Move from London to Market Harborough

[KateShine]

I moved to market Harborough from London with my partner and three preschool aged kids recently. Before moving I was endlessly searching for online articles etc on market Harborough as a place to live and didn’t find many.. so I thought I’d do one myself now that I’m here to help anyone else whose looking to make a move.

so we decided to move here as our family are in the midlands and north and having had three children in just over two years (including twins) we needed to find more affordable childcare, a much bigger home, and be closer to family for support while also being in a town commutable to London (for my partner’s hybrid job as well as opportunities for our children’s work etc in the future).

Pros:

1. truly an extremely friendly town. As a northerner I thought I’d seen ‘friendly’ but this town is just great, people talk openly with you (strangers), they are kind, helpful, people put in town chat to eachother - very warm friendly place.
2. Houses are big and affordable mostly.
3. Town is walkable distance from most estates
4. Extremely family orientated town, many baby and toddler classes throughout the week, excellent schools, plenty of nurseries
5. Being a smallish town most estates / roads are close to the station. Here in little Bowden where we live it’s 15 min walk. Everywhere is a short walk or very short drive away.
6. Parks, green spaces, canal walks, nice villages all on your doorstep, also lots of national trust places within an hour drive away
7. The town centre is just lovely. Quaint, lovely architecture, loads and loads of independent shops and bakeries/cafes. Some chains but all up market like Jigsaw, White Company, Mint Velvet etc
8. the big supermarkets are all positioned together and join up to the town meaning you can just walk from the supermarkets into town for other shopping. This means the town centre is often very busy with a nice hustle and bustle about it unlike many town centres these days (outside of London).
9. Lovely combination of being a market town, but surrounded by countryside (absolutely stunning rolling hills) while also accessible to London in under one hour
10. Train to London is under an hour (55mins with just one stop at Kettering). The line is currently being electrified which I understand is going to bring the journey time to 45 minutes.
11. Being in the midlands you are in easy reach of lots of different towns and cities

Cons:

1. Train to London while very quick, is currently suffering some delays and cancellations due to work on the line (electrifying it).
2. train to London costs a lot during peak times (cheap outside of peak). You could easily pay £100 return during peak hours
3. I find council tax is very high, (but we have a 5 bed house so this will affect it too)
4. Harborough suffers flooding regularly as it’s positioned in a valley. Be careful to choose your location wisely and ensure flood reports are accurate and enhanced!
5. It’s not London. So don’t come with the view that it’s a mini affordable london. It’s a normal town, everything is smaller and a bit underwhelming compared to the big and lively London. ( you get used to it fast though). The peace, ease and friendliness and quaintness of the town will win you over straight away

In summary I’d 100% recommend market Harborough for anyone looking to move out of London or otherwise. I haven’t regretted our move one bit and feel very happy here, as do my children and partner!

• correction on the train fare front- you can expect to pay anywhere between £35-£100 return to London. You can get cheap deals if you book 3 months in advance and use the uber app. You can get even cheaper deals if your employer allows you to come to the office slightly later than 9 / return home before 5pm

I live about 20 mins away. It’s a nice little town that still has a bustling high st and good mix of high end and high st shops.

Also love Ascough’s bistro. Great food at a fab price.

I live in Leicester but regularly visit Market Harborough as it's lovely and I love the fact Waitrose and Aldi are next door to each other with the same car park! I'm impressed by the little things 😂

When you say council tax is high, how much do you mean? We’re looking at a 5 bed on the Wellington Place development but I haven’t seen any council tax band guidance!

I live in North London, my son lives in MH (where I am at the moment 'cat sitting'). We both live in 3 bed semi (his smaller than ours) and our council tax is very similar. I love MH and come here quite regularly, the town is lovely, the supermarket choice is great and there is a great choice of restaurants/coffee shops - mostly independent! I normally pay about £40ish for a return ticket.

Thanks for this, it’s really useful. We are looking to move out of London and due to family locations we have been looking at places a little closer to London (not getting much house for our money) or further north (commute gets long and very expensive). I have started to wonder if somewhere in the middle might be best.

