Nice villages/places to live between Colchester and Chelmsford

[Greatt84]

Hi all

We are relocating to Essex in the next few years (currently in Suffolk). We have 4 children. I work in Colchester (Ipswich side) so need good access to the A12.
Also, don't want to start going past Chelmsford because of the house prices going up so much.

So far we have looked at
-Tiptree/Kelvedon
-Stanway (not keen as very built up now)
-Maldon
-Heybridge
-Chelmer Village
-Springfield
-Braintree (don't know much about it)

Does anyone live or know about these areas? Or have any other suggestions?

We need good schools/college (we have children from age 3-14). We need good access to the A12. I prefer a village feel.

Thanks

Chelmer Village - nice area. Good access to the A12. However traffic can be an issue getting into town (Army and Navy roundabout) and I believe some of the houses have restricted covenants on them, so you might want to check that if buying.

Springfield - old Springfield is nice, but traffic is an absolute nightmare. Further out in Springfield is better and has good transport links.

Braintree - a nice town, but limited access outside of Braintree (trains are every hour, buses mainly go to Witham or Chelmsford). If you have children I expect you'll forever be giving them lifts.

Kelvedon gets extremely clogged up - think one road in and out. It's a lovely place though. Perhaps living on the outskirts would be nice? Trains aren't terribly regular and I'm not sure where the nearest schools would be.

Witham might be worth considering. It's not a very exciting place but it's not terrible either. It's like Braintree but with better transport links.

The other areas you mention are nice but I don't know too much about them.

RE standard of schools Chelmsford is definitely the best.
Hope this is useful to you.

I don't live in the area but Coggeshall looked like a nice place when we went to a National Trust house there and walked round the village.