Villages near Cambridge…any without any road noise??

[SeaisBlue]

Hi All, we are moving to the Cambridge area and keen for a village. We’ve looked at many of the villages around Cambridge and found in all of them that there is quite a lot of road noise from main roads not too far away - a pretty audible hum in the background which we find quite unrelaxing. We are living on London borders now and the road noise where we are is less!
Places we’ve found this to be are:

• Ickleton and Hinxton (which I otherwise love)
• Little Abington
• Horningsea
• Shepreth

We’ve also looked further south (Wendens Ambo) and road noise there we found very loud.

Please please could you help to suggest some villages where there might not be so much road noise in the background? Seems like there are so many big roads around Cambridge everywhere we try is the same - A10 / A11 / A14 / M11 and then also some other busy a roads.

Thanks so much!

I think you might be asking the impossible, but:

Radwinter
Balsham
Bluntisham

We live in the middle of Melbourn and can't hear road noise. But plenty of houses in the village can - to an extent I would not have been happy to live with.

So you might need to find a house in the right location in a village. You also would need to listen with the wind in different directions. Occasionally we can hear trains (very slightly), but not every day.

I've lived in Cambridgeshire and the only time you can make out the m11 is very late at night when the local traffic is light. These are commuter villages, everyone is driving places so they will not be quiet, look to the north for quieter. Haslingfield was very quiet in my opinion

The M11 passes almost next to Wendens Ambo and Ickleton, so not surprising you can hear road noise.

But if you are near bigger roads, your commute is going to be easier, so it's a pay off.

How about Thriplow, or Chrishall, the Shelfords or Whittlesford as maybe a bit quieter.

Reach is probably pretty quiet.
Upware definitely will be.

Thanks all, advice much appreciated. There are some new places here which I haven’t checked out and I will do so. Seems to be an impossible quest from the villages I’ve been to so far! Definitely think location in the village is quite key. Any other suggestions to add to the list would be great!

If you like Shepreth then you could look close there.

Around Melbourne will be hit and miss

The Barrington's may be worth a look. Fiction, Fowlemere, Thriplow, parts of Newton.

Around Sawston will all be a bit noisy, but you could still strike luck around the Shelfords, though that close in to Town will be even more expensive.

And thanks for the nudge, happy childhood memories 🙂

@SamphiretheStickerist thank you so much for your thoughts, it seems so impossible and as an occasional visitor I had never noticed it until looking for somewhere to live! I like Duxford and noise isn’t TOO bad but there are very few larger houses and it’s also fairly expensive. Little Shelford seems to have quite a lot of noise due to M11 proximity, Great Shelford is a lot better but as you say expensive, and virtually nothing coming onto the market at moment! I think I will check out Barringtons and that side of Cambs in a bit more depth!

We live in a village and all we hear is the birds, church bells, occasionally the pub and occassionally dogs and think there are lots of properties in villages here like this. Its partly location of house within a village, being further away from roads and villages not so close to the really big roads but there are plenty of them, possibly try going a bit further out may help but then you may have more of a commute but if not on London commute path prices are lower so may get a nicer property. Hope you can find somewhere.

We hear more noise from the animals at Shepreth animal Park than traffic noise.

Sometimes in the absence of other noise, you will find that you focus on what you CAN hear, and in a village, with few cars, any road noise sounds louder.

If you go as far as say Harston and look along both sides of the road as far as Royston. You'll be able to see which places veer towards the bigger roads.

I was going to say Meldreth would be lovely. But a quick check of house prices was a bit of a shock!

@Silkierabbit that sort of place is exactly what we’ve been dreaming of - birds, church bells etc. would you be happy to share where you live with me?

@SamphiretheStickerist the house prices are so high aren’t they - and property gets snapped up in days, we are in a strongly priced area now and I was dreaming of decreasing the mortgage and maybe being able to cut down on working hours to be around for the kids more when moving out of London but no chance of this in Cambridge area! I am really looking forward to the move in other ways though and Cambridgeshire is a great place to bring children up

Bartlow?

Sent you a PM

We live in Bourn and don't have any road noise. We do have a great team of bellringers though.

At night, with the windows open, I can't hear any cars.

Oh, and be careful with villages like Thriplow - they are under the stacking loop for Stanstead and can be really noisy in holiday season - the planes circle round, waiting until there's a landing slot free, then accelerate out of the stack which is really noisy.

Little Chesterford?

It’s not the Stansted planes that are noisy around Thriplow - it’s the Duxford airfield planes, which are much older and noisier. Visit those villages on a good summer day and there will be a lot of flying noise - yes it’s kind of cool to have Spitfires over your house but the noise is not trivial. Only ever during the day though.

Foxton, Fowlmere, Shepreth & Meldreth all good, with decent (if small) primary schools.

I live in Duxford and sometimes hear traffic from the M11 depending on the wind direction but would have to listen intently to notice it. It’s true though we do have lots of old aircraft overhead on most flyable days. I love watching the air shows from the garden and particularly the red arrows and eurofighter displays overhead. You get a free ‘Neighbours of Duxford’ pass to IWM Duxford too if you live in Duxford and the surrounding villages (Ickleton, Hinxton, Thriplow, Pampisford, Foxton, Meldreth, Whittlesford I think). Worth considering if anyone is a plane fan . I love the location too, a short hop onto the M11 and equidistant between Cambridge and Saffron Walden. Good luck with your search!

@Redissus thank you, I love Duxford (John Barleycorn is a fave) and interestingly the road noise doesn’t seem as bad as some places where the M11 is further away on the map. Not sure if it’s because the motorway is in a sort of in a dip in that part?!
Can I ask, is there a good feeling of community in the village?
Thank you to everyone else for suggestions too, it’s really helpful, we just need to wait for some properties to come onto the market as it’s just so quiet right now for new properties!

MIL lives in Benwick, about 40 mins from Cambridge and its lovely and quiet - very rural, but no road noise and a lovely place to live

Yes, there is a nice community feel to Duxford and it offers a lot for a small village. The new community centre has a lovely cafe, plus Greystones and Duxford Lodge mean there are 3 to choose from. Floodlit tennis courts at a very reasonable price plus 2 pubs and a Costcutters. You can walk to Hinxton and Ickleton via the countryside and even walk home from Whittlesford train station, although we’re talking a minimum of 30 mins.

Duxford is great and beautiful. Nice community feel but no one bothers you. Lots of facilities and well funded due to the bio tech surrounding it. 5 min cycle from the train station and depending which part of the village you live in 15 min walk.
M11 gets you into Cambridge more quickly than some people living there or nearer - quirk of the traffic - fewer miles to travel doesn’t always equate to shorter driving time! Easy to London - 40 ish minutes to Tottenham Hale (the Victoria line) or into Liverpool St. Saffron Walden also close by as some one mentioned.
Easy access to London driving too and the A11. Spitfires are great - it’s not like they are particularly loud or flying non stop every day - they have limits on the amount they are allowed to fly - and they fly over over villages too.

Duxford is quiet - I barely hear the M11 - parts of Cambridge are more likely to tbh