Thinking of moving to Bedford over the summer....good areas?

[mummyjules8]

We have sold our London house and moving out towards Bedford this summer. Any advice on good areas would be great? We are thinking either Bromham, Biddenham or the Castle Road area of Bedford. Or alternatively St Albans but it's a lot more expensive!!
We have a 3 & 6 year old.

Thanks in advance!

Hi we live in Bromham and love it. It is a village but it is large enough to have good facilities. Small supermarket plus a couple of open all hours shops, doctors, library (for now), fish and chip shop, 2 pubs, great lower school.
There are plans for more housing but that is common to lots of villages in our area.
What year is your eldest in? Need to check school places in your areas? I know Castle Road school is generally very over subscribed. Bromham Lower (changing along with all local schools to a Primary from next September so up to Year 6) tends to have spaces but you would need to check.
There are also 2 preschools in Bromham but they get very full. So again you would need to check. Mine went to Almonds Preschool which celebrated 50 years this year and is lovely.
If you are commuting by rail Bromham and Biddenham are much easier for the station than Castle Road.
In my view Bromham is better than Biddenham due to better facilities but then I am biased!
Hope that helps a bit.

Spent six months on Sharnbrook, a village just north of Bedford. Nice place, very pretty. Pub, co-op, doctors, few other naice shops. The schools are good and there's plenty of toddler stuff to do if you want that.

I moved there after London and TBH I found Bedford a bit of a shock to the system after Islington, but that was a few years ago and there are signs of the town centre gentrifying. If you're not used to smaller towns I'd give real thought to renting for a bit before you buy. We ended up much closer to St. Albans.

Thank you for that info. The boys are 3 and 6...so hope to get into a local school but may go private if we can't.
Yes we are renting to start with whilst we check out the different areas and villages and see if we like it.
Quite worried about moving out of North London as have a good network of friends but husband working in Bedford and fed up commuting. Eek.

If he is working in Bedford centre itself than Castle Rd area is probably more convenient than the villages and probably feels more like London (in a very very much smaller way!). It's walkable to town centre with its own shops and cafes and very near the river and parks. Was at the biannual River Festival last weekend- fabulous.
The on street parking would drive me nuts though!!!

Hey.. did you move to Bedford? How are you finding it?

No! After all that we ended up in berkhamstead, decided Bedford was a bit too far from the bright lights

Hi , need some advice and reviews about Sharnbrook academy for my son joining year 7 next year and with regards to the catchment areas .