I'm considering moving to Northampton; yay or nay?

[Shirley1006]

Hi,
With house prices soaring in London, my husband and I are considering making a move to Northampton. I have a lovely 22 month year old who will need a good environment to grow up in as well as access to a good school, and activities.

So far I've been looking in the Upton and Duston area, but I have no idea if these are good areas or not.

Any advice from those who have made the move or live in Northampton, any history to share, or anyone with current information about Northampton i.e. good areas, areas to avoid, that would help a family considering a move would be most welcome!

Soulless . Poor council, literally. More and more houses being built without the infrastructure to support the increase in traffic and pressure on schools. It's a commuter town, for the exact reason why you're looking to move there, and as such there is no community spirit. Locals are being pushed out with hous prices increasing due to London commuters. Glad I left.

Northampton is a dump, run down and dirty, high crime, no culture, and I can't think of any nice areas I would even recommend. Duston and surrounding area is bad for traffic particularly if there's a match on at Sixfields.
Even some of the villages have high crime for burglaries and the like.

Moved to Little Billing nearly 25 year's ago. Raised two children.

I have been happy here and wouldn't move back south now - my old friends have all moved away from the original area too anyway.

I think you need to look at the commute to work as that is a huge chunk of your day

It is a dump, and I've lived in Coventry and Milton Keynes, so my tolerance-of-places-everyone-thinks-are-dumps-but-are-actually-fine bar is set pretty high.

We've got a decent rugby team

Fancyaruck to be fair that was the highlight of our 2.5 years there... we had a season ticket!

@Shirley1006 will you be commuting on train? I currently live in a village near Wellingborough. Don't like either towns tbh (Northampton or Wellingborough) bit some of the villages are lovely. However it depends what you want & need for the commute.

Ooh really Soy? Did you sit or stand?

Look at Peterborough instead.? It has excellent rail and road links to London. There are some grotty bits but Orton Longueville, Longthorpe, Werrington and Hampton are nice (Hampton is very new). There are also lovely villages around it.
The town centre is fairly nice and the cathedral precinct is ravishing.

Rosegoldwatcher-nice to know another mn from east hunsbury, we have been here 17 years. My post nearer the beginning agreed with everything you said.

pinkkoala - We might be neighbours!
It is such a shame that the town centre has been allowed to go to pot. The old buildings around the market square are beautiful.

But the towns are mostly grim. Given its position and lovely countryside I’m not really sure why.

It's all the people moving up from London. That and over development.

It's all the people moving up from London. That and over development.

Surely people moving up from London would bring money with them and want nice shops and cafes, my point is the opposite, why hasn't this happened? Nearby Market Harborough I think has been affected by people moving from London, with nice cafes, Mint Velvet, Space UK etc.

If you put what your budget is and which bit of London you need to commute to then people could make suggestions of alternatives.

Northampton is dire. Peterborough is a lot better but quite a commute. There are other places which might fit the bill better.

I wonder why people perceive Peterborough to be nicer than Northampton. Looking at stats, it's more deprived with poorer schools and high crime (a bit better than Northampton on the crime front, though). Northampton also has considerably more areas with professional families.

Have a look at Mawsley village. Lovely country surroundings.

Peterborough has a larger population than Northampton, so generally better facilities. Education stats are skewed by the population characteristics. Peterborough has great links to London and some really nice areas to live.

The villages are nice but a bit like a pp described. DH, who is from nearby, says that Northampton, Milton Keynes and Bedford are the Chav triangle.

I quite liked living there but the bus service was so dire and so expensive, you needed a car to get anywhere from the villages. We had a bus every hour and a half, which often didn’t turn up. The last bus back from our local station (Wolverton) was at 4, so you needed a car to commute. The kids had an idyllic Enid Blyton childhood for the three years that we lived there, but now they’re older, they love being back in London.

If you can handle the hassle maybe rent your London place out for a few months and rent in Northampton/suburbs just to try out the change in lifestyle, commute etc. Nothing like trying before buying imho!

I lived in a beautiful village in a chocolate box thatched cottage and was lonely and miserable.

All the pretty houses, stunning views and amazing countryside don’t make up for the fact the locals are only friendly to the people who have lived there for generations.

If you lose your job in London then you will struggle to get another one with an address that far away and the local job market isn’t teaming with highly paid jobs.

This is something no one talks about.
We ended up having to put down an address of a friend in London in order to get Dp another job.

Not sure whether @Shirley1006 is coming back....

It's not all about the stats. Northampton strikes me as grotty and soulless. Peterborough has lovely central areas around the cathedral and river and is improving.

We live 5 minutes cycle from the centre of Peterborough. There's plenty to do and a real sense of community here. There's not many parents who are degree educated at DS's school but, speaking as someone who is, I don't see how that matters.

I did the same move 20 years ago and have not regretted it at all - the town centre isn't what it was but I think that's the case the country over.
I couldn't have moved to a village after London though I would have felt too isolated- we went for somewhere close to the train station originally as we were both commuting, we are still friends with lots of our neighbours from there. We moved after about 5 years to hunsbury and love the area, walkable to Town, train station and sixfields retail park, canal and countryside too.
Public transport is awful though!