Which area for family house in Cambridge

[Avocadosmoothie]

Hello, my husband and I are planning to move to Cambridge next year. We would like to be in a village not more than a 45 minute commute from the centre. We have a budget of around £500k and would like a four bed house with a garden (if we can get it!). Although we would sacrifice a bedroom for a nice village. We really want an area with a rural feel instead of urban. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

He's not absolutely determined to drive, it's just that now he's used to driving to work I'm not sure how much he would enjoy going back to public transport!

I just checked newmarket and train times look bad - nothing that gets you in between 8am and 9am which seems odd. Trains back in the evening are only once an hour which would be pretty restrictive.

I will have a look at your other suggestions - thanks for the help!

Ther trains in from the Kings X line will be increasing in frequency at some point in the future. I don't know the details, but some stations will get 2 trains an hour instead of 1.

Have just run the mortgage numbers with the bank and actually think we could go up to £600k.... not that that will buy much! I can see many areas are still ruled out!

I guess I am just concerned if you move somewhere like Balsham and then find the driving is just too annoying there is no alternative.

Having said that my husband's old boss used to drive in to the station every day from a village up near Fordham which is near Newmarket so it is doable. DH used to pass him all the time on his bike as he queued in the traffic.

It's not just him though - best to make sure that you and the rest of the family and somewhere handy for the bus or train line so that you also don't have to drive in. Cambridge city council are forever thinking up new ways to annoy and deter car drivers.

Workplace Parking Levy, peak hours road closures, congestion charge, bus priority measures, to name but a few. Honestly, read thiswww.gccitydeal.co.uk/congestion and dip into the Cambridge News occasionally www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/ and you'll get some idea of the transport discussions being had locally. Better to be forewarned!

We moved to cycling distance to Cambridge partly because my commute was so horrific, I could have got to London and got paid ££££ more in the same time that it took me to travel 12 miles to Cambridge. And one bump anywhere - M11, A10, A14, snarls the whole city up. If you want any kind of quality of life try and be in cycling/train distance. I like Waterbeach a lot but Newmarket would not be a good commute and I'm personally not keen on it anyway. Ely would be good too, but the secondary school isn't good I hear but could be an easy and frequent train journey for your DH.

Dorothy, I wish the city centre could go completely one way traffic and the other lane be given over to cycle paths completely away from cars. I would love cycling in the city to be safer for my DC and the longer journey times for car drivers would encourage more people onto their bikes.

Give it time, Pippa, give it time.

If you work next to the train station there is no need to use a car, at least for me it is not understandable why anyone would prefer a car over the train. lots of villages are within a very short cycle or train ride but it depends on what your preferences are.
are you looking for schools/ nurseries as well? what kind of village do you like? what activities/ amenities are you looking for? will you be commuting as well?

Ha! From Congestion Charging proposals to the City Deal road closures fiasco, I reckon my idea is better!

I agree with Dorothy.

It would be absolute madness to choose to commute by car to Cambridge train station every day.

Choose one of the lovely villages with a train station on the line to Cambridge, or somewhere on the guided busway.

Your husband is just going to have to adapt. Sitting on a train is a million times more relaxing than sitting in the Cambridge traffic, believe me. You can read a book, do some work, have a nap, etc.

And I think you're looking too far afield, btw - Newmarket for example. It needs to be somewhere on a Cambridge-London train line (Kings Cross or Liverpool St) really.

Actually I think Waterbeach would be good - only 6/7 minutes on the train and they're pretty frequent. Probably cheaper than the Shelfords too.

I agree with thinking about the train. I have to drive into Cambridge (need a car for my job) and the traffic is bad. We live 10 miles west of Cambridge and it takes me 25 minutes to drive to work, but I do leave at 7.15. It would take me longer if I left at 8 am. I get to leave work before 4.30 though and the drive home is usually less than 20 minutes. I do sometimes cycle it but it takes about 50 minutes each way. Madingley Hill is a killer when you're on a bike!

If I were you I would look at Melbourn. Train station for getting to Cambridge, good schools plus house prices not as expensive as some other areas like Shelford. We used to live near there and regularly drive to see my family in East Suffolk and it was a great drive. If your family are East of Cambridge then it's easy to get there, even though Melbourn isn't east of Cambridge.

Having said that, now we are west of Cambridge the drive to Suffolk takes about the same amount of time as we use the A14 which is fine at weekends.

If he's willing to drive to a station then there are some pretty and small villages south of the A505 that might suit your quest for rural living better than the larger villages with a station.

In non-rush hour I'm in a ruralish village a 15-20 min drive from the city. In rush hour that goes up to 1-1.25 hours. If you're talking about a commute by car then 45 mins would need to be very near to the city.

I'm in Duxford and walk to station (at Whittlesford) plus train to Cambridge takes hubby about 45min. (On days I work I have to detour via the nursery and then drive in so that takes way way longer - would love to public transport it but it doesn't work out for various reasons).

Whittlesford is also nice and has a rural feeling. Still quite a long way from the station though - it's called Whittlesford parkway station but it's not actually in Whittlesford.

Does anyone know anything of the villages haddenham and wilburton? Two villages close to Ely where we've seen a few options in our budget.

Both are nice and Haddenham has a pub and a shop and a takeaway so more on offer. The secondary schooling isn't great though in East Cambridgeshire if that is a consideration.

Someone mentioned state secondaries being no good in Ely?
Well, I am aware that Ely College very much on the 'up' these days.
Just thought would slip that in!
As you were....

Ely College has supposedly been 'on the up' for 20 years! Check out last year's exam results and go from there, OP. Although Witchford Village College is your catchment school in Haddenham and Wilburton anyway.

Another one saying he'd be crazy to drive if he works near the station. Downham Market is only about 40 mins by train into Cambridge on the king's cross line. It's very rural and also very cheap - you could have a mansion with an acre or two for half a million

Ely College are now overseen by a very reputable MAT so things are on the up. [Early days but room for immense optimism for the children of Ely[.
However, op has lots of choices round the area.

I wouldn't live in Newmarket, but people at work who do used to take about 45 mins to get into our Cambridge office for 8am (getting in for 9am is horrific) which is pretty much where your H is heading (we moved offices in September) although we did have underground parking so no journey once parked.

We live Cambridge side of Burwell - which is a reasonable sized village between Cambridge and Newmarket. You get a 4 bed for under £500k. I could get into work in about 30 mins leaving earlier than 7.20am or after 8.45am. I wouldn't bother between those times.

Swaffham Prior, Reach (very rural), Swaffham Bulbeck, Lode, Longmeadow and Stow-Cum-Quy are all much smaller villages along the road from Burwell to Cambridge. Bottisham is also nearer to Cambridge and a bit bigger - has the local Village College and a couple of shops.

Or then nearer in, Cherry Hinton or Fulbourn - but I suspect that might be out of budget.

Wilder, I hope you are right. And I'm aware of the reputation of the MAT brought in to run it, but IMO it will take a long time to improve things. And there have been many promises in the past too. I wish the new SLT well though and I will be interested in the progress, but up to now Kings has been doing very well out of Ely College's failures.

With the new MAT Pippa I think Ely College may have struck lucky.
They seem a determined lot and will really work hard for the school and the community. [I believe this through looking at the other schools in the MAT].
I too wish Ely College well- and all who sail in her .