Kimberley in Nottingham

[Lou333]

Hi all,
Anybody living or knowing of Kimberley in Nottingham? What are the schools like?
Primary and secondary? The house prices seems good and there seems to be a big Sainsbury's and all. But just want the opinion from the locals.. We are moving from Gloucestershire

I enjoyed living there. Nice shops and local parks. Not sure about the schools, but they all have a decent reputation. It is close to the IKEA retail park too.
I would be happy to move back.

Thanks for your response.
How long ago were you living in Kimberley?
I quite like the images of the town on google. Seems like a lovely place.
Did you go to Nottingham city for your clothes shopping etc? And how were the restaurants and the bars?

I don’t live there, but have lots of work related experience with the schools in the area.
The 2 main comps aren’t great to be honest, the Kimberley school is quite big with lots of students on roll. I didn’t find it to be very diverse or good for students with SEN. The feeder schools are a mixed bag too. There aren’t many bars & restaurants either, it’s not really up & coming.

You’d be better Beeston, Chilwell, Toton way. The Spencer academy trust schools are very highly rated & Beeston/Chilwell high road is great, lots to do, bars, restaurants & even a new cinema!

My friends kids don't go to Kimberley comp due to its reputation but im not familiar personally. His kids like many off their new buildish estate go to Bluecoat.

It isn’t a great area at all to be honest. It certainly wouldn’t be my choice.

It was a while ago, but I have friends in the area still and I am not far away. There is a great cafe there called Rumbletums and Beauvale Priory. I was closer to Watnall area.
Eastwood nearby is not the best.
Getting into Notts is very easy and there is Mcartha Glen shopping outlet not too far away either.

It’s not a great area. I grew up a mile from there. I worked in a bar in Kimberley. It’s quite rough. It has high drug rates. It’s also not at all multicultural. A town up the road is the National Front headquarters. So the racism can be really obvious. Have you looked at Sherwood? That’s lovely. Great local high street with a mixture of independent businesses, bars and restaurants. Two vegan shops! They are currently doing their annual art week which the while town supports. Schools are lovely. That’s a 10 minute drive into the City.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I'm so glad I asked about the area here. I have a 19 month old so schools are very important. We are from an Asian heritage therefore multicultural atmosphere is also important. I think I'm going to drop the Kimberley house.
Another area where we have seen a good house is Attenborough. Anybody living there?

Attenborough much nicer than Kimberly. Check out the flooding potential though. They have done work there but the area has been badly affected in the past.

If you are Asian I personally would avoid that whole Kimberly, Ilkeston, Derbyshire borders area. As a pp mentioned it has a horrible racism problem.

Thanks @HasaDigaEebowai I will definitely look into the flooding.

The other areas we've come across are Carlton and Arnold. Can't decide about Arnold by reading reviews as it's so mixed.

Any thoughts?

Not a great area IMO. House prices aee cheap for a reason. It'a nr Hucknall.

Other side of Nottm is lovely...best schools are in West Bridgford and Bingham

Carlton and Arnold are city outskirts again not great

Attenborough really nice. Very close to a nice nature reserve. Has a small train station and is close to beeston. Also only 10 minute drive to M1 junction so good for commuting. Beeston is a great little place for cafes and bars and shops, however it has a lot of students due to being close to Notts uni. Good schools in the area.

Some parts of Arnold and Carlton are a bit rough, but some parts are nice. It's on the other side of the city to Attenborough and beeston. If looking around that area I'd advise looking at mapperley and woodthorpe. I don't know much about the schools over that side.

Also, if looking at Attenborough/ Beeston.. don't confuse beeston with beeston rylands... that's on the outskirts and is a bit rough!

We live in Eastwood which has a worse reputation than Kimberly and aren't white and we have never had any problems at all. My dc both went to the secondary here and didn't have any issues whatsoever. My 15 year old is in a friendship group at school where only one child is white. My oldest is at Bilborough sixth form now which is also multicultural. As is Nottingham generally.

The transport links for Kimberly are good. Handy for the M1 and not too far for the park and ride either.

Having said all that, I don't think I would choose to like in this part of Nottinghamshire if I had the choice of absolutely everywhere. But it's not the ghetto. I work at a school in Eastwood and there is a serious amount of Boden there! 

