Thinking about moving to Chesham/Amersham/Rickmansworth area - any advice?

[krang]

Well, we've decided we definitely want another baby to keep our lovely lovely 19m DS company.

However, this will mean saying goodbye to my beloved but tiny north London terrace house, as a house in this area big enough for our new arrival would cost £600,000!!!

We are looking at the above areas because they're on the Met line, so it would be not so bad for my DH to get into work. I work from home so no commuting crises for me.

So I would love to know from any mums in the area..what are they like? Schools? Stuff for mums and babies to do? Community feel? Decent restaurants? Any nice countryside?

(Funnily enough I lived in Chesham for a few years when I was very small...remember it as being absolute paradise for kids but things may have changed!)

Any non-estate-agent-biased tips very welcome!

Pil' s live in that area in walking distance of station. A 3 bed semi in a decent catchment is probably £400k+. Chesham cheaper than Amersham or Rickmansworth. They've just got an M and S simply food in a, much excitement ! Schools generally good but not sure about things to do with lo's. Seems fairly average tbh, leisure centre , park and so on with places like Odd's Farm , Beckonscot etc nearby.

Hi,
I live in Rickmansworth and think it is a lovely place to live with children. I also commute into central London. Rickmansworth has some good shops including Tesco, M&S Food and a Waitrose is currently being built. There is a cafe Nero which is child friendly and another nice cafe called Cinnamon Square. There are also several decent restaurants, Italian, Thai, Indian and Chinese etc. ZaZa Italian is very child friendly. There is lots of nice countryside nearby. There is the Aquadrome within walking distance from the town centre with a children's playgound and several lakes to walk/cycle round and the cafe in the park which serves great food and is good for kids as there is a kid's menu and there are toys for the kids to play with. There is also lots of nice countryside a short drive away - Sarratt, Chipperfield. Watford is also a short drive and you have the Harlequin shopping centre and also an out of town huge Next, Mamas and Papas and Mothercare.
There are lots of things to do with babies, baby rhyme time every other Friday in the library and several baby and toddler groups. The leisure centre (William Penn) is being refurbished but from April next year will have a learner pool. They also have Fizzifun which is physical play for children walking to 4. There are several farms nearby to visit and Topsy Turvey world in Bushey (soft pay centre) is not too far. There are lots of other classes for kids - ballet, tappy toes etc
There are also several decent schools here as well which do very well in the league tables. Arnett Hills is currently the best primary school results wise but all the local schools are very good and Rickmansworth School is a very good secondary school or you have Watford Boys / Watford Girls / St. Clement Danes not too far away. There are also breakfast clubs / afterschool clubs which serve all the local schools. Let me know if you need any more info.