Moving to Canterbury

[Bouham]

Hello
We are a family with 3 kids (1 secondary school, 2 primary). We have lived in south east for over 20 years and now decided to move to Canterbury as our daughter got a place in Canterbury Girls Grammar School. We are really struggling to decide which area we should buy/rent as we are not familiar with Canterbury and surroundings. Would anyone please be able to give us some honest advice of which places we should look at and which we should avoid.
Some point to take into consideration:

• we are family oriented and we want a family friendly are
• looking for a safe place as we travel a lot and obviously you want your mind at rest when not around
• good schools (primary)
• feasible commute to Simon Langtons GGS is a must
• I need to commute to central London for work (may be one/twice a week)

we have these places in mind:
canterbury central, wincheap, chartham and herne bay...

we really need to honest advice pleeeease

thanks a million

Avoid Wincheap traffics appalling. I live just outside Herne Bay ive been here 15 years came from Essex which is now awful (Thurrock) its just an extension of East Lindon now.

Dover Road area in Canterbury is nice and near hospital.

Broadstairs still nice, everywhere has dodgy areas though

Kittyhawke how rude are you

Nothing wrong with Herne Bay some nice areas and bad like everywhere else. Talmead estate is quite nice if you like estates

This is funny,
I grew up in Herne bay and moved out at 18 and only visit family and friends.

My kids love it there 😬 I wouldn't move back for all the tea in China 😂

Villages Littlebourne, Wickhambreaux, Wingham, Adisham all nice and near Canterbury

OP where are you moving from ?

Dunkirk is nice also

As mentioned Birchington, Minster, Sarre, st Nicholas at Wade, and Westgate are nice

we are not rich!!! We are a normal family looking for a nice place to raise the kids
Thanks all, I will keep an eye on the posts to gather more info and ask more questions
Cheers

Ex SLGS student here - I can't say I enjoyed it, it had a very mean girls culture and I just didn't fit in. BUT this was 1986 - 1991, I was (and am) on the asd spectrum and schools are a LOT more on the ball re bullying now.
My DD will.hopefully be going to Herne Bay High in a few years. Despite the chaviness of the town the high school is excellent and utterly transformed from its days of yore as Green'ill (locals will know)
We live South of the Thanet way in Herne/Broomfield aka naice Herne Bay! No issues here! (Outside closeed.doors)
But if you live North of the city it will be a pain to get to SLGS because you have to change at the bus station. Better look at villages South of the old Dover Road.I
Barham has a beautiful crematorium!

Oh you mentioned Talmead - that's a new estate just.over the flyover from Broomfield. They houses and estate are nice enough but one big problem is that there is only one long road in and out! The residents on the other side kicked up a fuss and refused to have a connecting road. So if you live down the bottom it's a pain in the arse! There used to be a nice Harvester at the top till it was replaced by a posher restaurant but on the other side is a premier inn/table table and even better Sainsbury's is a 2 min drive! But I'm not sure I'd live there for the reason mentioned above.

I've literally just seen this on KentOnline. I had to laugh when I saw it was HB :-

www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/news/huge-police-presence-in-town-after-petrol-station-raid-229954/

Alright KittyHawke I think we get it, it has it's rough parts but it's not exactly Jaywick or Moss Side. I like living here (Broomfield) but I wouldn't want to live in town. I do take dd to the seaside there and she has a lovely time.

No, I don't think you do. I'm rebutting the genuinely ridiculous comment that 'there's nothing wrong with Herne Bay' when that's demonstrably untrue - and a good many more people than me on this thread, agree. I was born in Maidstone, went to school in Ashford and Canterbury, lived in Canterbury for a bit, and now live just outside Ashford. I have a certain fondness for the place, but it's a bit shit and I would never castigate anyone for saying so. I don't romanticise towns. The OP wants advice about Canterbury and its environs. The first thing I would want to know about, especially with teenage children, is crime and antisocial behaviour. And for whatever reason, HB has both in spades, far out of proportion to its size.

Although I concede it probably wasn't very helpful to call it a 'craphole'.

Fair enough, but plenty of people live here with kids and feel perfectly safe.

Ok, fine. I'll accept that.

It really pisses me off when people judge a place and dont even live there or have limted experience of the area

Im in Broomfield but lived in Herne Bay for 12 years, never any issues. For what its worth its got a lot worse since Londoners moved down here.

Id like to know where all these people that have slagged off HB live ? Obviously total Utopia by the sound of it

some Londoners obviously not all in that category

@Bouham

Ok I got the message about Aylesham How about: Talmead Road, Herne Bay? I understand Herne Bay might not be the best option but Is the area mentioned any good?? Thanks

Talmead Road is a bit out of the way but right on a bus route. You can get to Canterbury in about 20-30mins and buses every half hour. If you went across the Thanet way to Herne/Curtis wood park they would be every 15 and take 15. The buses basically cut the route in half and it becomes an absolute ball ache if you live in the wrong bit!

Also depends what youve moved from, i moved from Essex which really is a craphole now so compared to that HB is not half bad

Where do you live now?

Talmead area of herne bay is more close to beltinge than the town centre, it's nice in beltinge but has an older demographic.

There are a fair few new estates going up in herne bay area and will have a direct bus to the school (£350) a year. Herne bay was often considered the poor relation to whitstable but I've noticed lots of DFLs move from whitstable to herne bay as you get more for your money. There really are some lovely properties in herne bay but the town centre and seafront in the main town is grim. At beltinge end there is a lovely beach/cliffs area. Again there will be a direct bus.

I live in whitstable and love it, it's changed so much but is touristy and the beach is packed during the summer, um every weekend. It has a great vibe but it's expensive, my 2/3 bedroom house fairly close to beach and town, station is worth £350000 it's a terrace, not council but in a road with old council properties each end - most privately owned and big ugly council flats but i like it here, there's a great community and family feel. My dd goes to the school next to slgs and direct bus from end of road. There's more of a village feel than herne bay.

If i moved out of whitstable I'd go to faversham. It's a brewery town and has its rough areas but it's definitely on the up, direct train to Canterbury east, then ten minute walk to school. Fast link to London. A few new build estates but lots of amazing Victorian properties, great park. No beach though.

I'd avoid Canterbury, wonderful city but it has two universities so many many student rentals. It has a good community though.

Aylesham? Nooooo addisham maybe.

I know HB pretty well, thanks. Not well enough to comment on individual roads, as I said, but well. I used to eat at 'L'Escargot' fairly regularly, where the food made up for the world's most terrifying proprietor. There are at least two people on this thread who have expressed no fondness for the place and we're born and brought up there. You might argue that they're better placed to comment on it than people who moved there later in life: no-one knows a town as well as someone who was a teenager in it.

And I'm sad you think Essex is a craphole - even I haven't written off an entire county, ffs. The two weeks I spent in Coringham were a bit depressing, but I have friends and family in Dedham and Thaxted and they're lovely.

If commuting to London is going to be a big thing, I would seriously consider a village midway between Canterbury and Ashford as you don't want to be relying on trains in Canterbury.

I grew up in Petham, lovely village just outside of Canterbury and have also lived for 11 years in Chilham. Chilham is a very safe village and my children loved growing up there. Chartham Village and Wye is also very nice and part of my life over the years. I used to go to Chartham school and had a Dr in Wye lol. Minster is friendly and not too far from Canterbury. Have a drive out and explore as there's loads of lovely places to live and close enough to schools. (stelling Minnis, Waltham, Bridge etc)