Where to move to - Ledbury/malvern area?

[Spirited123]

DH and I are considering moving our family from Sussex to Herefordshire/Worcestershire (we’ve visited relatives that way and love the endless green space, and know our budget goes much further there than in Sussex!)

We have 3 primary age kids so are looking for
a 4 bed house near a brilliant primary school, ideally in a village or edge of village. Village must have pub or shop as a minimum.

We’d like to be fairly connected, don’t want to live on an estate though (just preference)

We love hills and would like a big garden and a period house would be the dream!

Budget £900k.

I need to get the train to London x3 a month

Can anyone give ideas of what villages to look at to base our search?

Is Ledbury a nice town?

are there good sporting facilities for the kids?

any info about that area would be really appreciated, thank you!!

Bump x

i live in Worcestershire and my parents live in Malvern.

Malvern is really lovely, although parts of Malvern link aren’t great - the areas of Welland, Upton etc are really lovely and if you need to get into London then you can jump on the train to Paddington from Gt Malvern.

Personally I would avoid Ledbury because it’s further out than you realise and once your children get older they’ll be wanting to go to Worcester etc, maybe Birmingham on the train - as you might

I can’t comment on the schools in Malvern vs Ledbury though as we don’t use them

I grew up two miles from Ledbury, it's a nice town - unbelievably, when I go back to visit now, it's mostly exactly the same, in a good way. There are still loads of independent shops, including two bookshops (how??).

Ledbury primary school back then (80s / 90s) was excellent, no idea what it's like now though. My dad had us moved from our local village school to Ledbury, because he felt we weren't receiving a good education. In those days, the village school had three teachers and you stayed in the same class for two or three years, so he had a point. It was idyllic, but we didn't learn much.

Ledbury is on a direct train line to Hereford, Worcester, Birmingham and London.

We were near Dymock, which is a nice village, but there were hardly any buses into Ledbury. The council provided a taxi for us to get to school, along with a few other spread out village kids who weren't on bus routes. I wonder if they still do this? Seems incredible looking back. When I was older I used to walk over the fields to get to my weekend jobs in town, or to get the train / bus to Hereford.

I did some work in Ledbury a few years ago - it’s a slow journey by train. You are looking at three hours, and I’m not sure you could even get into town much before 11 unless you went the night before. From Malvern Link you can find some trains that will do it in 2.5 hours, but most are nearer 3. Your best bet is to drive to the NEC and get a fast train!!

Lovely countryside - very rural but not a lot going on. Locals will tell you about the wide range of performances at the the theatre there, but if you are used to the choices in W Sussex within an hour or so you will, I think, be disappointed. There’s no popping up to town for the day from Herefordshire really. Limited decent options for eating out in Ledbury and Malvern - you really need to drive out to country pubs / restaurants which might or might not bother you.

With kids growing up I think I’d be looking west and towards Cheltenham.

I would go for Malvern, just because it is slightly better connected, although Ledbury is lovely too. The train into Worcester is pretty fast and you are not far from Birmingham either. You are also well placed for the hospital in Worcester, which I know might not be an every day need, but it’s still good to have it accessible. I can’t comment on schools as didn’t need them when I lived there. There are no really bad areas, in the way you might find in cities, but the area around Great Malvern is particularly nice and further out the areas around Malvern Wells and Colwall are lovely. For example, this is in a gorgeous location:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/162336989

Malvern is lovely, but I don't understand pps saying it's better connected than Ledbury. It's the same trainline, just two stops along.

ETA: also easier to get onto the motorway network, via the M50, from Ledbury.

I’d start off with the primary schools and work from there. I know Bosbury, Ashperton, Much Marcle & Eastnor are very well thought of and would fit the bill (Eastnor may be a bit small though). Remember that if you live a certain distance, which is not safe to walk, there are usually school buses that you can use (but there’s so little traffic out this way the school run is really no problem!).

Thanks you. Yes the vicinity to the m50 makes Ledbury more attractive than it might otherwise be

Our online search seemed to suggest that the secondary school in Malvern is highly regarded (The Chase), more so than the secondary school in Ledbury? Does anyone know much about those two schools?

I take people’s points about the trains to London though, it’s not ‘commutable’!

Thank you, that list of schools is really helpful

Eastnor has an outstanding ofsted rating, but I see what you mean it looks v small.

I need to drive through all these villages and find the ones with a pub and shop and hopefully not with a super fast road through the middle..

Very good point about hospitals!

My daughter is really sporty and I’m wondering if she’ll miss out if we’re in too far out in the sticks, she needs weekly access to an Astro turf pitch and running track etc really 🤔

yes we visited Colwall and it seemed charming, and I guess it’s fairly close to malvern’s amenities, I did like it as an option

Malvern is lovely. Lots of free walking on the hills.

Ledbury is growing very rapidly as they've built lots of new estates on the outskirts of town - the big downside of this is that it still only has one primary school and one health centre - both of which I believe are struggling.

