Hi everyone,
I’ve been reading mumsnet posts for a while but have only just made the jump and signed up! Our little one is 1.
My job might be moving to Frimley and we’re looking if to see if we have options to move to the area. My husband commutes into London - about 20-25mn walk from Waterloo station.
We’ve tried to map things out to come up with a short list of areas. It’s quite stressful (as I’m sure it is for everyone) as we don’t know the area well and have to consider both our jobs and commute times, look for a good nursery + schools for the future and find a house that fits our budget etc.
We’re looking for a village that isn't too isolated (i.e. not too far from supermarkets, shops etc.) We prefer places with character if possible, where the houses look different (i.e. not a new build estate) and with plenty of greenery. We’ll be looking for a 4+ bedroom house (budget around 750k).
From looking at a map, some of the villages to the west of Woking seem like a good option. We drove through Chobham, Horsell, St. Johns and Knaphill yesterday to checkout the area. All of them seemed nice.
We’d like to keep my drive down to 20mn to Frimley - absolute max of 30mn. I’ll be doing pickup and drop off at nursery - so we’ll be looking for a nice nursery too. Brookwood or Woking stations seem like good options on paper. Depending on where we end up living, no doubt my DH will need to drive to the station.
Can anyone help us get an understanding of traffic at rush hour times (he’ll be getting a train around 7h30 am)? Is driving into both stations an option? Are there enough parking spaces? What’s traffic like?
Also does anyone have any comments on the areas I mentioned above? Any other recommendations? Also which areas should we focus on with regards to schools?
Given your knowledge of the area, where would you pick?
Thanks so much for your help!