Moving to Suffolk

[Kirstyg82]

Hi all,
We were meant to relocate from Essex to Suffolk last year, but due to Covid and my husbands business, it just wasn’t on the cards.
We are now looking at getting our house on the market at the end of the year and moving as soon as we sell.

We have based the area we move to on chosen schools, so it’s a half hour radius from either Great Finborough or Southwold.
Would like to nearest city/large town to have a fair amount to do, feel safe and just a nice place to visit/shop/run errands etc.

We’d like a rural property or just outside a village.
There are many areas that seem nice to us, but I know from local areas where I live that it isn’t always the case so I’d love some local recommendations.

Ideally we would like a period property with a very large garden/some land.

Thank you in advance

Great Finborough and Southwold are very different types of place. Are you looking at private schools? If not you might be too far to be in catchment at half an hour away. No cities in Suffolk either.

Gt Finborough itself is nice but not a lot going on apart from the local pub. Stowmarket is a few mins drive away and has a small town with shops and eateries and pubs - it's a nice place to live and pretty safe. Needham Market is about 20 mins away from Finborough and is a lovely little village with local pubs, shops, restaurants, walks and countryside. There is also a farm where you can buy local produce. Stowupland is probably around 15/20 minutes from Finborough, its not got much apart from a pub and butchers but only a few mins drive to Stowmarket.

Stowmarket also has a lovely little local cinema I forgot to mention! There is also DIY shops and a large Tesco as well as Lidl and Aldi opening up in the next few months I believe.

How old are your children OP (if you have any)?

Southwold is lovely but it’s one of the most overpriced and expensive areas in the whole of the east coast. (I say that fondly as we love it and visit regularly - we live in a village about 40 mins away from it). If you have lots of money to spend that’s fine but if you come in a bit to Beccles, Bungay or even Eye / Framlingham way you’ll get so much more for your money. Not sure how that would go with your school issues.

Also meant to add I have a friend with a child at St Felix school at Southwold and they travel from Long Stratton everyday. Most of the roads are fast and never that busy so lots of children do travel between towns etc quite a bit for school reasons.

Have a look at saxmundham, probably about half an hour from southwold. Has Tesco and Waitrose. Also a train station, with trains through to Ipswich and then to London. You would not be to far from Aldeburgh or thorpeness.

@petalpower

Great Finborough and Southwold are very different types of place. Are you looking at private schools? If not you might be too far to be in catchment at half an hour away. No cities in Suffolk either.

Yes it’s two independent schools that we’ve visited. So Finborough & Saint Felix

I'm from Suffolk. You will spend a while looking for a city I'm afraid. Ipswich is the closest. Around Woodbridge is nice. There are a lot of lovely rivers as well as coast. Southwold is very touristy/ expensive.

Ours went to nursery at St Felix. Southwold is lovely. If we were going back to Suffolk, I’d consider somewhere like Aldeburgh or Woodbridge and use Woodbridge school.
Woodbridge area has beaches, good sailing, better transport links.

Unless it's changed dramatically, Saxmundham is a bit depressing.

@MaMaD1990

Stowmarket also has a lovely little local cinema I forgot to mention! There is also DIY shops and a large Tesco as well as Lidl and Aldi opening up in the next few months I believe.

Thank you. I don’t know too much about Stowmarket and that’s the nearest big town so good to hear. We live in a small-ish village so used to driving/cycling to places so they all sound great. I’ll get researching!

@CottonSock

I'm from Suffolk. You will spend a while looking for a city I'm afraid. Ipswich is the closest. Around Woodbridge is nice. There are a lot of lovely rivers as well as coast. Southwold is very touristy/ expensive.

Sorry yes, I do know there aren’t any cities, I just put that as some villages were on the Norfolk border so not far from Norwich at all. We have been to Southwold many times for holidays and day trips, lovely place but ideally looking a little inland from the coast for some land/rural location. One of the schools are just outside of Suffolk in Reydon, hence the half hour radius from there. Just put in as a distance reference really

Have you visited Stowmarket? It’s ok but not great. Very different from Southwold!

Sorry it’s lot letting me reply to individual people!

I have 2 boys, 6 & 10. Good to hear a couple of you have experience of Saint Felix as it does seem like a lovely school.

Cherryroulade - I know Woodbridge well and also love Orford & Aldeburgh. Unfortunately eldest son is of ‘average’ (sorry hate that word) academic ability (youngest more driven academically), and Woodbridge just seemed to be more selective and just not a good fit for him.

I don't think I could get excited about saxmundham or stowmarket.

I haven’t no and I’m not too familiar with that area. To be honest I don’t want to be in a town, but obviously would rather the area be nice where we shop/kids clubs & activities etc...

How about Framlingham? Good private school as well as Brandeston Prep as a feeder. Framlingham is a lovely town with some nice villages close by.

We have a decent budget and should be able to find something around both areas. Didn’t want to put our budget as seemed a bit vulgar 😬
Totally agree about Southwold and definitely don’t want to be in the centre there. We wouldn’t get what we want as looking for somewhere with a little bit of land anyway.
I’ve been looking at Beccles/Bungay and around Bramfield/Halesworth too. What do you think of those places?
We’ve been to both on holiday but sometimes see through rose tinted glasses then!

Definitely would consider Framlingham (haven’t visited but looks lovely). Not sure it’s the right school for us and a little out of budget! 😂
But seems commutable to Saint Felix, only 30 mins?

Stowmarket is good for a trip to b and m and Argos.. they have a drive through costa and McDonald’s. I wouldn’t want to live there personally. Bits of it are quite rough in comparison to somewhere like Southwold or Framlingham. I mean nowhere is rough like South London (which is where we moved from 10 years ago!) but tougher than some of the other areas.

Halesworth is quite nice.

The state schools in the area are also very good. Debenham High and Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham are excellent.

Yes Debenham is very well thought of locally.

Debenham High has excellent results. Some of the highest in the country.

My ds went to Woodbridge School and loved it. I wouldn't say it's as selective as some (less so than Ipswich School for example), and has a lot of extra curricular stuff to offer.

There are lots of lovely villages around the Woodbridge area too (although we live in Ipswich, largely due to the fact I don't drive).

The only city in Suffolk is Bury St Edmunds, which is lovely, but not what you'd think of as a city. Ipswich is the largest town (County town), and has a few good things going for it, although I'd say the town centre/shops are a bit rubbish really, even more so since Covid.