Do you/have you lived in Ash, Surrey? Is it to be avoided as much as googling suggests?

[Fieldsoftripe9]

Currently living in kingston so a lovely area for schools and just life in general really. We are renting but want to buy. We are pretty much priced out of the area unless we did shared ownership and even then it would only be for a flat. We need to move further out and around ash/aldershot/farnborough is the closest but affordable area for a 3 bed house.

We need to stay commutable to kingston for our jobs so cant move much further out really.

So is Ash etc really as bad as googling leads me to believe? I know they are army towns which is seen as negative but what does this actually mean in residential and social terms? Are people in swastikas driving round in tanks at night shooting people or what? I keep seeing people negatively say they are army towns but I don't actually know what this implies.

I just want my kids to grow up with little garden to play in, go to a nice school with children from ethnically diverse and tolerant families and live in a fairly safe neighbourhood.

The “army towns” thing is really just that there can be issues with groups of young off-duty squaddies going out and getting drunk and lairy on Friday and Saturday nights. I wouldn’t say it’s vastly worse than in many average town centres at the weekend, though.

Ash is nicer than Aldershot main, though a bit dull and schools not great. The area generally isn’t what you’d call ethnically diverse (except for the large influx of Gurkha families over the past couple of decades which has both put strain on local services and unfortunately resulted in a lot of racism and ill-feeling from ignorant locals.)

A friend lived in Ash Vale near Ash about five years ago - it may have changed since then.

I'd avoid if I were you. Try Basingstoke, the nicer areas are Chineham & hatchwarren. It's 45mins to London Waterloo - appreciate it's potentially the wrong line so I guess it would depend on onward commute.
Could you afford Woking or Guildford? Also both nice...

@ComtesseDeSpair
Thank you for the info! I guess what I'm worried about is how many ignorant locals there are overall. Its a shame about the tensions.

@dopeyduck
We have been looking into Alton and Basingstoke as its on the surbiton line. I knew chineham was nicer but didn't know about hatchwarren, thanks! The rest of Basingstoke I've read to avoid which is unfortunate. Definitely can't afford woking or guildford unfortunately for what we want, we have such a small budget and prices have jumped so much we are completely priced out almost everywhere it feels like!

I understand that Old Basing is also a good area of Basingstoke, near Chineham.

And Lychpit. Further north near the hospital is ok too. Small villages around are lovely.

Is it still an army town?

All the army have left Aldershot i thought? So I doubt it's still an army town?

I think Ash is ok, ash vale is ok, they both have pretty sections and crap sections.
Farnborough sucks though. I always found it grim.
Camberley is ok.

There are nicer areas of Farnborough, Empress Park and Farnborough Park. Fleet is lovely but very expensive.

Friends lived in Ash and really loved it, no issues, but it was a quiet road away from pubs.

Camberley is OK but check school catchments, avoid the Old Dean estate.

Ooh Farnham is really pretty.
I lived there for a while as well.

Oh the Old Dean, fond flash backs of bunking with friends.

Try the triangle north west of Farnborough- you'll need to drive to better stations - but Camberley, Sandhurst, Yateley, even Bagshot depending on budget. Prices kept low (relatively!) due to hideous train line. There's also the massive new development going up on the site of Deepcut barracks.

Aldershot is currently under massive regeneration. Lots of army units have moved out, and the sites are being redeveloped into family housing. Some of the original sites being renovated into very nice, expensive, upmarket apartments and terraces.

The town was always a bit run down, but this is also being gradually updated.

Ash/Ash Vale is perfectly fine, you just have to pick your roads. There are some very expensive areas, but also some you'd want to avoid.

Tongham is nice, right next to the M3 and A31, and the countryside in and around Hogs Back North Downs - very good for links to A3.

Further in towards Guildford, Normandy is still slightly cheaper than Worplesdon, and you might be able to find something. Lots of young families moving in and doing up bungalows into chalets. Big gardens, surrounded by countryside, with a small railway station.

What's you budget?

@DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou

Ooh Farnham is really pretty. I lived there for a while as well.

Farnham is crazy expensive

Farnham is crazy expensive

Yeah I bet it is. I lived there as a teen and lived where I worked so the house prices were not on my radar.

www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/9-worst-places-live-surrey-16049418

This is a bit of fun, but bearing in mind everyone on MN says Farnham/Godalming and Woking are the places to be...... you may not be quite so sure .

Agree with above that Tongham is lovely and so is much of Ash / Ash Vale. Lots of building going on if new builds are what you’re looking for, but older established houses as well. Good luck with your search!

Camberley isn't on any useful rail lines. Farnborough is OK in parts. Aldershot is pretty grim... Don't know much about Ash, but Ash Vale is OK.

What about Chertsey or Addlestone. There are buses to Kingston from there. Farnham is crazy expensive, so is Guildford and Fleet as a pp said.

Sunbury/Halliford/Shepperton are all on the train line to Kingston and cheaper. It really depends what your budget is though?

@Fieldsoftripe9There’s lots of nice areas of basingstoke, old basing is nice as previously mentioned by someone else. I’ve got very good local knowledge of all these areas so feel free to message me if you’re considering anywhere.
If you want to be closer to the Surrey border then Fleet is very nice,

Ash isn't an Army town, it's a village close to Aldershot which is an Army town. Not sure what google tells you about it - I know the area very well and it's not horrible at all. However, I don't think the secondary school in Ash is much cop.

The main issue isn't that it's not very nice, but they are building vast quantities of housing. I can't actually believe how much housing is going in, it will completely change the face of it.

Also - it's part of Guildford borough, which means if you want to use the tip you have to go to Guildford because Surrey and Hampshire have a childish policy not to allow each other's residents to use their tips. Even though Aldershot tip is very close as the crow flies.

Aldershot has some lovely housing stock but the town centre is a bit rubbish. Same goes for Farnborough. Neither have very good schools.

Fleet is nice, and has decent state schools, but is suffering from the same problem of vast quantities of housing going up and the loony district council wants to build a "garden village" with 5000 new houses about 400m from the town boundary. So even more.

Camberley is actually very nice but isn't on a useful railway line you'd have to drive to Farnborough. Maybe look at Frimley (just up the road from Ash Vale) but again not on a decent railway line.

Other options might be Hook or Martin's Heron (the latter by Bracknell).

I grew up in Ash. I wouldn’t live there again.

I went to school in Guildford, which is lovely but expensive and after uni, lived in Woking (fab for commuting into London but fundamentally a bit crap)

Alton is lovely. And you always get a seat on the train in the morning! Great schools and lovely community.

This thread is making me feel quite nostalgic, I spent my teens living in Ash, went to secondary school there which was a really rough school ( late 70s, early 80s )
I had a Saturday job in Aldershot, then went to Farnham 6th form and had a Saturday job in Guildford.
Then bought my first house in Alton!
Ash was very boring for teens in those days, absolutely nothing to do and lots of rough areas/ families.
Alton was nice but has grown a lot.
I only go back every few years and it's all changed so much but it's a pretty good area to live as it's so easy to travel upto London