£400k budget, 2-3 hours from London - AIBU to ask where you would live?

[HensInTheSkirtingBoard]

DP and I currently live on the Surrey / London borders and want to move.

We have a budget of approx £400k (although could be stretched a little for the perfect place) and I will need to be in London for work, max once a week, so needs to be commutable within around 2.5 hours on the train.

Minimum 3 beds, good size garden for chickens, bees and veg (yes I know it's a cliche )

No new builds or 'executive' estates (sorry). Quirky is fine.

Would like to be within walking distance of a village at least (don't want to have to get in the car if we run out of milk) and ideally somewhere that has a bit of a 'community' feel - pub, cafe, etc.

No school-age kids so we don't need to worry about catchments.

Where would you move to in our situation?

Nottingham has some lovely villages. Also the direct train takes less than two hours.

Something like this? Near Newark, Notts, which is direct to Kings Cross in under 80 mins. Lots of properties for your budget and requirements!

That is stunning @Shmithecat2!

Worcestershire and Warwickshire - some lovely villages and towns.

@HensInTheSkirtingBoard

That is stunning *@Shmithecat2*!

There's so many more like that!

I’m under 2 hours from london, direct trains every 30 mins. Wakefield/leeds border. Also plugged into the M62/M1/A1 motorway networks, so sheffield, manchester, york etc all very accessible.

Some lovely Yorkshire cottages and houses for 400k.

Another vote for York. We live in a village on the outskirts. Ticks all your boxes. 5 minutes by train into York centre and then it's a 2hr direct train into kings cross.

Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Bures or Sudbury would be worth a look. Sudbury and Bures are on a single track rail line which picks up the Colchester to Liverpool Street railway line at Marks Tey.

There were plans afoot to build "West Tey" somewhere between Marks Tey and Braintree which the planning inspector has rejected but there are still rumblings -there were a lot of houses proposed and little infrastructure..
Ignore anyone who says that you can get from Suffolk to London in an hour. You can't-well apart from the odd train from Ipswich at silly o'clock which takes about 65 minutes. Fewer Colchester trains take less than an hour since they decided to speed up the Norwich journey time by taking out the Colchester stop.
You might struggle to find too many Suffolk villages with a shop, although there are some community asset ones, they sometimes have limited opening times.

Somewhere like Sudbury or Haverhill?

@ginislife

Lichfield. You can be in Euston in an hour and 10 if the fast train is on but the stopping train takes just under 2 hours normally. There's lovely villages just outside and you'd get something quite nice for £400K

Shhhhh!! You’re not supposed to tell anyone!

Seriously though, a LOT of available properties in Lichfield & surrounding areas at the moment are on new build estates. There are nicer things about, but you may be stretching your £400k budget to get everything you want and character.

Bristol

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/72570894#/

Norfolk/ Suffolk border

Oxfordshire is not cheap but far less hostile towards London expats than lots of other counties and definitely cheaper than London

Having lived in many of the places mentioned I'd have a look at some of the villages around Stamford and Oundle. Easy commute from Peterborough to King Cross, not far from Cambridge and other lovely cities and near your family.
Have lived in the Fens and it's not really all that. Flat, flat, flat, and the pubs are crap! Never made any friends there and never felt part of the community.Worked in Peterborough and friend wondered why we lived in the Fens - it was cheap!

I love threads like this, I'd move to Market Harborough or one of the surrounding villages, direct line in to St Pancras in about an hour and a lovely small market town with lots of independent shops

Dingley www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/72005136#/
Foxton www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/76521528#/
Market Harborough www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/72794913#/

Widcombe in Bath. Lovely community feel, but close to station for commute to Paddington.

Norwich

We are Derbyshire, we tend to get to London from Lichfield station as it’s much cheaper and easier to park than derby station. So any villages near there might be good. Or as people have said some of the Nottinghamshire villages are nice too. Only downside is we are as far from the coast as you can get which can be a bit of a downer, but depends if that bothers you!

I’m in London so can’t help OP but I’m loving this thread. I’m clicking on every link and some of them I’m shouting “No! That’s not Hen’s brief at all!”

#overinvested

Some great advice and varied locations, OP.
I would check out the journey time for the commute, though - some of the 2 hr claims are a bit optimistic! I've looked up a couple which indicate the average time to be somewhat longer.

I would also consider just how far you want to go in terms of mileage out of London.

Dp and I did this in the 90s and all was ok till Dp was made redundant and the only way he could get another job was to use one of our friends London address as our home address. He had been applying and applying for a long time and then as soon as he changed the address he got loads of interviews and offers.

Yes I’d second the advice about checking very carefully the commute times. It’s all very well saying “trains into london take 2 hours”, but that’s only any good if the actual commuter trains ie first thing and in the evening take 2 hours - often the fastest train is mid morning when there aren’t so many passengers. And of course commuting across london from the terminal to your office is a massive part of the equation too.

Suffolk - an hour by train to London. Being so easterly, we don't seem to suffer so much horrid weather as other parts of UK. Not far from the coast. Towns in Suffolk are just like big villages. Loads of countryside/parks etc without being isolated. For your budget, you'd have no problem getting what you want.

Manchester. Particularly Trafford/ Cheshire area.