HELP - looking for house in West Oxfordshire - need advice

[minkymonkeymoo]

Hi

We (DH, DS aged 19 months and I) are looking to move to the area but am struggling to find somewhere nice to live that we can afford and wanted your advice / inside info.

We will be working in Wantage and Abingdon but really like the villages of Buckland/Longworth/Hinton Waldrist/Standlake and Bampton and Eynsham. We want to stay under £250k as we are 1st time buyers and can therefore avoid stamp duty.

However, I would like to live in an old cottage (need 3 bedrooms at least) and am struggling in these places.

Are there any places with the same charm, in a reasonable location for work places, that I could try or do I need to lower my expectations?

Any views - good and bad - on these places?

Many thanks in advance :)

Hmmm right well there are some bad bits of all of them - Wantage is lovely, but quite pricey. I'm up in North Oxfordshire and if you go north west of Oxford it's quite a bit cheaper.

Old cottages tend to be very small and have fewer bedroooms. I live in a massive thatched cottage -it's actually four cottages knocked together and we only have four bedrooms.

What I'd advise you to do is book a weekend up here and ask estate agents to spend an entire day showing you whatever they have that is vaguely suitable. This will give you a good idea of what's available.

Where abouts do you want to commute to? I commute to North Oxford in 25 minutes tops. It does depend where the nearest main road is - for example I can get on the A4260 and be in Oxford in 20 minutes (then sit in traffic for 15 minutes on the A34

I think we have found our definate 'triangle' of where we want to be. Maybe it is just a case of sitting it out and seeing if anything we like comes up at that price. Doesn't seem to be at the moment (not in the areas we like anyway!)

I think that's the problem - I want a victorian townhouse, with the associated space, but want to live in the country where it doesn't exist and the prices for space are HUGE!

Do you know anything about Bampton or Eynsham? I think both are OK travelling distances to our work. I have visited both a couple of times and prefer Bampton as it seems to have (marginally) less congestion but Eynsham for the shops ...

How about Witney? There is alot of property there under £250k and road links are fairly good. We're about 10 miles away northwards. Some new estates but may get you onto the housing ladder. We live in a ramshackle place where everything needs doing. Sometimes the draw of a newbuild is really appealing.!

Whomovedmychocolate - I guess you're probably fairly close to me. Nice house!

Lotkins - Yes, I do like Witney but want to move to my 'forever' place (as far as I can tell anyway).

I know that Eynsham has good primary schools and secondary school, not sure about Bampton but am keen to get a house in a village where we can upgrade as we go without moving our child from school to school.

Maybe I will have to compromise with a house in a part of a village I don't like ... Witney is good value though ...

Lotkins - I'm up near Deddington in a tiny village. Where are you?

Minky - I wouldn't do Witney if you can avoid it, there are some 'orrible bits in Witney. There's lots of nice bits too but the traffic is appalling.

Bampton is v expensive. Eynsham does have good schools but you may not get into them. Up here we can't get into our local schools because of oversubscription - only siblings are getting in! You might want to check that out too - depending on how old your DC are - obviously things can change in a few years. But if school is imminent it's a worry.

My ds is only 19 months but I am aware I know absolutely nothing about schools, how to get in etc. I work (will be in Abingdon) so he will have to go to nursery there too. I think if he could go to the pre-school in a village there is more of a chance of him getting into the school, isn't there? But, there is no way I could take him 9.00 - 3.30 (working 9-5!)

How would I find out chances of getting into a school. Do you just call them or is it all much harder? I am still trying to get over the shock some people have to go to church to get their children into a C of E school... Now what's that all about? Is it something I am seriously going to have to worry about? (I don;t go to church in case you couldn't guess!)

We were looking at buying a house in Bampton, and when we were asking around about the area (we are already in the region), we had lots of positive feedback about Bampton. However, you won't get the kind of house you are looking for in Bampton for £250k. We looked at a very typically 1970s 3 bed semi in an okay, but not great part of Bampton for about 230k. I very much doubt you would get anything period in that price range (unless there is a different significant drawback to the property).

Standlake is also very nice, a lot smaller than Bampton and less facilities, but nice all the same. It is also quite expensive.

Eynsham has better schools than Bampton, particularly at secondary level, but I do not know much about the village itself.

Good luck with your move. We ended up about 10 miles west of Bampton, but it is a very nice neck of the woods.

Okay well the first thing you need to know is that getting into a preschool does not necessarily mean you will get into the school - certainly this does not appear to be the case for our DCs sadly :(

All schools are supposed to offer wraparound care. In reality it's scanty and often unworkable. But childminders pick up the difference.

You can look up particular schools on the local authority education website and then google them or look on their website. You should get his name down on a preschool waiting list now really - even if you may not use it - DS has been on the list for 18 months now and is six months from maybe getting a place.

You don't have to go to church to get into church schools in Oxfordshire generally - because rural schools have different criteria (generally (1) siblings; (2) Age; (3) distance) Look after and statemented children will always get priority though.

wmmc - what a nightmare! And there's me looking at local schools as a determining factor of moving somewhere. I would be seriously cheesed off to move somewhere and not get in. Makes moving closer to our work seem more of a good move (despite the fact I don't like those towns to live in :()

I like the Cotswold-y look and Abingdon etc just doesn't have it ... :-(

Oldjolyon - I know :-(

Whomoved - we're in a small village not far from Chipping Norton. Went window shopping in Fired Earth / Aga showroom in the really heavy rains last week. Managed to spend 2 hours in there wandering round whilst the dc's ran amoc Guess its not too far from you!

How about slightly further south price wise, some quite nice villages around Abingdon. Or Appleton, not far from Enysham. Don't really know Enysham but everytime I drive through it think it really is pretty.

Lotkins - it's hard to know where you want to live, isn't it (or is it just me?) I think a lot of the villages are pretty enough - but just not quite right ... :-( Maybe I am thinking about this too much. FTB and all that ...

Ha - bet you are down the road from me Lotkins. I live in Barford St Michael.

We got caught in that rainstorm running across the bridge to the Spiceball from the car park. We got a round of applause when we got there!

My daughter has just started at Buckland school. They seem really wonderful and although C of E no one has even asked anything about my religion. On the form it asked, and had room for other religions so I am assuming they are accepting of all.

The children seem lovely and caring, towards each other and seem to have solid values.

The school has someone pick up for after care (i.e. to another nursery).

I sadly don't live in Buckland, but both there and Longworth seem lovely. We are only renting but I would consider both those villages to live in.

Good choice!