Is the train to London still basically working despite the electrification? 45 mins will be great once it’s done! Do you find you can get a seat? If I might ask a few more questions 😊..

I saw on another thread someone mentioned a sense of the town being a bit rougher than first impressions suggest. I don’t think this would bother me much but do you sense that?

Do primary schools tend to be full, if you happen to know..ie issues with late application if move before September?

Also what would be a good budget in your opinion for a nice (naice even!) 4 bed house?

Really appreciate this @KateShine

Market Harborough is small but always busy enough. It’s strange because it manages to have in close proximity a Space NK, Jigsaw and White Company with a Savers and Wetherspoons within reach. It’s not posh but has a good mix. I don’t live there but often visit so no idea on schools etc. check out rightmove for house prices but you’ll get so much more for your money than London.

Hello!

trains are working fine, seats is down to luck, my partner says it’s 50/50 whether you get a seat at peak time, if you’re able to negotiate getting to the office slightly later than 9am then tickets are cheaper and you’ll get a seat. Book via Uber app and it’s even cheaper and if you are organised enough to book a 2-3 month ahead you’ll not have to spend too much.

The comment about town being rougher when you scratch the surface, I have zero evidence of this. In fact it’s the opposite, I’m finding most people I speak to are either kind and friendly locals or are middle class ex Londoners looking for a nice town nearer family , countryside and good commute. The town centre reflects the demographic I guess with a mix of independent clothes shops, cafe and high end clothes shops such as jigsaw, white company, space NK. any teenagers I’ve come by seem polite and grounded, never come across any anti social behaviour. There’s mention somewhere on here about travellers sites, yes there is one main one near the leisure centre, however contrary to the stereotype anti s behaviour I’ve again seen the opposite- the kids seek polite and I have no sense of worry in the community.

schools wise, I saw someone mention it’s hard getting into schools with waiting lists. This is not accurate. Every school in market Harborough excluding great Bowden academy, is under subscribed despite the good and outstanding ofsted ratings. As an example my daughter will
be going to our local primary. It should be 30 children per reception class however she will only have 20 in hers. You can select whatever school you want in your options, there’s no catchment requirement ! No race to get in like in London.

We live in little Bowden, 20 min walk to the train station, 10 min walk to the leisure centre, we live right on Brampton valley walk way which is an old train line walk from Harborough all the way to Northampton (rolling hills, fields, cafe, a beer house, great running and bike track).

I’ve found that the combination of getting into London quickly, the good schools and zero waiting lists, the amenities and lovely town centre and the very friendly locals are the main pluses. It also has meant that we are just 1.5 hour away from our families in the north, have a lovely spacious house and great sense of community. The town is well known for being very family friendly with lots of events, great playpark in the town centre and a lovely modern spacious Library. Loads of child clubs, dancing clubs, acting, football, rugby, loads of baby classes.

id highly recommend. The only thing you’d want to consider is nurseries. They all are oversubscribed so if they are preschool age you would need to get them on waiting lists asap. Any more questions let me know, happy to help x

Also to add,
we paid £660 for a 5 bed new build, it’s beautiful and very big so I think 4 bed nice house a good budget in Harborough would be £500-550k. Expect to pay roughly 50-100k more in great Bowden which used to be a standalone village but now part of Harborough. Personally I wouldn’t live there, it’s nice but it’s not in walking distance to the town and can feel a little cliche x

Thank you so much @KateShine , this is really helpful and encouraging. I may well pop up again with more questions. My daughter is also due to start reception in September.

You’d have no problem getting your daughter into the local school or school of your choice, in year applications are easily made with most schools having space - hope you’re able to make a decision and find a new home :) x

I can see there is a new build development off Harvest road near the hospital. Is that a bit far out of town do you think? I am really keen to have good walking distance access to things if I can.

