and we bloody love it. We walk/bike to our lovely little Primary school, there are two very nice pubs, a post office, newsagent, chemist, doctors, three cafes/tea rooms, a deli, a florist, a jewellers and a museum.

I grew up in the West Country.
No where with all that would be considered a village.

Every village I knew had one or two pubs, a shop or two and that was about it.

Op. Nice villages in oxford - Sutton Courtney to the south of oxford and Clifton. Islip just slightly north east of oxford. Woodstock is lovely but obviously more of a town. Upper and Lower Hertford v nice. Further north the 'Tews' are nice as is area around Bloxham. Witney is a pain to get to oxford. I would avoid west Oxfordshire as roads are such a pain but south is v lovely and good routes into London. Also Thame is a proper town but jhaddenham also v nice. Around that way Ickford is v sweet but beware I think boris Johnson lives round that way - his country house is near there or Teddington.

It's upper and lower heyford not Hertford.

The private school parents don't tend to live in the towns because they are less desirable and more 'industrial' in the part of the country that I live in anyway. They have moved from the cities and bought old country house with land for the price of their London flat. In the countryside many people who privately educate are well off farmers and or part of the landed gentry so a different bred from the city. I found them very welcoming and sociable though even though our two were on bursaries and a lot less well off.

Op, Chipping Norton is a lovely market town.

I grew up in a large town on the outskirts of a big city. We now live in a large village (population about 2000) on the outskirts of a different city. I absolutely love living in our village. It’s a thriving place with good schools, several shops, a community hub, 3 pubs, 2 churches, good bus links into the city. DD will have to get a bus to senior school but won’t travel too far, regardless of which one she gets. I think it really depends on the village.

My friends just moved from Chipping Norton and they loved it there, that might be a good place to start.

Abingdon - lovely proper Market Town. Excellent bus links to Oxford. Private schools in the Town itself and very nearby so lots of parents live there.

Parents who live in rural villages have au pairs or nannys to do school runs / ferrying children about.

We moved from one large village to another. They're very similar: primary, surgery, village hall, library, co-op, 30 minute bus service. Our old place was 5 miles from town, as is our new place. The regional cities, both an hour away are vastly different. The old one was London, the new one is Newcastle. Also, up here the water quality is fantastic.

Villages are lovely if your children and you like isolation and proper countryside and just being together, and if you like driving. Oh and aren't too fussed about going out for a drink, don't mind risking rubbish broadband and mobile phone reception, and can manage without neighbours. Villages can be quiet, and have big gardens and access to footpaths, and if you are lucky might have a nice pub or even a village hall (they won't have a shop, but Tesco deliver pretty much everywhere nowadays).

I built my perfect home in a village, and promptly flogged it and moved to a market town where I can walk to the train to London, pubs, local shops, restaurants, supermarkets etc in one direction and the countryside in the other direction.

Lots of the villages around Oxford have good broadband, phone signal, village shops and halls and reasonable bus service too Op.

I lived in a biggish market town for many years. When I decided to move house, with teenage children, I considered moving out to one of the local villages. A colleague told me that it would be fine so long as I didn't mind running a taxi service for the children. I stayed in town until they pushed off to University, glad I did so.

It's mostly about whether you want to drive everywhere or not.
It's a horrible experience to be a child and to need your parents to drive you whenever you want to go somewhere and doesn't allow you to build skills for becoming an independent adult. My dd claims that her village friends take lots of drugs cos there is nothing else to do! Not sure if this is generally true or just true for her friends

In my large town/ small city, from secondary age the kids all cycle, no need for parents to give lifts at all. Works great for parents and kids.

Think that's just true of your DD's friends Snog. We like to keep our teens in our village, take them to all the activities they want and keep them away from the local town where they could get into loads more trouble!

Loads of bonkers generalisations on this thread. Villages vary. Towns vary. People vary.

@Doubletrouble99 my village dwelling friends who have younger kids think that there will be fewer opportunities to get into trouble with booze/drugs/the law in a village and this is a reason they give for not moving into town.

Just wanted to say that for my dd and her friendship group it's the opposite. The ones who live in town can do more of what they want when they want and get home afterwards too - they self moderate better. Obviously this is just my experience, but personally I don't think teens are safer in villages, I think they are less able to develop the skills for independence and more likely to suffer from social isolation - not to mention the dangers of young people driving. Having lived in a village as a child I found it a misery after the age of 8 or so and I don't know any teens who like village living!

my village dwelling friends who have younger kids think that there will be fewer opportunities to get into trouble with booze/drugs/the law in a village and this is a reason they give for not moving into town.

I agree that it is the complete opposite. Bordom and lack of alternatives are probably a big reason for it as well.