Advice on moving to the Witney area

[MrsSDJ]

Hi All

My husband and I are seriously considering moving to the Witney area. We currently live in East Dulwich in London and hoping that Witney may tick our boxes in providing a good family life. We have 2 boys- our eldest is almost 3 and our youngest is 1. We want to move to an area with good schools and lots going on for the children by way of clubs etc.

My husband will need to travel to Cheltenham for work. I will need to travel to Cowley (just outside Oxford) and High Wycombe.

What part of Witney would you recommend for us? We ideally want a 5 bedroom house with a good sized garden, close to amenities and other professional couples/ families. Our budget is around £850k. Nothing is coming up in Rightmove when I search for Witney itself so I am assuming we probably ought to look at the surrounding villages...? Are there any other areas you think we ought to consider? Any other advice gratefully received!

Thanks so much for your help.

One further thought we had was Chipping Norton as we think that is commutable too. Majority of my team will be in Oxford Business Park.

The traffic on the a40 from witney to Oxford is horrendous in the morning. I'd advise doing the drive from witney to Cowley at the time you would be going to work and see if it's bearable for you before you look. The commute to Cheltenham on the other hand will be a doddle, and is a nice drive. I did it for a year. Some of the villages like Clanfield are lovely. Cokethorpe School is excellent but were you talking state schools? I don't know about them. Stanton Harcourt (but off the main road) and Ducklington are nice.

Just be warned that the commute from Witney to Oxford is awful. It's getting steadily worse, and will be a minimum of 45 mins, but frequently over an hour to get to Cowley. There's a proposal for a new estate at Eynsham of 3000 houses too, along with the estate that's already being built on the west side of witney, so the traffic situation will only get worse.
Sorry to be so negative. Its a lovely area to live in, but the A40 really does make things difficult.

You should be able to find a house like that within your budget in the witney area, but definitely look at the surrounding villages. What schools are you considering?

Eynsham might be a good compromise, but

Cut off there, sorry.

Yes, look at Eynsham, Ducklington, villages north of witney etc. The commute in the other direction to Cheltenham is much easier, so might be worth considering being closer to Oxford

Stanton st John and Islip are the other side of Oxford but a much easier commute to Cowley. Longer for Cheltenham.

£850k will easily get you a 5 bed house with a big garden in the middle of witney btw. Most seem to be in the £600-700k range, although lots of estate locations.

Better options in the villages, but they don't come up very often.

Thanks for the advice guys- it looks as though Witney isn't viable given the journey is so bad! Back to the drawing board on location/ the big move out of London....!

My advice? Dont its a shithole. Horrible place. Just check out the constant shit on the spotted witney fb page. Its constant. I used to live there.

@MrsSDJ

Try looking at somewhere on the Cotswold line maybe. That might be a bit more viable.

Witney is a great place tbh, much improved in recent years too, (and every town has a load of rubbish posted on the 'spotted' pages, so don't go on that!)

It was awful when i was there 2 years ago and when i was there 15 years ago. I dont think its changed except all the good places to go have been shut down.

What about Woodstock or nearby? Still a tough commute to Cowley but not as bad as Witney!

A friend teaches in the area and said recently that kids and teachers are leaving Witney state schools in alarming numbers and she doesn’t know why, but it isn’t a good sign.

I commuted to the business park from Bampton for a couple of years - using the A420 rather than the A40 and that is a much easier journey. It's a fab village as well, good primary, good community.

Burford, ducklington, woodstock, cotswolds maybe

My parents live in Witney. It's improved a lot since I grew up there and I would certainly live there now if my husband would consider it. A40 is horrible for commuting although my dad managed reasonably well using the buses. I wouldn't disregard it entirely without testing out the commute. I agree that closer to Oxford might be better.

"A friend teaches in the area and said recently that kids and teachers are leaving Witney state schools in alarming numbers and she doesn’t know why, but it isn’t a good sign"

@NamelessEnsign

Not sure about the rest of them, but there's been money problems at the ex grammar - 17 teachers have just left!

Wow! @IWantMyHatBack that really is worrying!

I can recommend villages near Burford which would be fab for Cheltenham (and schools) but terrible for Cowley.

Witney isn’t bad as a town centre - we use it a lot - but schools are currently a worry it seems, unless you go private.