It depends how far down in the development you’d be, I’d say maximum time walking to town would be half an hour. There are suburbs closer to town but it depends if you’re wanting a brand new estate or not. I’m in little Bowden, there’s nice Newbuikds on Dunmore Road, worth a look, some older builds on that road too. Very nice area and only 15-20 mins walk to town through nice parks x

other areas that are nice and family friendly are the suburb next to meadowdale primary school (opposite mini mischiefs).

I haven’t been to the new development you mentioned but up that way is sort of the exit to Harborough so you could risk feeling a little less part of the town, might be completely wrong though

Couldn’t read and run. Name changed as quite outing.
I agree MH is a great place to live, I moved up from North London about 10 years ago and know many others who have moved up too.

Just wanted to add, town is easily walkable from Great Bowden, it depends which end of the village you live in for the quickest route but it’s takes 20-30 mins.

As someone mentioned it, there’s another traveller camp, near the Harvest Road/Wellington Place estate. It’s a huge estate, different builders and spans across a wide area. The estates have facebook pages and there have been some issues that residents are resolute at resolving (fly tipping, loose dogs etc). It is easy enough to walk into town from the estate, but depending on where you lived you take a different route. I think it would be further to the train station from there than Great Bowden.

Its a great place to live, it was once a very white, affluent ‘retirement’ place, but that’s changing and it is very much for families now.

Oh to add, the Gartree Prison Expansion which I believe is going ahead and underway, may have an impact of some of the new houses going up around the Wellington Place area. Something to be aware of.

Cliche? Do you mean cliquey?

Yes typo!

Haha I was trying to work out how it could be a cliche to live in Mar Harbs! 😂

Agree completely, OP. Market Harborough is a fantastic place to live. Definitely one of the best towns in the East Midlands, particularly for those who need to commute to London regularly. House prices do reflect this desirability & accessibility, though, and are among the highest in this part of the country.

I live in north Leicestershire & occasionally drive down to visit the excellent Farndon Fields farm shop. The only big thing Harborough hasn’t got is M&S, although it does have a Waitrose. The nearest big M&S is 15 miles away at Fosse Park, south of Leicester. It’s one of their biggest & most modern stores and well worth the trip.

Thank you for sharing! I think we may have spoken before @KateShine - we are also in London and very nearly moved to MH a few years ago. I still look on Rightmove daily and still plan to move at some point, but haven’t found the perfect house yet that would make the big move worth it.

I would love to know more about schools if you know - are classes in primary schools full? My twins are in reception at an oversubscribed school, so have 30 in their class which feels like a lot.

I would also love to know how cliquey it is - we have good friends here all made through/ on various mat leaves. As we would move with primary aged dc, I worry people will be closed off/ I will struggle to make good friends.

Sorry I see you covered schools already. Off to scout RM again…..!

Hey yes I think I remember ! Ah I have twins too :) so my daughter (singleton) starts school in September. Shes at a good well regarded local primary school (little Bowden primary).

In Leicestershire 2020 was meant to be a high birth rate (surprising I know) yet my daughters reception class will be just 20 (despite it having capacity for 30). I’ve heard this is the same for most other local schools. I’m not sure if this is the norm being so low but I know that generally the schools are Under subscribed. my twin boys will go to the same school in 2027.

if class size is a worry though you can apply for the local village schools (Foxton for example) only have 10 per class! But one form entry probably not ideal for twins in case you’d like to try separating them at some stage.

Market H is not closed off at all! I’ve met people already, 2 of them are good friends. I’ve not been here a year yet but already have several neighbours with kids my kids age, mum friends and acquaintances. I had a large supportive network in London and I miss them but being so close to London on the train makes it easier to keep in touch.

Theres obviously not as much walking around as there is in London so making friends on random walks to parks etc is probably not as easy but people here are way more friendly and open that what I generally found in London, quite the opposite to being closed off. You just need to come here open to being the instigator of new connections , I just ask random people for numbers and talk to anyone, you’ll soon pick up some lovely friends (I’ll be one of them! ) x

M and S is coming to market Harborough!!!