Lots of Ledbury children go to primary schools in the surrounding villages.
I'm not sure about the high school, but there is only one in Ledbury. Malvern has 2 plus a lot of children go to nearby Hanley Swan School.

Sports facilities wise, if you want a serious athletics running track I think Worcester is the nearest. Hockey-wise, Malvern and Colwall ladies club are very popular. The private schools in Malvern (Malvern College and Malvern St James) have excellent facilities which some of the local sports clubs use (football, swimming, hockey, gymnastics)

Don’t forget about Worcestershire parkway train station. It’s new and has much quicker trains than the local stations.
Have you considered Leigh Sinton? Most primary schools are good but you might want to consider secondaries, and look at the local sixth form provision just to future proof your move. Hanley Castle is a great school.

Sorry, I meant Hanley Castle high school (not Hanley Swan)

I would plan to drive to Worcestershire Parkway and get the train from there. It’s only 2 hours to Paddington from Parkway. This opens up your options. There are really pretty villages all very close to Parkway. Around Crowle is really nice. Worcester is also a great city for kids- some outstanding state primary schools and the state secondary schools are rapidly improving - Tudor Grange was in special measures some years ago and now it is Ofsted Outstanding. It also has fantastic sporting facilities - for example the international hockey centre opened up in Worcester not too long ago and there are playing fields all around the city.

We have family connections in that area - Ledbury is lovely and I would choose it over Malvern, but as a pp says, a bit further out for commuting. I find Malvern to be somewhat brooding and sinister - and surprisingly chilly. Good posh private school though.

You do need to keep an eye on where the flood plains are when buying in that region.

Great Malvern is absolutely lovely!

We have friends in Cradley (we are only Worcester) and it's nice there, their daughter goes to the village school and loves it. Not far at all from both Ledbury and Malvern.

I used to work in Ledbury and it is quite isolated and...dare I say it, insular.

Some nice pubs selling Stowfords cider so it's swings and roundabouts. Plenty of those too.

Malvern is lovely but very popular with retirees. Pershore and the surrounding area have a Cotswolds feel about them without the price tag and close to the Worcestershire Parkway. Most of Worcestershire is rural or semi rural so the public transport infrastructure is poor company to big cities or towns. But you are never more than 5-10mins from proper countryside.

Driving can be hair raising since roads are not lit outside the towns and main city. I had to go out last night and the main road Beth’s and Worcester was partially blocked by a fallen tree. Because it’s so common you expect it but if you are not used to driving rurally it can be a real shock.

As a county we are prone to flooding. The county is split in half by the river Severn and you have no choice about using bridges. Two or three times a year you will find yourself taking huge detours when the roads are closed. I think there are 7-8 road bridges across the river in the whole county. So you are limited by your location if you live to the west of the river. We are well placed next to the bridge that has the least disruption during flooding. I would say only half the bridges stay open during flooding. It’s the roads leading to them that are underwater. Flood defences have helped but not eliminated the problem.

Ledbury and Malvern use the Upton bridge to access the motorway and train station and it is the bridge most often closed. Both Worcester and Bewdley have recent bypass bridges not affected by flooding but obviously the traffic doubles and builds up.

Worcester city is lovely and with £900k you would have a great choice of houses with land and rurally placed. It really depends on how much driving you are happy to do. Supermarket deliveries are good in the area but UberEats can be limited. We have only recently been able to get takeaway deliveries and we only live a couple of miles from our nearest small town.

It’s not awful driving around because the countryside is lovely. But it is a shock when moving from an urban environment.

Thank you so much, especially for the info about the flooding and bridges - it’s really easy to forget that when looking from afar!

I’ve only been to Worcester city once so hadn’t really factored it in previously, but maybe it does provide a lot more of the things we need for active sporty & sociable kids, so I’m definitely going to research it more now

luckily we live pretty rurally now, out of area for most takeaways, so that wouldn’t be a change!

thank you, yes that is a bit of a worry that we’ll be too disconnected if we choose to centre ourselves near Ledbury

although we live rurally right now in Sussex, London is only an hour on the train so it’s very well connected, and dare I say it culture washes out of London down to us - I guess if you’re 2.5 hours from London, things are more… backward?! Is that fair?!

i think my DH and I would quite enjoy the quiet rural aspect, but I don’t want to isolate the kids

Ok that’s super helpful thank you, Cradley does look lovely and not too far from Malvern

Yes I know what you mean about Malvern,I think it’s the east side not getting the afternoon sun that makes it dark, I think?

Maybe if you live on the west side that’s ok?

With kids I would choose Worcester over Malvern or Ledbury, as there's just a lot more going on, and you can get to Malvern very easily for walks on the hills etc. With your budget I'd buy a lovely period house in Barbourne or out towards Claines / Ombersley direction if you don't want to be right in the city. I have friends with kids teens in Worcester and hear that the secondary schools have improved a lot in recent years.