Where to live in/near Loughborough

[naeb100]

We are soon to be relocating from Sheffield to Loughborough. Myself and my husband will be working at different places. My husband will be working near Wickes/Staples and I will be working near the college.

We would like to buy a house (3 or 4 bed) but not sure about areas. We are wanting any advice on areas. We would like local amenities. Ideally a community feel. We will both have cars so transport not an issue but a bus route would be nice. We don't have children yet but hope to in future. We would like ease of access to the town centre for an evening etc.

Any suggestions welcome.

Sounds like you might be better in Loughborough itself. Loughborough has many (too many) student lets around the university and near the town centre.

The town has everything you would expect from a university/market town. The railway station is slightly out of the centre but a shuttle bus does run up to the college/university. Maybe you could check out some of the villages on the line if you want to commute in.

Hopefully someone else will come along who knows the town well.

It depends on your budget but if I were you I'd look at houses around Forest Road, Beacon Road, that sort of area. It's a nice family friendly area, close to the town centre. Depending whereabouts you settle it's either 5-10 minute walk to the town centre or more of a trek. As a (very rough) rule of thumb, the further out you go, the bigger and more £££ the houses get. There are a lot of student rentals everywhere in Loughborough but you won't notice it as much around there if you're worried about noise etc.

There are buses into town but your DH would need to check routes to get to Staples/Wickes area.

Plenty of good schools around there if you're looking ahead.

If you start looking and want any more advice about specific bits of Loughborough, feel free to ask. I don't know so much about the villages.

Thanks FrozenYoghurt. We aren't sure on budget yet. We are ideally looking at semi-detached or modern townhouse, rather than terraced.

Thought about Hathern, areas of Thopre Acre (current houses for sale in Colling Close, Lindisfarne) or south of Loughborough (Woodthorpe way)

Hoping to visit in a few weeks time and get a sense of these areas but any tips would be appreciated. A couple of people have said avoid Shelthorpe?

Trouble is a lot if these areas aren't clearly marked on google maps!

There tends to be more Victorian terraced housing between the train station and the centre of town - in most of the streets close to the centre actually, though there are pockets of modern/older semis etc as well.

Thorpe Acre is ok - your nearest primary school for the streets you've looked at would, I think, be Stonebow, which I don't know but it'd be easy enough to research. Unless you're Catholics and looking for church schools, or considering going private - both are viable options in Loughborough but the state schools are good too.

I don't really know Hathern, but I'm guessing it'll be popular with commuters as it's beautifully placed between Loughborough and the M1.

I know a few people who live in the new estates around Woodthorpe - plenty of young families. That area is fine too, I personally wouldn't live there myself because it feels a bit sterile and in the middle of nowhere to me - lots and lots of houses on winding streets but nothing else. But that's personal preference of course.

I'd avoid Shelthorpe too.

All the places you mention are a drive out of town. Not an issue in one way as they're not far out, but you need to bear in mind that parking in town on Saturdays and Thursdays (market days) can be a nightmare, and rush hour traffic into/through town can also be horrific, especially during term time. Woodthorpe for example would mean coming in on the A6 or via Epinal Way and they are notorious black spots in rush hour.

Again, that's just something you need to bear in mind.

I am biased - I live in the Beacon Rd / Forest Road area, at the end that's close to the centre of town and I love it. I can walk into town in 5 minutes (if I'm striding purposefully!), so I can get to the park, the market, shops, gym, restaurants etc easily. It's a 5 minute drive to the steam trains and Charnwood Water, and a short drive to the Outwoods and Beacon Hill/Bradgate Park, etc. But these are all the things I like to do :-)

Good community atmosphere - I know most of my neighbours, but not in an in-your-face way. Mixture of families, older couples, and the inevitable student housing but it's ok.

The houses round me (3-bed 30s semis mostly) are going for around 195k at the moment. Some of the bigger ones on surrounding streets will go for more.

The Forest Road area does sound good!

What about Mountsorrel or Shepshed? Seen decent sized and decent priced houses there. Also the new estates of daisy bank near hathern and grange park in woodthorpe

I'm near Hathern/Shepshed, the Daisy Bank estate looks good and is very well placed on the A6 for getting into Loughborough. The drawback for me would be that you would be reliant on a car, there isn't really anywhere you can walk to other than the village itself and it only has a tiny shop. Buses run past there 24 hours to and from the airport though so nighttime getting into Loughborough would be easy.

