Move to Sevenoaks or Tonbridge?

[ArialAnna]

We are looking to relocate from London to either Sevenoaks or Tonbridge, and I can’t decide which one is best for our family (though finding the perfect house would swing it either way). Tunbridge Wells is out as the commute will be too far.

I’ve been trying to weigh up the pros and cons, but I’d really appreciate the views of people who already live there. Am I right in my assumptions below? Is there anything important I am missing? Sorry if I’ve rambled in the list below (thought I should provide some context for some for my thinking)

Pros for Sevenoaks:

• Town seems prettier
• Immediate countryside seems prettier (with Knole Park etc)
• Shorter commute to London
• Easier to cycle around? (I prefer to cycle rather than drive for short local journeys – partly environmental reasons, party because I find parallel parking an ordeal!) From Google maps it looks like Sevenoaks might be easier to cycle around, as there appear to be more quiet residential through roads, whereas in Tonbridge, because of the river, any journey from north to south end of town will have to join the main road across the bridge.

Pros for Tonbridge:

• Better secondary schools
• Independent primary schools seem to be mostly co ed (quite a few of private primaries in Sevenoaks seem to be single sex, which strikes me as a bit odd and unnecessary – I have only sons and think more female influence can only be good for them! Can anyone offer me a different viewpoint of why single sex primary education can be good?)
• Bigger, and a bit more going on for kids? (with the nice swimming pool, and clip n climb – though guess they are still easily reachable from Sevenoaks)
• Better / more going on for teenagers? (looking ahead)
• Better selection of shops and supermarkets
• Cheaper

Sevenoaks .prep, St Michaels, Radnor House all coed independents.

We live in Kemsing, Sevenoaks, and have zero regrets! Moved from SW London 6 years ago. My two older DSs go to Knole Academy (mixed). They are thriving beautifully in the grammar stream, and both love it.

Thanks @LIZS, I was aware of those schools, but they are all on the outskirts / semi rural aren't they? I've probably just got to get over my aversion to daily driving!

Great to hear you had good move experience @Frazzlerock and your boys are doing so well at school. I'm not sure my boys will be bright enough for the grammer stream, so might just have to keep throwing money at their education instead!

@ArialAnna I didn't think my boys would be bright enough for the grammar stream either. My middle boy failed the 11+ and was showing a lot of signs of 'slow processing' at primary school, which was picked up by one of his primary teachers. Then he flourished at Knole Academy and was moved up gradually until he reached the grammar stream. I think that's largely due to fantastic teaching, so I wouldn't disregard it completely! It's an excellent school with incredible facilities

@ArialAnna

Thanks *@LIZS*, I was aware of those schools, but they are all on the outskirts / semi rural aren't they? I've probably just got to get over my aversion to daily driving!

Great to hear you had good move experience @Frazzlerock and your boys are doing so well at school. I'm not sure my boys will be bright enough for the grammer stream, so might just have to keep throwing money at their education instead!

Do they run school buses? The Somerhill schools do near Tonbridge.

Thanks @Frazzlerock, your son has done really well to progress so much! Gives me hope for mine! I'll definitely keep Knowle Academy in mind.

Great point @LIZS, I didn't think about school buses. I'll make some enquiries.

If you’re still weighing up the options @ArialAnna, these would be my thoughts

For a start, what is your budget as thanks to its shorter commute, Sevenoaks is pricier, your money will go further In Tonbridge. There is a swimming pool in the Health centre along with roller skating etc.

I’m in one of the villages surrounding Sevenoaks. I’m biased but I prefer Sevenoaks. Yes it’s prettier. The shops might not be plentiful (Tunbridge Wells and Bromley are much better) but then the shops in Tonbridge aren’t great either & are pretty downmarket. Sevenoaks does have a (few) higher end stores as well as a Marks, Waitrose, Aldi, Tesco’s and Sainsburys (which seems pretty enough to me!).

Tonbridge used to be the poor relation but is far more demographically mixed than it used to be. It’s a nice town with a historic centre and some nice properties. It does have more of a rough reputation than Sevenoaks. I’m not sure there is a great deal for teenagers to do (my DD2 goes to school there) but then Sevenoaks in that regards isn’t dissimilar. Both however are pretty safe.

Tonbridge does have more schools as you’ve said. If you’ve got daughters & plan to go State then Hillview is a good Secondary school. If you have boys then you have less great options, the mixed sex Secondary who’s name I forget & the boys Secondary (can’t remember what that’s called either) don’t have great reputations or a great track record when it comes to results.

Sevenoaks Secondaries are pretty mixed. Only one child from DD2 (Year 9) Primary went to Knole. It’s a very big school with a not great local reputation- it has improved its results over the last 5-10 years so I think much of its reputation is based on its historic performance. Trinity has a much better reputation (and performance stats) but it’s a Faith school and takes 50% of its intake on non Faith applicants. It’s very over subscribed and only goes out about a mile on non Faith offers. It’s situated on the outskirts of town near Seal. Wrotham (Wrotham is a village on the outskirts) is also a good school but also over subscribed.

Sevenoaks (imo!) is better for going out. We’ve a lot of restaurants and nice pubs. There’s also a small cinema in the Stag theatre.

Happy for a PM if you want anymore details.

Thanks very much @Whohashiddenthebiscuits, that's interesting to know. Schools wise, we'll probably go for an independent school, at least for primary. I've started visiting schools and so far the one I've liked the best is in Tonbridge, but it'll might come down to where we can get the nicest property, as there aren't many properties available that tick most of the boxes for us.

The schools in Tonbridge are popular but many of the children at both Primary and Secondary level won’t be living in Tonbridge itself. Good luck with the house hunting!

We did the move out of London over 15 years ago now. We spent sometime looking at houses in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells, seeing what our money could get and also getting a feel for the towns. Even though it meant a slightly longer commute (10 min) we chose Tunbridge Wells in the end. It just had a feel about it that the other two towns didn’t have, plus nicer housing stock on offer and a better town centre. I would recommend doing the same Op. Just spend a couple of days in all of the towns.

Tunbridge Wells has lots of very good co-ed prep schools too.

I will be in a very similar situation with the difference that I'll most likely be looking at state schools rather than independent. Where did you end up moving to ? Which schools did you choose?

Easier to cycle around?
Sevenoaks is far more hillier than Tonbridge.
As to the local countryside, Sevenoaks is affected by the M25/26 which acts as a barrier to the north. Going south from Sevenoaks you end up in Tonbridge!
Tonbridge also has the Medway flowing through it which offers a natural route into the countryside.
From a transport POV, Sevenoaks has two rail routes into Town. However as Tonbridge is only 1 stop away, and also has a line going towards Redhill/Croydon, it has 3 routes. Can be useful during bad weather/strikes etc.

@crimp82 just seen your message sorry. We've actually changed our search to Tunbridge Wells and have had an offer accepted on a house there. We switched as the school we liked in Tonbridge ran out of spaces in my older son's year group. In Tunbridge Wells both Rose Hill and Holmewood House have space for both children, so fingers crossed one of those will work out! Best of luck with your search - trying to match school places and houses is tricky!