Huntingdon-what’s it like?

[goants]

We will need to downsize from the South East due to health reasons …

What is Huntingdon like as a place to live?
We like traditional looking towns with some traditional housing, with good amenities including a cinema and a safe friendly vibe.

We’d spend £500k tops for a 3 bed detached. Are we dreaming?

Thank you for all the info so far peeps. Bit of a mixed. Bag then.

Has anyone said anything nice about Grantham yet?! I like the look of the town centre.

What about Bedford…?

I can’t face living in a village… well maybe if it was a big village with lots of amenities!

You'd get a cracking house in Grantham for that money, I think it's one of those places lots of people criticise though, most people don't have very nice things to say about the towns in this region but it's blown out of proportion in my view, we've moved all over the place and the East Mids is well located, well priced, lovely countryside and the towns like anywhere have good and bad areas.

Have you looked at Stamford? That's a very popular town further south than Grantham, I find it a bit pretentious and the traffic annoys me, but it's usually a fan favourite for the area.

Oakham and Market Harborough might be worth a look too.

Wellingborough makes Peterborough look nice. BILs band did a gig in a bar there and you had to keep moving or stick to the floor.
Bedford has it's nicer bits and it's grotty bits. Generally north of the river is better. The town centre is grotsville - I only go into town for the optician and dentist these days. But there are some good independent restaurants and a nice gelato place. At least we don't stick to the floor in pubs that have bands. Bedford Park has some big concerts in the summer.

@89ghud thank you for the detail on Grantham, very useful.

I love Stamford of course but the traffic is murder and the house prices… well just expensive I suppose.

Oakham & MH - I will look at…

I think you’ve put me off Bedford @countrygirl99!

Grantham seems very nice on a day trip

@goants yes I personally don't get the hype, I wouldnt pay those prices for Lincolnshire and traffic is awful, can't really pop anywhere. You can get much nicer homes in more practical towns.

Another very pretty town is Oundle, but you'd be looking at Stamford prices and it being sleepier than other towns. Market Deeping was another we explored but is less connected and perhaps not as bustling as others mentioned.

We live in a very unpopular town in the area (sorry would name it if I had name changed first though feel free to PM me) and we are very happy, ticks all our boxes.

Huntingdon has nice areas and some rotten ones. It's not the most exciting place to live, but it's got good links to Cambridge. I live near St Ives, and it's far nicer. The guided bus to Cambridge is also a plus.

Bedford is rough in the affordable areas. St Neots is miserable. Grantham has some lovely areas around it but I don't know the town well. Ely is lovely but more insular, and then prices creep up as you get nearer to Cambridge!

Have you thought of Bury St Edmunds?

Grantham is a decent town. Traffic can be tough during rush hour but it's a town... that's what happens. Transport is cracking.
You'll get a lot of house for your money there too.

You have Belton house locally and direct trains to lots of the country via the station. We travel to london and Edinburgh from there.

Grantham is definitely well-connected. I don’t know it well enough to comment otherwise.

I’d look at Saffron Walden if I were you, if you like the idea of the East of England. You’d get a 3 bed for that money and it’s easy access to both Cambridge and London via M11/Audley End station. It’s pretty and seems like a nice place from what I’ve seen - proper market town.

If you’d like to be more to the west, I’d look at Leighton Buzzard - near Milton Keynes for amenities but easy access to London via Euston.

In the Milton Keynes area Olney, Stony Stratford or Newport Pagnell might be worth a look. A bit more expensive though.

St Neots is a lot better than Bedford! I live near both and only go to Bedford about once every 5 years, and even then only when forced.

But yes out of everything suggested so far I'd go for Saffron Walden.

Are you sure you can't be convinced by a village? They are the height of aspiration round here. This is basically an area you largely get round by car so being in a village doesn't make a huge difference except much better scenery.

I’d say olney or ampthill. More expensive but much nicer and near enough to pop to Milton Keynes for amenities. Bedford is horrible. St Neots is awful.

You must live not far from me.
Kimbolton is nice but not very big.

Saffron Walden is beautiful but very expensive, for 500k not sure what you'd find. It's a small market town.

Bishops's Stortford is similar to above but just as pricey. Maybe even a bit more.

