Moving to Nottingham or Newark areas

[SirensandPomegranates]

I am after some guidance on areas that might be suitable and those to avoid.

We are moving from the south coast as I've got a new job in the centre of Nottingham. DP will still be commuting into London (he works near St Pauls) but he will only need to be in the office about twice a week and the rest of the time he can work from home. Our DS is almost 2 and spends 4 days a week with our lovely childminder and the 5th with me and we will probably keep this pattern with the new childminder/nursery.

Looking to keep the door to door commute for me to about an hour and for DP to as close to 2 hours as we can!

We will probably be looking to rent for a while as we wouldn't want to jump into buying in an area that we had only visited a few times.

I like the idea of bring near nice countryside but in a large village or small town. We currently live in a busy town within walking distance of lots of shops cafes etc which I love and was particularly good while I was on maternity leave with DS. I'll be sad to leave all that behind and as I'm hoping to be on maternity leave again in the next few years being within easy (ish) reach of similar is quite important. Schools obviously aren't crucial just yet but they will be.

DP isn't a particularly confident driver but he will obviously need to toughen up and get on with it as I expect public transport won't be as extensive as he is used to.

When we come to buy we would probably looking to go for a 4 bed Georgian or Victorian house with a nice size garden if we can.

Where should we live??.

Ruddington or West Bridgeford would be a good bet.

Thanks Hotdoggity I'd heard of West Bridgeford but not Ruddington I'll have a look at that. Is getting into London ok(ish) from the outskirts of Nottingham or would we be better being near Newark to be on the east coast mainline? Can anyone recommend some places to look within reach of Newark?

Southwell's nice.

Yeah Southwell’s lovely. And Linby is small but beautiful. And Lowdham is arty with a lovely literature festival.

Thanks for all the recommendations. Lowdham looks interesting. Having a train station is a bonus I wasn't expecting.

Would you be aiming to commute by train/bus/car?

Bingham area would suit, train to Grantham for fast train to London. Train into Nottingham for you.

I live a stone throw from Linby but wouldn't consider it for twice weekly trips to London. Train from Hucknall doesn't go early enough to catch an early train to London and takes 30-40 mins to drive into Nottingham to catch a train there. (Tram is the same). Before they started messing about with the M1 driving to east Midlands parkway was an option but can take over an hour to get there these days.

Soulrider for my commute into Nottingham I would probably drive although getting the train is an option if we're somewhere within easy reach of a station. DP will get the train to London although I expect he may have to drive to a station. He ideally wants to be on the east coast mainline so that his journey is as quick as possible but we're open to looking other routes/areas as we don't want to rule anything out at this stage.

Soulrider just seen your second message thanks for that. It's good to have a realistic assessment of what's manageable as I don't want us to hate it just because we've picked somewhere with a commute that just doesn't work.

Newark is ok, not good for secondary schools unless you’re looking at Grammar, school buses go to the Sleaford and Grantham Grammar schools. I’m not sure on state primary but you have a lovely little indie prep School called Highfields in Newark. It has two trains stations, one is about 20-30 mins to Nottingham and the other station direct to London. You get a fairly decent size house for your money in Newark. Fernwood is a newish development there also little villages like Beckingham, Brant Broughton etc would be good for the stations. Brant Broughton has a popular primary school.

Thanks Ginorchoc

Be aware that at peak times driving into Nottingham is fairly atrocious, even more so if something has happened on the M1. If you do want to drive in and only want an hour commute realistically you're probably restricted to a 8-10 mile radius round Nottingham if you're working a 9-5 day. Check the parking situation too if in the city centre.

Toton has nice schools and park and ride tramlines into Nottingham plus I think it’s going to be on the HS2 route.

Toton is just part of the Nottingham sprawl though, unlikely to have the villagey feel the OP is after. HS2 is at least a decade away and makes very marginal gains on the journey to London. Living somewhere with easy access to the East Coast mainline at Newark or Grantham is going to be quicker to get into London.

OP, as you're looking to rent for a while, Bingham I think is your best bet. Should be a reasonable choice of rental properties there, has a nice central square with a few cafes, 1 hr 45ish to London on the train, 15 minutes into Nottingham on the train or about half an hour in the car. A bit old now but voted one of the best places to bring up children a few years ago I think it'll give you a good starting point to allow you to refine exactly where you might want to be once you're here which is always going to be a fairly personal thing.

Thank you everyone. I've been looking at the recommendations and doing some journey planning and yes I think DP will almost certainly favour somewhere out towards Newark/Grantham given how muh time it's going to add to his journey to get into Nottingham before he can get on a train to London. Soulrider you're right we will need to refine where we want to be long term once we are up there but I think we will probably focus our search for a rental place over towards Newark/Grantham way so I'll do some more looking into the places in that direction that have been mentioned.