Moving to Hastings...

[surreymumwithone]

Hello - I hope some of you Hastings Mum's out there can help me. We (me, DH and DD) are planning a move to Hastings from Surrey/West London and while I know that most people look on here for info on schools, my request is more for areas we can register an interest in with the estate agents as we've just come back from 10 days in Hastings and are a bit lost about where to avoid. A bit of background, DH will be commuting to London and has all of that sorted and I am a SAHM. Our Daughter is 4 and will be home educated due to disability and ongoing health issues. So we aren't looking at Hastings for work or schools, just for a lifestyle change and a better way of life for my Daughter who needs fresh air and all of the sensory wonders that come along with being so near to the sea. We love Hastings Old Town and had found a wonderful house, however as with most properties in the Old Town, it was next door but one to a pub and I'm just not sure we are ready for that with a little one. I don't know if it helps but we love the feel of the Old Town and Fishing Quarter, along with all of the roads at the top of West Hill. Obviously, sea views would be wonderful but more importantly is a nice area and parking as my Daughter is physically disabled and it would be great to not have to use a chair to get from home to the car. We are open to any area as we have no real restrictions and have a good budget for each month but we've found some conflicting information online about Hastings in general (from DO NOT MOVE THERE to best decision we ever made) so finding info on which areas to look at or better yet, which areas to avoid, has been impossible. I know that each town has good and bad and we aren't stuck up at all, its just worrying being blind and moving there with a child. If it was just the two of us, we would have loved the house next a pub and all that went along with that. I might be barking up the wrong tree by posting this here so if I am, I apologise. I'm just stumped. Thanks in advance :)

Ah, we do have a chain sadly! We own a flat back in London. The sale seems to be all going through OK (fingers crossed).

So if the sale had gone through you'd be in a really strong bargaining position. I say make an offer of 140 on the Filching Road one :)

Little ridge has a tiny catchment area as it's in a modern estate with loads of families.

Other good schools in Hastings are Silverdale, Dudley Infants, St Pauls, Robsack. Probably others I don't know much about. Hollington and Red Lake seem to be the ones to avoid, just going on reputation.

aufaniae - slightly over budget but about 15 mins from Blacklands and 10-15 mins walk from station.

BedHog - lovely, you have great taste!

But it's a 2 bed, and the two nearest schools are Elphinstone and Castledown. In Eastbourne I was told you'll get into your nearest school, basically - anything else is a risk.

Is that true in Hastings, do you think?

OhDearSpareHeadTwo I sent you a PM.

Aufaniae yes Hastings does have a closest school policy and Elphinstone is not a school you want to get stuck with.

I suppose it all boils down to personal taste and for me personally Eastbourne is handsdown the better town regardless of the usual deprived areas you get in every town.

My brother also in the police and has been for nearly 20 years lives in Eastbourne and has policed every area of Sussex and has stated he would never, ever buy or rent in the Hastings and St Leonards area.

Polegate is also very lovely (lived there too) and has a nice school and good transport links.

Hastings can be wonderful but you must, must be selective. One of my other brothers lives quite happily in a nice house not far from the hospital, never has any trouble and has lovely neighbours.

I'm not saying it is all bad, of course it's not but you are much more likely to end up in what I would consider a bad area in Hastings than you are in Eastbourne. Schools in Eastbourne are also considered far superior to Hastings schools and current policy is making a real mess of the secondary school provision. However, that all depends on how much value you place in Ofsted reports etc.

As far as Bourne in Eastbourne goes I would advise against it as a choice if you can find an alternative.

From the point of social services I know that Hastings is the area with much higher deprivation and social problems...Remember there is always a reason you get more for your money housing wise.

I live in Hastings.

It is wonderful.

People go to EB to die.

aufaniae - I love the postcode comparison. I have just typed in where we live now compared to Warrior Square. We had 1586 crimes compared to 552 in Warrior Square. I know that's not the answer to everything but it is certainly food for thought. Thanks.

No people go to Bexhill to die (where I am now waiting for my house in eb to complete)

They go to Bexhill to wait to go to EB to die.

It's a natural progression.

JaquelineHyde, are you sure "Hastings does have a closest school policy"? When I phoned St Paul's I asked if there was a catchment area, they said "no", "because there were places in that year". But still we don't want to be too far from a chosen school so will be looking at schools before making a final decision.

A friend had her heart set on Old Town but the only school she liked was Robsack Wood. So she didn't move in the end because those 2 places are too far from each other. We're still open to all of it, just researching as much as possible before making decisions.

Sorry I was talking about during usual addmissions time not in year addmissions which is all about what places are available regardless of location.

oh I see. Thanks for clarifying. My DD's school was way oversubscribed in reception but places come up in later years more often. I was surprised how far away some of the new pupils (in year 3) live. So it must be like that everywhere. Thanks.

