Any advice moving to Woodley?

[Unicorn231]

Hiya, this is my first ever mumsnet post so please forgive any rambling! My husband is currently considering a job offer in Slough. We live in Kent at the moment and will have to relocate with our children (aged 7 and 2) and quite like the look of Woodley as the schools look much better than some of the other areas we have looked at. My main question is what is it like? Are there areas to avoid? I'm trying to do as much research online as possible before making a trip to explore but would ideally like to narrow it down to one or two areas first. Can anyone help please? We are looking to rent our house out and rent for the first year before buying and my mind is now a big blur of houses and schools! Most of the information I can find online about this area is years old! Thank you for any help you can offer!

I live in woodley. It is a nice area overall. And no real bad area.

There are two largely mainly council estate areas and less desirable addresses as with most towns.

Since the developments began traffic can be an issue. So many more cars on the road now. I used to commute to Slough (Wexham park) and it took a long time. I'd leave at 7.30 and arrive just for 9. Sometimes 5-10 minutes late. Was much better when I moved to shifts as avoided rush times and took 25 minutes.

The schools in woodley are good. I'd ring and ask where there are spaces in schools as a lot of the primaries are oversubscribed.

Schools generally thought well of are southlake, c of e, rivermead but no bad schools.

With regards to renting, I rent a shave been lucky. In the same house now for five years (hopefully not cursed it ) and am happy where we are. The rents are expensive though but I don't know what rental is like in your area of Kent? A 3 bed semi will be at least £1200 for a decent house. Try Woodley's estate agents rather than Romans. Romans are only concerned with getting the commission whereas we found Woodley's honest and very helpful.

With regards to woodjey itself. It's very handy. The main shopping precinct (pedestrianised, walkable from most parts of woodley and on bus route. Parking 80p an hour) has a variety of stores. Lots of coffee shops, charity shops etc but also has a few restaurants and banks. There is a lidl, Iceland and Waitrose.
On a Saturday there is a large market with fruit and veg stall, meat van etc. It's definitely a market though and not a naice farmers market if you see what I mean.

Huge park just across the road with a leisure centre (no pool), two play parks and a young kids paddling pool. There is park run on a Saturday and junior park run on a Sunday.

Quite a few parks and green spaces fir now unless they get built on!

It's got quite a few teams and clubs for children, football, rugby, netball, brownies rainbows etc.

A leisure centre with a pool and a gym. Plus a 'goals' centre.

Easy access to Reading via train or bus. So easy fir shopping. Although we prefer to drive 40 minutes on a Saturday to Westfield.

Trying to think of anything else. Ask if you have anything specific

Wow thank you for so much information I really appreciate it!

Sounds like Woodley could be a good choice then as long as we can get my daughter into a school! Plus I love a market as there was one where I grew up on every Friday and I loved getting meat and fresh veg there!

Wow that's a long journey to work!.. what time do the roads start becoming a nightmare as that may be something my husband could talk to his new boss about..possibly starting and finishing earlier to avoid it?

Rent wise it seems very similar to where we are now which is good for us, as I have been really shocked by some of the house prices in other areas before coming across Woodley on another site!

Would you say Woodley is semi rural or is it completely built up? I don't want to be in a hectic city centre so have been trying to find villages/towns that are close enough for my husband to get to work.

Lastly, would you be willing to name the roads that are less desirable? (I don't want to get you into trouble if you're worried about people reading it haha!)

Thanks again!

Woodley is essentially a suburb of Reading - don't be misled into thinking it is a 'town' in any respect.

Oh ok, thank you. I think we need to make a trip to the area and see what we think...there's only so much rightmove/forums/Google earth can help!

It's not semi rural by any means but I wouldn't say it was a large town. It is a small town and has its own council (woodley town council) however the town we pay council tax to is wokingham.

There are smaller villages about but the rent would be a lot more as they are more desirable probably looking at closer to £2000 for twyford, hurst etc. That's if anything was on the market.

Personally I'd avoid drovers way. I doubt anything would come up there anyway though as it pretty much is all council. I haven't even seen much to buy that way. The estate surrounding it doesn't have a good name. However like most council estates I'm sure 99.9% of the residents are nice.

I used to live on the airfield estate which was the new build part however we're talking late 80's early 90's and there are now several new build estates near the airfield and the other side of woodley.

It was nice, nice houses etc but all houses around you no shop except for a Tesco express on the edge of the estate.

I live off of vauxhall drive. It's all 80's built semis and detached. We find it quiet. There is a small londis around the corner along with a chippy and an Indian restaurant oh and a dog groomer! So handy for the bread and milk but about 10-15 minute walk from the main shops.

I prefer it here as a three bed semi is slightly cheaper rent and a slightly bigger house.

If I could choose where to live money no object it would be butts hill road, reading road, western Ave. those are the streets with large older houses and huge gardens.

I've lived in Wokingham and earley and can honestly say I prefer woodley.

Re the travelling. It's the m4 it's a nightmare. I'd say it stars around 7-7.30 but by 9 is ok as everyone in work and then will start again from 5.15-7pm. You can get to Slough via the M4 or the A4. Both will be heavy traffic on the morning as commuter belt. Lots of traffic going into London on a morning.

The weekend of June 10th is the carnival weekend so a good time to visit as you can see how woodley is a good community place to live and you can be as involved as you want or sit back and just enjoy the day, watch the small float procession and then go to the fair and stands run by local guiding, scouts, football groups etc.

See the more I wrote the more I realise how lucky I am to live here.

It does have its bad points. It's not a picturesque little hamlet and is quite concrete in the centre and has the usual teens hanging in the parks on an evening or by the chip shop. But the vast majority of those will be polite and move out do your way etc.

Thank you so much!

The m4 sounds like a bit of nightmare so will definitely be something to consider and am so glad that we know now!

Will definitely try to make the carnival too!

Thanks again so much you've been really helpful

We came to Woodley ten years ago when dh relocated. We didn't put much thought into it as it was the only place we could get both kids into school! It turned out to be very fortunate. Woodley is a great place to live. People are friendly, it has great transport links and lots of amenities. I love the precinct as there's lots of shops, spaces for kids to play and you always meet someone. A second favourite thing is the amount of green space. Dinton Pastures is right on our doorstep. Its not the poshest place in Berkshire but it's a great place to live!