Moving near to Stevenage. Hitchin, Baldock , Letchworth, maybe even Biggleswade…

[redgirl1]

Hello wise mums of MN,
We are in need of some good advice. DH has new job in Stevenage. Our house is about to go on the market and we need to move… somewhere.
Hitchin is probably out of our price range unless we down size , so what does everyone think of Baldock, Letchworth and villages around. I need to find a year 6 and year place for the DC and secondary school is fast approaching. So any advice on schools is very gratefully appreciated.
DH thinks we ought to consider Biggleswade for the cheaper housing too. There is not a lot on the market at the mo. We don’t need to be near a station for work.
We don’t know this area at all and we don’t want to make a bad choice!

Stevenage is awful so don't consider under any circumstances!!

@DustySpringboard I did have a little look at gamilingay houses. I don’t know anything about the place and I think it’s probably a bit too far from Stevenage. It’s in one of those village college catchments which are supposed to be good.
Commuting to Oxford probably wouldn’t be much different but for DH managing school run 2 days per week perhaps an issue.

@hufffflufff we aren’t considering Stevenage. It’s one place everyone is in total agreement about.
Apologies to anyone who lives there!

One of my friends lives in Watton-at-Stone and works on the Stevenage Biocatalyst site. She has primary school age DC and is happy with the local school and is able to get into work at a reasonable time. The A1 around Stevenage gets very, very congested in rush hour, so what looks like a quick 15 min journey can easily take far longer. The route from Watton comes into Stevenage from the 'other' side, you avoid the A1.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/101956421
This place has been on the market for an age in Baldock. I wonder why.

@NotRainingToday I’m not looking forward to the a1 experience.
Maybe knebworth is worth considering. Again I don’t know anything about it.

We are looking to do a move further into Herts from Herts/Beds border and are looking at East Herts. Our budget is a tiny bit more than yours but you would definitely be able to get a 4 bed within the area we are looking. Hertford is expensive (for good reason I think) but doable just reduced choice. Don't dismiss Stevenage entirely though, there are some nice areas to live in but I would be looking elsewhere for secondary schools.

Ashwell is beautiful if a train isn't a priority

Ashwell has a station! And it's a lovely place.

If you're looking towards Cambridge in the longer term, I would move towards Cambridge and use a childminder for the days you can't do the school run. DH used to work in Stevenage before the Baldock Bypass was built and we used a childminder.

I would look at St Neots - it's on the A1 so Stevenage is accessible, it's just about commutable to Oxford if you are doing 2 days a week, and it's closer to Cambridge.

How about Royston? There is quite a lot of new housing stock, so prices might be less unreasonable? A 'clear run' drive to Stevenage would be 25-30 mins from Royston. Will your DH need to get back for school pick up?

I grew up in Ware, have lived in Stevenage, then Hitchin for 10 years, now Biggleswade. I work in all these area with my clients. It obviously boils down to personal taste!

I have never seen the appeal of Stotfold and Arlesey. We lived in Arlesey for a while too. People call it Arseley for a reason! Ha ha! Letchworth seems to me to have a bigger divide between posh and very rough. I have felt intimidated there when working in the area on a few occasions and haven't felt like that anywhere else. I have friends from there and know the area well. There are some nice places to eat and the cinema is great.

Hitchin is nice but has become very snooty. Some people like that though! I was worried about the traffic with the children growing up in Hitchin. I can relax in Biggleswade when they go out and about as there aren't such busy roads.

Biggleswade I think is great for kids and for getting on the A1 quickly. It used to take quite a while to access the A1 from Hitchin and from where I lived in Stevenage. I really appreciated this when moving to Biggleswade. It isn't the most beautiful town but it isn't the worst. It has lovely walks and countryside all around it. It also has everything we need and the train station so for the price, I think it is very good value. It reminds me of what Hitchin used to be like when we first lived there years ago, and it is improving.

I have always liked Baldock. It has some lovely tucked away streets. However there isn't enough there for me, but I can see why people like it a lot. Stotfold, including Fairfield, just seems like a massive housing estate and I don't think are worth the money (for me anyway).

I also spent a lot of time in Hertford when growing up and never liked it. Maybe we all feel like that though about where we grew up! I do have very nice clients all over though. My nightmare clients all seem to come from Cambridge area!

Have you considered St Neots? My DH pre pandemic commuted very easily to London and Stevenage is really accessible from there

@EmmaGrundyForPM that’s a point about a child minder. It never even occurred to me.
@NotRainingToday I assumed we would use after school club and that he would drop off in the morning for breakfast club and pick them up at I don’t know 5.00 ish. But I guess a childminder might be a better option.

@Zippea I discussed it as too far. The secondary school is a bit iffy I heard too.

Oh, and one last thought. Is your DH by car? My DH used to commute from one of the S Cambs villages to Stevenage by motorbike and it was a reasonably reliable 40-45 mins

@LabiaMinoraPissusFlapus thanks this is helpful (great name by the way)

Excellent schools in S Cambs too

@NotRainingToday my DH will be travelling by motorbike. We were hoping for 30 mins max because if something goes wrong on the roads you don’t want it to be taking an hour to get to work .
Lots to think about!

We were hoping for 30 mins max

Don't move to Hitchin then, the rush hour traffic is grim.

@barskits someone else on thread mentioned hitchin being a nightmare to get out of by car. Just as well we can’t afford it!

Agree with LabiaMinoraPissusFlapus about Biggleswade - we live here and are happy. The town centre isn’t as pretty as Hitchin, but it’s quieter with a nice market square, and there are lots of green spaces, independent coffee shops, a few nice places to eat, etc.

We considered Hitchin, Baldock, Welwyn Garden City, St Neots and possibly Arlesey and Guilden Morden. We got a lot more for our money in Biggleswade and don’t really understand why! I’d be interested to hear why those who don’t like it feel that way - I’m not offended, just curious 🧐😁

It isn’t reliably under 30 mins to Stevenage by car though - although the busy section in my experience is the A1 from the A505 junction where traffic sometimes slows to a crawl, so your dh would have that to deal with for most options north of Stevenage.

Knebworth is lovely. Small selection of local shops etc. I always envied the houses belonging to my friends in Knebworth. They ranged a lot in size but all seemed to be on wide tree lined roads!!

Re traffic, I now have to drive to Hitchin twice a day for the school run and traffic is indeed terrible. In Letchworth it’s sometimes slow getting out onto the A1 through Letchworth gate but ok after that. I used to commute Letchworth to Hertford and getting to Stevenage was usually fine (if a1 was an issue could go via graveley), but traffic in Hertford was also bad around schools.

Also lived in Hertford a long time - it is nice and has the two stations, but it’s more expensive than Hitchin and the town not as nice to walk around (IMO).

My daughter lives in WGC in nice area it's got good facilities and town centre, my gd goes to good secondary school in Stevenage. With that budget you will find decent house in the area. And it's only 10 mins from Stevenage.

If he’s on a bike then Royston would be doable and you’d get more for your money. Good train line and close to Cambridge. Don’t know about the Royston schools but the S cambs schools are good.

@Feawen thanks, we will try and view a few places in a couple of weekends time I think we’ll go check out Biggleswade, it would be silly not to considering the house we could get for our money there.
I’m still feeling a bit confused about it all but I’m trying to remind myself the perfect place does not exist (unless your filthy rich), but that doesn’t mean you won’t be happy. I seem to recall a lack of choice when we moved to where we live now and that horrible worry of whether we made the right choice.
I think Baldock would suit us well, if only someone would move, there is so little on the market. There is one house in our price range on clothall common which seems a bit separate to the rest of baldock.