I live in that area for over 6 years in my 20's and struggled to make friends and have meaningful relationships, despite being a social person.

Moved to St Ives and absolutely love it here. I have met loads of people. Locals are all very friendly and I have a wide friendship circle.

I'm glad we're not in Huntingdon as it's not great in the town centre but I do go there for some of the shops, that's about it. And the train into London Kings Cross is good.

St Ives does seem to have an older population if you roam out on Market days - Mondays and Fridays. Lots of elderly then.

However if you come into town on a Saturday there are more younger couples and families. There's also a surprising amount of younger people out drinking and socialising in the pubs at the weekends. I can think of several places in the town centre that get quite busy weekend nights, even in January. Loads of charity shops too if that's your thing. There's a few cafes, pubs, restaurants etc by the river which is lovely all year round. There's a mini holiday vibe to St Ives in summer which we love, with the Jazz festival by the river, lots of day visitors, Booze in the Pews (a beer festival in the local church! It's super fun and always rammed).

Transport links into Cambridge are also really good. Perfect for a day out with the children. Free museums etc etc. Park & Ride is fairly cheap.

Hemingfords, and anywhere closer to Cambridge are super expensive. Not sure what you could find there for £500k. Lots of nice villages near St Ives/Huntingdon but they are very quiet and you'd be in your car a lot.

Since we've moved here we've noticed prices in St Ives have risen too so not sure what the market looks like now for a 3 bed detached in the area but might not be easy to find something you love.

You'll get more for your money in Huntingdon so I wouldn't discount it completely as depending on where you look it's definitely not all bad. Just the town centre is a little dire, like many places in the UK I suppose.

Worth looking around Suffolk/Norfolk area for sure. Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket and further towards the coast maybe ?

I head Grantham is nice but might be too quiet ?

We live in Peterborough and it is absolutely fine. We live in one of the areas mentioned as full of drug addicts, none in my very MC street are small area!

Lots of house for your money, good schools (all bar one secondary rated good or better) and some lovely parks and open space.

To he honest most smallish towns have dire town town centres these days unless they are very upmarket with the sort of shops that are nice to look at but expensive.

@thefemaleJoshLyman I've always liked Peterborough, sure there are some dodgy parts as you'd get in any city; the cathedral is stunning, it has good facilities, fantastic road network, can get into London incredibly fast considering the house prices, I like the city centre and the out of town shopping areas. The main kicker for me is it just doesn't have that buzzing night life, city centre is a bit uncomfortable and sad at night...but then you're not far from Stamford for that! I could live in Peterborough happily.

This thread is really informative thank you all so much! Quite a few places I’d not considered.

so the village vs town thing:
I like walking or cycling to local places not driving all the time, just to see a friend or pick something up from the local shop. The smaller mix of people can be a bit unappealing in a village in my experience.

If they weren’t so noisy I would live in a city ideally! I like a lot going on!

Peterborough has some village like communities/boroughs like the Ortons, but it also has an excellent cycle network connecting the boroughs together and with the city centre. It might be worth looking at in more detail.

Try St Ives or St Neots. I'd give Huntingdon a wide swerve tbh

Market Harborough is lovely and you'd get a nice house for £500K, it's less than an hour from London on the train too

If you want cheap in the south east look at Stevenage and surrounding villages. The town centre isn't nice,though has ok shops-H an M, Next, Primark-standard high st- but Old Town Stevenage, which is sort of joined on to it, is quite buzzy and is lovely. And the whole town is great for cycle lanes and amenities. It's just not very pretty (bar the old town).
Quick and regular trains to London ans Cambridge and easy access to nicer and more expensive towns around-hitchin is 15 mins in a taxi for example and has decent restaurants and bars-and St Albans is 20 mins for higher end shops. Nice surrounding countryside and Knebworth and Hatfield houses are worth a look if that's your bag.
We live in a village just outside Stevenage (but can bus or cycle in really easily) and we have made lots of friends here. It's got a bad reputation but we have never felt unsafe or seen much more to worry about than when we lived somewhere seen as more desirable.
We got a lot of house and a huge garden for the money compared to other 'nicer' places we looked at and it all works for us-people are a bit piss takey about it but we don't care tbh!

Hitchin is nice if you are OK with being a little more south.