Relocation

[Hunt3r]

Hi All, hoping those based in Oxfordshire can please give me some guidance. My husband has secured a new job in Oxford so we're on the move to unfamiliar territory. We're not looking to base ourselves in Oxford but within a commutable distance. We have a nearly 3 year old so ideally I'd like to be within walking distance of a nursery and primary. We will be renting in the first instance until we get a feel for areas and where we would like to base ourselves on a more permanent basis, but initial we've been considering Faringdon. As we are currently residing in Africa all our research to date is being done via the web so anyone living in and loving Oxfordshire can you please share your knowledge? Many thanks in advance

Whu don't you want to be based in Oxford itself?

I assume you have visited Oxford or lived in the UK before?

Did you post this recently ? In the past few weeks there was a post about someone thinking of moving to Faringdon. If not you might find that some of the replies could be of use to you.

Oxfordshire resident here and I work in the city. Firstly, how is DH planning on getting to work? Oxford is crap for cars (unless dh is getting a private parking space!) And so it's train or bus. All the towns have bus links and there are park and rides (my preference). Train is a little more limited as not all the town's have stations. So then there's you, are you going to work too? If so is there any consideration for a London or reading based job? In which case you'll want south Oxfordshire, Abingdon, Didcot and the villages around there. If not and your going to be Oxford based too, then north and west Oxford are cheaper than south Oxford. Witney is good and has bus links. I have colleagues from Banbury and kidlington. If I were you, see what you need access to and then visit the town's that meet those needs. I personally prefer a village on the edge of a town over the town's themselves and just hop on the a34 to the park and ride.

Palominoo - housing is a little out of our budget and have family all along the South Coast so trying to keep our communicating to with 2 hrs.

JenniferJareau - visited Oxford many many years ago and use to have family in neighbouring county, but yes we are originally from the UK and lived in Somerset until August 2017.

VictoriaBun - no l did not, but thanks for the insight, will do a search on threads and see what l can find 👍

Long Hanborough station is a skip from Oxford; avoid commuting by car or bus it's dreadful. There are nice villages around there with community feel: Freeland, Coombe, North Leigh, Eynsham, Church Hanborough etc. Try Finders Keepers for local rental properties .

LoopyLu2019 thanks for taking the time to give some useful information. Initially we thought public transport was the way forward but as you rightly said options are limited for train access. Like you our first preference would be a village on the outskirts so shall explore the park & ride a little more. Thanks again

Spockster - thank you very much. Will definitely look at all those areas and that site 👍

Commuting to Oxford from Faringdon is long and painful. It’s a great place to live, though!

Thanks Idontmeanto - l think from all the useful information given here our first priority needs to be looking at public transport links.

South of Oxford (give you quick access to south coast via a34/M3 or towards London for SE coast) + park and ride (redbridge) then Harwell, Stevenage, Drayton (all have bus routes to the city too). The latter two are closer to Abingdon (nicer town - Main supermarkets are Waitrose and Tesco) rather than Didcot (but Didcot does have Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S food + some clothes shops now which is great). There's also Sutton Courtnay and a few other village's scattered around. Building loads of new houses. But the Abingdon Didcot area is more expensive housing wise than Witney. Witney would be 30 minutes further from South coast. Park and ride would be Seacourt.

Faringdon is on the S6 bus route, which takes about 50 minutes to reach central Oxford, (a lot more in rush hour!) it’s quicker than driving because of well-placed sections of bus lane.