Help!! moving to South Oxfordshire/Oxford

[MuminBerkshire]

Hi All,

I have been looking at properties for a few months now. Have sold our house and DD starting Headington School in September. Hoping for DS to start Abingdon school in a couple of years. So, need a location that works for both Headington and Abingdon. Have looked everywhere from Wallingford, Brightwell cum Sotwell, Frilford and nearer in such as Garsington, Cumnor, Yarnell's Hill. Also just seen a couple of properties in Headington.

Started off with a wish list of 4 bedrooms, decent sized garden, away from main road, garage etc. I am really confused as to whether I would be better off moving further out (Wallingford etc) to get more space, garden etc for my money or whether to move further in - Cumnor, Headington etc. so that commute to schools is less. Need some guidance and ideas for areas that might work!

Are your children of an age where you can pop them on the bus and wave them off to school or will you be trying to drop them both at those schools? Traffic in Oxford is utterly, utterly awful.

Hi Arius,

Thanks for your reply. My children are 10 and 12. I know what you mean about the traffic. I guess that's a reason to be further in?

Thanks

Well I think it is certainly a reason to think very carefully about how the children would get to school, with at least one of them getting there under their own steam if possible. I know that the Abingdon schools have very good school bus routes (not so sure about Headington) so it may be worth looking closely at that if you are sure about Abingdon as a school for him (in so far as you can be at this stage). I certainly wouldn't want to be trying to drop children at both Headington and Abingdon for the start of school if possible.

Do you also need to factor in locations for travel to work?

Work is back in Bracknell for DH and I am based mostly at home. DH is not too bothered about commute as long as the house is right. He is not so keen on loving too near into the city since he is not so sure about the kids being brought up with 'inner city living' as he calls it! I, however, don't see areas like Cumnor/Yarnells Hill to be like this. Not so sure about Headington/Summertown/Iffley. I like the idea of having a bit more space to live in and greenery around but at the same time don't wants DC to be spending ages getting in to school. The school bus does go from places like Wallingford and Frilford and journey to Abingdon doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. Heading ton is the harder one and takes around 45mins - 1 hour to get in on the bus. I really wish I had some clarity on where to live!

Headington is a nice area to live and it has a lot of green spaces, many of them quite wild (Shotover park, Rock Edge, Lye Valley). Look south of the London Road where you can get more money in terms of house prices. However it definitely feels like a suburb of a city (though does have a good sense of community). I wouldn't describe it as inner city living but it's not like being in a village. Iffley village feels much more villagey but is expensive to live. Summertown is very expensive (very nice, bit also suburban) you will get more for your money elsewhere. And getting from Summertown to Headington in the school run could take 45 min on a bad day.

Definitely agree about traffic in Oxford at peak times. It can take 45 minutes to do a 10 min journey. We thought seriously about moving to a village but decided against it because of the difficulty of getting into and out of Oxford.

Abingdon itself is a nice town. You could also look at villages east of Oxford for easier access to Headington - eg Wheatley, Stanton St John, Horspath, Garsington. But I don't know what the school bus connections are like.