Berkshire or Oxfordshire? Help me move!

[netstaller]

Wise Mumsnetters please give me some advice!

I'd like to move from our rough(ish) area of London to Berkshire or Oxfordshire for a better quality of life. I'm still going to have commute to London three days per week. Our (me, DP, DS age 2 and DS age 1) budget is max 600k, and ideally we'd like a 4 bed house with a decent garden (dream would be with space for an outside office) and not too far from a train station and near good schools.

Ideally somewhere with nice playgrounds and high street. Could anyone please suggest some suitable areas? Thank you! x

For commuting, Didcot is the obvious choice. Not the prettiest, though.

There are two lines into London, look around Long Hanborough, Charlbury for one

The other goes through Kidlington and Bicester, though I wouldn't want to live in Bicester you may like it

Reading
20 minutes into london
Fab town centre
River
Parks
Housesike this
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68266650.html

Agree with Suzie that Didcot is an easy commute (some trains are non-stop to Paddington) but not for living in. The surrounding villages are good and your budget would be adequate.

I'm another voting Reading.
Easy commute.

Lovely town centre (slightly decimated by Covid impact on the High Street)
Nice pubs and restaurants
Beautiful abbey ruins.
River
Parks

Wallingford is lovely- great schools and nice high street. It’s about a 15 min drive from Didcot.

Windsor has trains to Paddington via Slough and to Waterloo

The sort of house you want would probably be close to the top end of your budget.

Long Hanborough would suit you, (and Freeland and Witney for that matter) Witney is 5 mins from the train station at LH and it is a nice market town and there are some gorgeous homes around for your budget . Some nice little village schools and plenty or parks. Eynesham is also lovely (and near LH for trains) and has a real community life of it's own.. nice houses, high street but a county feel to it.

Windsor is lovely but town centre is expensive.
Maidenhead.
Bracknell area e.g. Binfield but trains go to Waterloo not Paddington.

Not Berkshire or Oxfordshire - Egham or Staines.

Reading town itself is not great but the surrounding area is lovely. Wokingham local authority has great schools and it's a very family friendly area. You can travel to Paddington from Twyford station or Waterloo from Winnersh and Earley.

We have friends in Witney and as a previous poster said, it’s very handy for Long Hanborough station. It’s a lovely little town with an annual food festival, beer festival, fun fair, music festival & summer “feast” with floats/groups marching through the town to a big picnic with stalls in the park.

I agree reading but it’s closer to an hour into London on train, poss longer by car x

Jericho, summertown, Woodstock

Maidenhead will have the Crossrail (eventually!) so good for commuting. It’s quite expensive though, but good schools and within the grammar catchment for Borlase in Marlow.

You could move to Bracknell, Binfield or Warfield and get more for your money and still use Maidenhead station, just a bit of a longer drive but the train from Bracknell to Waterloo is slow so would probably still get you to town faster.

Some 4 beds in Maidenhead (second one is a walk away from th driver)

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68539128.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71461732.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72275682.html

And a link to the Maidenhead regeneration

www.jtp.co.uk/news-and-events/news/shopping-centre-to-town-centre-redevelopment-proposals-for-maidenhead-in-berkshire

Charlbury or Witney, they are West Oxfordshire.

Twyford
Pangbourne
Burnham (Bucks not Berks)

Check prices. You’ll not get a 4 bed for 600000 in half the places mentioned above: Twyford, Wokingham, Windsor and Pangbourne would all be more expensive than that. You’d be pushing it in most of Maidenhead too.

Reading IS good. Schools great. A previous poster linked to Caversham, which is nice. As is Earley. Caversham close to countryside and the river.

Reading is great, but if you live in Caversham and need to commute anywhere south if the river by car, the traffic is horrendous. We have recently moved out of Caversham because of that. I did really enjoy living there though and miss it.

Husband has commuted for 15 years from Banbury in Oxfordshire- it's 59 min direct to Marylebone surrounding villages are beautiful.. Hanwell, Horley, Wroxton, Cropredy to name a few.
Great schools both primary and secondary.
We've lived here 20 years lovely area

I would look west of Reading along the A4 - Thatcham and Newbury are worth a look, or maybe Theale. Good for commuting to Paddington, good schools.

Reading.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-95900837.html

It's a 10 mins cycle to the mainline station from this house, or 20/30 mins walk depending on your speed. Direct buses into town, lovely park nearby. 4 local primary schools, grammar secondaries (Reading LA), comprehensive schools (Wokingham LA), several private schools too (single sex and coed).

Burnham has been taken over by Slough now.