Carlton, Arnold and Gedling are a mixed bag depending on which part. The schools are outstanding/good. Not very multicultural and if you're out of the main bit you are basically living in a giant housing estate. I wouldn't say Attenborough was multicultural but is quite pleasant. Beeston locals aren't necessarily multicultural but the student population can be as that's where quite a lot of University of Nottingham students live which has campuses in Malaysia and China so some of them come over here for a year or so.
Hyson Green/Radford is very multicultural however there are poverty issues and not somewhere I tend to hang around in the evening.

West Bridgford and Wilford are very pleasant! Not sure how multicultural they are but it's not the sort of place that I associate with any issues at all.
Bingham quite pleasant not sure on diversity though.
Oddly the places with nice names are the rough ones!

West Bridgford and Wilford are very pleasant.
They certainly are but that's a bit like saying 'move to Knightsbridge' when the OP is asking about Camden. Yes, West Bridgford is absolutely lovely but houses are very expensive there.

Kimberly Primary School is a lovely happy school. I would absolutely send my dc there.

The secondary used to have an excellent reputation and was over subscribed but then there was a scandal and upheaval. I wouldn't move or not move to an area based on secondary schools if my child was only a year old though! Lots will change in that time.

@Lou333

Thanks *@HasaDigaEebowai* I will definitely look into the flooding.

The other areas we've come across are Carlton and Arnold. Can't decide about Arnold by reading reviews as it's so mixed.

Any thoughts?

I've worked in schools in Arnold and Carlton - they both have excellent schools and really decent areas to live. Arnold has a nice town centre, market, bars etc, Carlton town centre is more of a high street and precinct, hough that doesn't make it a bad place to live. Both areas really easy to get into Nottingham, and easy to get into the countryside. In terms of diversity, the towns on the edge of Nottingham tend to be ex mining, and as such have a strong white working class base. I'd say Arnold and Carlton are many times better than Kimberly and the towns heading out to derby, though, but that's easy for me to say as a white person. I do know that the schools in Arnold and Carlton were more diverse than when I taught in Hucknall (near Kimberly).

I'd live in Arnold no worries, and I have lived in Carlton.

. If looking around that area I'd advise looking at mapperley and woodthorpe

Mapperley top is in between Arnold and Carlton. It's got. A lovely high street -
Restaurants, pubs, cafes. But maoperley is more expensive.

I’d live in Arnold. I wouldn’t live in Carlton.
As a pp has said, the issues are mainly in the ex mining communities, the north/east Derbyshire extreme right wing areas and the low income inner city Nottingham areas. That’s not to say that it isn’t possible to live in some of those areas and never have a problem, I lived in Radford for a short time and was personally fine (but I’d never chose it or recommend it as a good area to live). I have a friend who lives in one of the Derbyshire villages where the neo nazi groups hold their rallies and she was oblivious to it.

What's your budget like? West Bridgford is really nice but it's quite pricey too. Schools are over subscribed also, but very good. Siome surrounding areas are also nice like Wilford, Ruddington, Tollerton, Plumtree. Nottingham City best for clothes shopping but there are some surrounding areas that have shopping centres like McArthur Glenn, Fosse Park Leicester and Meadowhall near Sheffield isn't too far either

Attenborough is lovely, there’s a lovely nature reserve & the village scarecrow festival is fun. It had good transport links, is close to Beeston & there’s a decent retail park nearby. The only thing I’d caution is checking the distance of the railway line from the house.

Thank you all for your responses.
Our budget is around £550k for a house.
From what I can gather, West Bridgeford is a safe bet. And also Wilford.
Arnold, Carlton and Gedling are nice but can be a bit of a mix!
Argh it can be daunting to find a house in a area you have no idea about so thanks again for your responses.
What do you all think about Alexander Park? We also had our eyes on a house in Mapperly park (very close to Hollygirt school) but gave up on it after lot of people in another thread said they would
Prefer to send kids to a private school in that area as local schools aren't good.

If your budget is 550k why are you looking in Kimberley? With that sort of budget you should have lots of options in and around Nottingham so what are your other considerations?