Rural Village with good schools

[sleepingfish]

Hello all,

Really need help with this. Have been around Surrey, high Wycombe, Newbury etc. We are in our late 30s and early 40s with a 1 year old looking to get away from london for

• A small friendly scenic rural village, sheep in field behind house etc.
• Walking distance to good primary and secondary school (both state and private), activities.

-Safe area

• 3 bed detached £750k max budget, big garden for home office,
• 2 hour-ish away from london. We don’t need to commute but have friends in london.
• Cannot stand traffic and would like to avoid small minded people, really looking for a relaxed slow pace living.

Thank you all :)

My daughter's GCSEs were interrupted by sheep. Be careful what you wish for.

Its out of your travel distance, but just to point out... I live in a village with a secondary school... and a college! It serves all the surrounding villages. Its has Scouts, a football club and a theatre school... so yes they do exist. No sheep, but there are fields if crops.

However most activities do involve driving. Its impossible to have every activity. Swimming, rugby, climbing, skating, cricket, cadets, water sports, dance, tennis athletics... (these are things I know their friends do, not just mine!)

Also to consider...
Fields get planning permission. So pick carefully.

So many questions @SpanielintheWorks!

Agree with PP that secondary schools (whether private, state or grammar) aren’t within walking distance but tend to need to get the bus. I’m in a rural village in Kent (near Goudhurst/Cranbrook/Tenterden - all slightly larger hubs) and there’s a few schools to choose from - grammars at Cranbrook, Ashford and Maidstone, private secondary at Dulwich Prep, and a few state comps dotted about. These are all somewhere between a 15-30 min drive away or bus/train.

well worth a look round here as £750k is well within your budget for a three bed detached. I’m in a five bed detached and paid slightly less than that in 2020 when we left London.

Newark is not in the North of England!!

Most Market Towns in the actual North (I.e above Manchester) will fit the criteria apparently from the village and the 2 hr commute to London although many people DO commute to London from the wild North.

The Suffolk recommendations above ate good.If you want yo be near London you will get much less for your money but look at Aldbury near Tring.Direct train to London is only a short drive to Tring Station, huge forest a walk away, fields with sheep, duck pond and lovely primary.2 great pubs.Great summer fete and a good playpark

@sleepingfish Iv sent you a PM

A small rural market town might be more what you’re after - you can live on the outskirts and have the sheep behind your house but schools are walkable. I’m in one of those, no sheep behind my house as I’m not in the right bit, (cows in the field across the road though) but plenty of the town does back onto fields (when they’re not being built on - check carefully!) But we have two secondaries, and several primaries within walking distance. The DC walk and meet their friends and it’s small enough that you rarely go into town without seeing someone you know!

The Hampshire places mentioned upthread are definitely worth looking at and you could probably add to your list:
Petersfield
Bishops Waltham
Liphook (it is a large village but with schools)
Alton
Stockbridge

Gosfield in Essex. There are lots of other nice villages nearby too.

State primary in the village plus two private schooling options (one through to secondary). Good state secondary in the next village along.

Close to bigger towns such as Braintree (a hole but has a designer outlet village) and Halstead with Chelmsford, Colchester and Cambridge within an hour’s drive.

Closest train station is in Braintree which takes an hour to Liverpool St.

Just came on say alresford and surrounding villages.

it's so pretty, and you have primary's, secondary school and a levels at Peter symmonds Winchester..oh and totally commutable to London.

Great pubs lots to do.

Another vote to the Hampshire villages. Have a look at Swanmore - lovely village centre with a church and shop, some nice pubs, a nice park, a mix of more and less rural properties, and state primary and secondary within the village (caveat, I don't know what they're like these days). 40 minute walk to Bishops Waltham for a lovely high street, 25-30ish minutes to Winchester (with hour train to London), Southampton and Portsmouth. Can get to coast and New Forest easily and can quickly get out into the Meon Valley and South Downs for a more rural feel. Friendly community with lots of events and activities.

I live in a village with a first school and middle school. DS is now at high school a few miles away in a different village. There are sheep visible from all 3 schools. We're 20-30 mins drive from the east coast mainline, then 2 hrs to LKX. Check out the HD8 postcode area.

@sleepingfish

On another recent thread. But G&S fit the bill easily

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5103546-home-counties-move-where?reply=136259195

Don’t rule out towns. I live in a town, but in the outskirts. Have a field backing on to our garden, but also 20 mins walk to a high school.

Near Newbury you could look at Hampstead Norreys, Compton, East Ilsley, Yattendon, Frilsham, Upper Basildon, Bucklebury, Streatley - all feed into the Downs School which is excellent. Or Oxfordshire way you could
look at Aston Tirrold, Aston Upthorpe, Goring.

South Cambridgeshire have a few rural primary and secondary. Agree about the teens problem though. Lots of driving them around so look for a village with a train line - kings cross to Cambridge line.

Everyone always says rural is boring for teenagers - my DD loves it, as did I! She helps me train the Gundogs and is out every weekend through shooting season. In summer there are dogs to walk, fruit picking, sloe picking, the regular shows and events. She has an air rifle and goes clay pigeon shooting and has mates in the village. The nearest town is 15 mins away and she goes there regularly with friends. I used to love growing up in the country, I used to vanish off for hours as a teenager on the ponies with my friends.

I'm very rural and in a desirable area less than 2 hours from London. There are no buses in the villages and most don't have schools or shops. Many don't have pubs. They are often full of second homes so it can be lonely in the winter with only a few permanent residents. . The primaries are very small with less than 50 children so classes are mixed year groups. Some year groups only have a couple of children in them.

There are a lot of sheep.

Each village is different. Some are lively and welcome incomers. Some are cliquey, so unless your family have lived there for five generations you will be ignored. Other villages the clique is about the right school and having retired from the right career or working on the same big estate. It is hard to find out which version it is before you arrive.

The market towns and big villages are a better bet with children. You are less likely to have sheep in view but you may get lucky. If you are planning to make a big move to a rural area visit in February. Stay for at least a week and see how rural life really works.

Some of the Cambridgeshire villages with village colleges might fit the bill - Bottisham/Lode, Sawston, Histon off the top of my head but there are others.

Another vote for Cambs villages that have primary school and a secondary village college. We made a spreadsheet of villages with schools and other amenities. We also moved out of the city having walking to secondary school as a top priority and it has worked very well for dd as it also means friends are walking distance. Direct bus to town - but she likes being in the village and doesn't go into town all that much. More cows than sheep. No matter where you go though - you will end up driving a lot more.

For a small market town - Saffron Walden just over in Essex is very nice.

I didn’t say it was in the North Of England…

I meant North from where they are currently looking, which is south of Newark.

West Sussex has villages like the Witterings, Birdham, Hunston, Emsworth, Fishbourne, Aldwick, Oving, Lavant, West Dean. Primary schools certainly, but secondary will be further away. Cities like Chichester for theatre etc, trains to London, Portsmouth and Southampton, the coast nearby and a micro climate.

Look at SG7.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/3701249-Help-me-find-a-Sussex-town-village-to-move-to

Any particular breed of sheep OP?