Relocating

[LizzieMint]

Hi, we are considering relocating to somewhere in Oxfordshire or Bucks. We're currently in Bristol, and my OH works in Milton Keynes - not ideal! We don't know the area at all, but would like to move somewhere that's within an hours drive of MK, but on the west side as we have family in Bristol so don't want to move all the way across the country.
We also have 2 primary school age children and one pre-schooler so it's a load of upheaval and we've no idea where to start! Do we need to find good schools first, then settle on an area second? I've been looking on estate agents sites aroiund Banbury/Brackley/Bicester sort of areas but we're feeling a bit stuck on how to narrow things down. Any help appreciated!

The best idea would be to narrow it down geographically to a certain area using your strictures above, then work out what kind of place you want to live in : rural/village/market town/big town.

Once you've decided that you need to ask around on here or have a look at our existing thread to get an idea of the character of the different options, what schools are available until you have a choice of about 2 or 3 market towns (for example). Then it's time to go visiting. Have a drive around, try and attend an event of some kind - a market, fete, toddler group, church service, whatever, so you get an idea of the type of community and find a few people to talk to. This should give you a good idea of your top choice of town, then you can ask on here again about that town specifically to try and find the best school, best area, best bit to avoid etc...

Hope that's a helpful start. I think I may need to do a blog post on this as it's a question that arises with some regularity.

I think there is a discussion on here somewhere about Bicester already, btw...