Relocating family to East Midlands (Nottinghamshire?)

[TheMidlander]

Hi all, I’m new to Mumsnet but given it’s been such a useful community to lean on over the past 3 years, I’m hoping you can all help us!

We’re looking to relocate from the West Midlands (Worcestershire) to East Midlands (ideally a village or market town). We have a DS (3) starting school Sept ‘22 and DD (10mths) who will need a nursery. My PIL live in Lincolnshire so we’re looking to be closer to them than we are now.

We’ve explored Bingham / Radcliffe area and really like it but we’re open to other suggestions? The only sticking point is I work in central Birmingham 2-3 days a week but happy to commute (drive) 1.15/30hrs each way (will also be travelling to London a few times a month) - it would be good to know if anyone else has experience of commuting to Birmingham or London frequently from East side of Nottingham and actual travel times / tips?

Our budget is c£500k and would be looking for a 4 bed house. I would really welcome any honest suggestions or thoughts on areas with good schools / amenities / community feel whilst having good connectivity further afield.

Many thanks in advance and please do let me know if you need more info! 🙂

I did the commute to both Birmingham and London one day a week each between the Nottingham area - the London line on the train isn't the best to be honest - there are no real high speed trains and it's around 2 hours. Driving wise i used to allow 2 hours to go from Birmingham to Nottingham just because of city centre approach traffic.

Have you looked at Grantham?

West Bridgford is the best area to live in. It's close to the train station too and not too far to motorways
If possible live in a house which is in catchment for West Bridgford Junior/infants or Jesse Gray schools as they're the best ones. Both west bridgford and Rushcliffe schools are excellent.
Great high street and low crime - lovey place to live
Good luck

I'm from Nottingham originally and now I'm Derbyshire. My husbands family live in the West Midlands.

Is the train an option for your commute to work? If so then look at at derby Nottingham Lichfield mansfield or Chesterfield areas.

I'll be honest, the drive to birmingham isn't great. Esp if you need to negotiate the m6/m5 each day. I'd be looking at Derbyshire area for the a38 or further south and getting on the m1 around j23/24. Ashby/castle Donington areas.

Prioritise your commute to work- you will be doing that more times a week than you will be seeing your ILs and it's a lot of unpaid hours if you're considering 1.5hr commute = 15 hours a week on commuting!

How about somewhere like Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Loughborough area? Bit closer to Birmingham. Close to Grantham to catch trains to London. Close to the Lincs border…..though Lincs is massive and roads are terrible so depending where in Lincs your relatives are could still be quite a drive to them.

I popped on to suggest a large village/ small town called Shepshed. It’s in Leicestershire rather than Nottingham but it’s a 40 min drive to Birmingham and 2.5 hours to London. It’s right by the M1 and has regular buses to East Midlands airport where you can get buses to all the near by cities.
You would easily get a 4 bed house for budget and there are schools and nurseries too. Despite it being near the M1 you can still go for a good rural walk.

@CovidCorvid just noticed your post, the place I was on about is the other side of the motorway to Loughborough, I grew up there. Great minds!

I presume you're well aware OP, but you'll need to apply for your daughter's school from your new address by January. That doesn't leave masses of time for a house sale to go through. Not a problem at all if you're easy going about which primary she'll go to or if the ones in the area you choose are undersubscribed but worth bearing in mind if the places you look at have oversubscribed primaries. No idea about commutes but I worked in Notts and it's a lovely county. (Though not quite as good as Derbyshire!)

Is Leicestershire an option? Journey to Birmingham is under an hour by car or direct train and it's just over an hour to London on the train. North of Leicester city on the a46 has good access to Lincolnshire too - there's nice towns with commuter stations, some have limited London direct trains (or did precovid)

We moved to the East Midlands wth the same sort of set up: work in Birmingham and family in Linc's.
We didn't choose with public transport in mind (early 2000) and have to say the motorway commuting from a village broke me in the end we moved into Nottingham.
I would look for somewhere well placed for trains to Birmingham but where you can hack across to Lincolnshire on weekends. The Nottingham to Birmingham train isn't terribly fast but also stops at Beeston (nice family area) Derby, Burton on Trent and Tamworth. In Nottingham look for areas with a quick bus/tram/cycle to the railway station. East Midlands Parkway station is better for London.
Lincolnshire is a big place,I guess you know the A46 is the only fast road in, it's a reasonable journey from Nottingham.

Ashby-de-Zouch is nice and the schools are good.
No station though.

You will get more for your money in the villages north of Notts than south

Linby, Papplewick or Ravenshead could be options - some good schools

There's a train from nearby Hucknall into Notts (15mins) then trains to Birmingham (1hr 15) and London (1 hr 42)

Also very close to J27 of the M1 if you choose to drive rather than train the commute

Or possible Southwell/Oxton area for more eastern locations. Fast line from Newark to London

Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions - some great insights and we’re definitely up against it with school application timelines so trying to press on where we can.

We’re also open to other market towns / villages across the wider East Midlands area so any further suggestions would be really welcome (will also look into those already shared in the thread). Thank you everyone 🙏

@jackstini

You will get more for your money in the villages north of Notts than south

Linby, Papplewick or Ravenshead could be options - some good schools

There's a train from nearby Hucknall into Notts (15mins) then trains to Birmingham (1hr 15) and London (1 hr 42)

Also very close to J27 of the M1 if you choose to drive rather than train the commute

Or possible Southwell/Oxton area for more eastern locations. Fast line from Newark to London

You've got a great budget for the area. You'd get something lovely here for that. Semi rural if that is what your into.