The thing is that all of this is relative. If you've come from Moss Side or here probably even the roughest part of Warrior Square is going to be nice. If you've come from Jersey probably the whole of East Sussex is pretty rough in comparison. Jaqueline's dodgy area could be very nice for someone else.

Someone I know is a horrible neighbour. She has made threats to report them to social services, bangs on their ceiling in the middle of the night and writes them nasty notes. This is all in an extremely expensive area of Eastbourne, behind the closed doors of a beautiful converted Edwardian house. You can live in the roughest area of the world and have no issues at all because you have wonderful neighbours, you can live in luxury and be miserable because your neighbours are vile.

Unfortunately you just don't know until you move into a house

I love lovely Hastings.

So there.

We have hundreds of artists and musicians, endless festivals: Jack in the Green, Bonfire, Seafood and Wine, Walking the Fish, Coastal Currents...the Old Town, the sea, and most stuff is free because no one has any money. People are inclusive, friendly and welcoming, more than any place I've lived (inc 30 yrs in London, rough and posh).

Are you going to Hastings Week Hully ? I thought I might come over for the day next tuesday with DD and maybe do one of the guided walks round the old town followed by lunch in Harris tapas - it's doing a "tapas feast" menu for £10.99 for two

My friend's mum just moved to Hollington. She's from Burnley. She'll be ok there. So, yes, it's relative.

Hastings is great. I've lived in two big cities too but I love it here. It has real character and there is always something going on.

Downsides are the transport links (takes an hour to get to the M25 and the train to Charing Cross I have just worked out has an average speed of 36mph which is laughable) and the lack of some big chain shops like H&M BUT it is worth it for the sea, surrounding gorgeous countryside and cheap house prices.

I'd avoid the area around Warrior Sq, Hollington and some roads in central St Leonards but you can trust your instincts - if the area looks dodgy and there are shady characters wandering around then there you go. Silverhill is ok in my opinion. Having said that most of both towns is fine compared to big cities!

Totally agree it's relative.

The inner city areas DP and I grew up in are very rough indeed in parts. The deprivation is severe (crack / heroin / street prostitution / guns / gangs / street crime). It was relatively easy to avoid as an adult, but one of the main reasons we left was that we didn't want DS going to school with children who were living such awfully chaotic lives at home, he would have been exposed to terrible situations through them I think, and the teenage gangs would have been a real worry as he got older.

We had a drive round Royal Sussex Crescent and surrounding roads this afternoon, because of this thread - as we're due to sign the contract this week so we wanted to be sure! We were looking for obvious signs of deprivation.

What we saw were mostly very well-kept gardens and houses. Young children out on their bikes in full safety gear. Plenty of expensive cars in driveways. No graffiti anywhere at all (graffiti can be a sign of gangs). Absolutely no abandoned cars, derelict buildings or dodgy-looking people hanging about. We did see a "yoof" on a moped - but he politely pulled aside to let our car past!

I'm very grateful to OhDearSpareHeadTwo for filling us in on the reputation of the nearby streets. We will move in with our eyes open!

However it's so much less threatening than what we're used to. I'm still looking forward to moving in, having a house with a bit of space, DS going to the local outstanding school and having the Downs right on our doorstep :)

Oh I totally agree, too. I don't want my DD going to school with children whose parents are on drugs, or in prison, huge problems at home, etc, either. There are very few single parents in the school where she is now. She might complain about people being snobby but I'd rather snobby people than crackheads any day! Obviously. So, yes, it's relative, and there must be a happy medium somewhere between crackheads and snobs, surely plenty of people are neither of those. Maybe I will even have a chat with the local police in St Leonards. I'm pretty friendly with the police around where I live now. Just to get a feel for a place, surely police would know better than anyone where the real bad problems are? Or is that ridiculous?

Actually, saying "less threatening" is not giving the area due credit.

We reckon it looks nice :) Lots of families doing normal family stuff.

marykat I think good schools matter loads.

I notice people often recommend a long list of schools in Hastings / St Leonards, but the only non religious schools in Hastings which have decent OFSTED reports are Blacklands and Little Ridge IIRC. (Or is Little Ridge St Leonards?)

And then in St Leonards, West St Leonards gets a good report - and also another one right out on the edge of town. But I heard someone say they really didn't think West St Leonards was a nice place.

I'm not local so I have absolutely no inside knowledge on these schools! This is just as far as our research got when we were looking at Hastings as a possibility.
There may well be some goof religious schools too - I don't know as we didn't look at them.

I don't know how much you should go by OFSTED rather than local recommendations? I suspect that's a debate in itself!

Little Ridge is up near the Conquest hospital (in Little Ridge Avenue). Blacklands primary is up by Alexandra park in the middle of a 70s housing estate (where PILs lived when they had a young family).

There are a couple of CofE primary schools and of course you have St Richards Catholic High School in Bexhill as short train ride away.