Where to live <1 hr train to Birmingham?

[mrsgrace]

My DH may be asked to change his work base from London to Birmingham. He will predominately commute to Birmingham with occasional days in London.

We currently live in SW London (Clapham) and are at a bit of a loss where to start a house search as neither of us are from the area.

Where would you live if given the choice? Priorities would be in order: location, amenities, private schools, commute time.

I presume you'd be buying a property - what would your budget be? Is private school a definite requirement (I only ask as some of the Worcs state schools are excellent)?

Blakedown, Hagley, Barnt Green, and Hartlebury stations are all less than an hour form Birmingham (in fact they're around 25-35 mins - there would be more choice in terms of locations, but these are the first few which spring to mind). Near Hagley there are lots of nice villages, but you'd have to drive to the station, (less than 10 mins).

What amenities would you consider essential/important?

Thanks for replying.

House budget is up to 800k. Private school not a definite requirement if there is an excellent state primary locally, but we'll probably go private for secondary.

I suppose our dream would be to live in a medium to large village (with some amenities like cafe, pub, shop) that's less than 10 miles from a bigger town for more shopping options, sports clubs, cinema, etc.

Medium to large villages which spring to mind are - Hagley, Barnt Green and over the border in Warwickshire - Balsall Common and Henley in Arden.

All of these villages have stations which are a 30min or less ride in to Birmingham.

800K will buy you a lovely massive house in some of the most desirable areas of both Worcestershire or Warwickshire.

Barnt Green example - www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44376814.html?premiumA=true

Balsall Common example (modern but plenty of older properties too if that's not to your taste) www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31598727.html

Henley in Arden example www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44581559.html?premiumA=true

If I was taking my pick for a relocation I think I'd go for one of the Warwickshire town/villages - Henley or Balsall Common. This feels a bit disloyal to my beloved Worcestershire, but Solihull is very close by to these villages and has better amenities than the larger towns in Worcestershire - it has a newish swimming pool, several private schools, cinema, John Lewis, good shops, ice rink etc. It is slightly soulless, but then other Warwickshire towns would also be close on hand which are more characterful such as Stratford and Leamington.

I can't really help that much on private schools I'm afraid (my DS is 2.4 and we're just going to go along the village primary route so I just don't know what's available) (although I have heard brilliant things about Winterfold prep which would only be a 10 min drive from Hagley if you chose somewhere around there) - hopefully someone with more knowledge than me will be along with some information on these soon.

Hth :)

Oooh - the other bonus about Balsall Common for you would be that the station there (which is confusingly called Berkswell) is only 10 mins in the opposite direction to Coventry which would mean that your DH would only be approx 1hr 10 mins from Euston on the days when he commutes to London.

Again thank you so much for the helpful advice - am excited now!