Shepshed has more to offer, there's a big coop, asda, small tesco and other smaller shops but you would need to be careful about the specific area, acces to Loughborough is easy from there too.

Whereever you go there's lovely countryside all around and very eay to get to Leicester, Nottingham or Derby.

If you don't want to move before you pick a school I'd be careful with Hathern, there's already pressure on school places, Shepshed has about 4 primary schools so more choice

Thanks! Interesting points on Hathern and Shepshed. I'd rather somewhere we don't have to think about where within that area. Schools aren't problem as we don't have children yet.

Any thoughts on Mountsorrel?

Jesus.
Not shepshed.
It's a dump! 😫
Mountsorrel is ok.
Quorn is lovely.
Kegworth prob to near airport for you?

Grange Park is, for me, a bit isolated and you're dependent on a car to go anywhere at all that isn't just streets of new houses.

Some parts of Shepshed are OK imo, the new houses off Tickow Lane have lovely views and good access and the new estate nearer Hathern is nice and quiet too.

Kegworth is a possible option too although the plane noise wouldn't suit everyone.

Is Grange Park the estate between Shelthorpe and Quorn? If so I agree it's a bit out on a limb. If Quorn is too expensive Mountsorrel or Rothley are good options too.

How far out of Loughborough are you prepared to go, there are nice smaller villages a bit further out if you don't mind a lack of amenities and you're happy to drive to things

There are some lovely villages between Loughborough and Nottingham too. If you know what you want in terms of proximity to town centre/basic amenities/transport links, there will be somewhere here that ticks the boxes. The more I think about it the more I realise that there are potentially lots and lots of options for you round here.

Not Shepshed.

Hathern is OK, but expanding fast in all directions. Many children from Hathern go to school in Sutton Bonington instead of the Hathern School.

I'm biased towards Sutton Bonington. Its a lovely village. Real community feel. a shop, post office, couple of pubs. It has a Nottingham University campus there so is well serviced with buses both to Nottingham and Loughborough.

Excellent primary school if you do go on to have children.

On the other side of loughborough, Woodhouse and Woodhouse Eaves are both very nice.
Plus Quorn.

Personally, if budget allows, I'd go smaller in one of those areas rather than a larger house in Sheepshead/loughborough.

Quorn, barrow upon soar (on train line), wood house eaves all large villages with amenities. I used to live in sileby which was fine. Personally I wouldn't want to live in Loughborough itself but I do prefer the village feel. Nice villages out towards Melton Mowbray too worth considering.

Frozenyoghurt - you've reminded my about East Leake, larger size village with a nice centre and a good feel, a little bit further from Loughborough but still an easy commute. There are some new builds going up there too

Nampanten, east leaks, Gotham, kegworth, hathern, Willoughby, nether broughton all nice areas some nearer to Loughborough town than others

Does anyone know anyone who has bought a new build house and who the developer was and if they had any problems. Some of the houses are new builds but just unsure of companies

We're on Grange Park in a William Davis house. We have had no worries about the house, we've had a few minor issues which they've dealt with quickly and with no fuss.

We visited Loughborough this weekend. We think we've narrowed it down to a few areas.

We are a bit confused about the Forest side of town - we thought this was between Forest Road and Beacon Road - or is it anything that side of the A6?

I've done a map here - marking where I think Forest Side is but also two other areas. I'm not sure what these are or what they are like. Does anyone have any advice?

drive.google.com/open?id=14YMUmhLt_WC0OdLCkplm4pKNhVg&usp=sharing

Also, any thoughts on East Leake? Is this too far from Loughborough?

You've got your forest side about right, but you'll also be OK a little way to the other side of the A6004 - so Wallace Road, the section of Beacon Rd down as far as Park Rd, Herrick Road and Middleton Place, Colgrave Rd, Mayfield Drive, round there is nice too. Of the sections you've marked, the forest side is the bit I know best.

In your red-lined area, the only bit I'd want to really thoroughly check out before going there would be the top right-hand section, the rest of it is all pretty nice.

I don't really know the rainbows area.

The bit above your green area, the other side of forest Rd/Nanpantan road is good too (Holywell drive and the streets round there). I think that's more modern housing, the green section is more of a mixture.

I'm not helping you narrow it down am I?

Thanks - by top right do you mean near the Tesco?

Thanks - is all the bit above the Green area nice or just certain bits?

Yes, I mean the area on the other side of Park Road from Tesco.
I don't know about the whole of the bit above the green area as I don't know it so well, but the little housing estates I've driven through round there all look fine.