Moving to Colchester area...

[poppylisa123]

Hello all
Hubbie has just got a job at Stanstead and so me and the boys are moving up that way from Dorset during the summer hols. Hubbie picked Colchester out for us as a place to live and went on about what a fab place it was (He's stayed there recently). However, I popped up there solo this weekend and wasn't sold (sorry, don't want to offend anyone). It does have nice parts and a great park; perhaps it' s just me, but I felt bit intimidated in the town centre and the huge 'surrender your knife' box I spied at the police station didn't help. Hubbie seems to love it, but he's keen to live near as poss to the coast whilst commuting, (he's an Aussie and into watersports), whereas I'm now thinking a village like Coggeshall might suit us better (though I haven't seen it)? My boys are 7 and 5 and will go to a state school. Any thoughts greatly received ladies. Thanks heaps x

I live in Colchester, it's nice enough. I've recently moved to Lexden. If you're looking at this area consider Rowhedge, it has the river clone running through it and reasonable house prices.
Coggeshall is lovely but has a fair few pretentious London types imo.
I'm pretty sure all police stations have a knife box thing.

I live in Colchester. It has its issues but definitely not as bad as cities etc
I like it, they have done loads to the town centre too.
Most of the areas are ok. Only a couple of dodgy bits
The villages on the outskirts are lovely but maybe a bit isolated for when your kids go to secondary school.
Earls colne is a nice little village, coggleshall too
If you're not keen on colchester try Braintree

I was in the town centre today. I wouldn't call it intimidating in the least. Of course I used to live in London

Thanks everyone

I work in colchester and travel out in the direction of the M11. Be careful if he is working at Stansted. The A120 can be horrendous and is the only decent route . It is especially bad between 7 and 8 in the am and coming back to Colchester anytime in the afternoon evening if Free port at Braintree is open. Rowhedge is lovely but completely the wrong side of the town for Stansted. Kelvedon might be worth a look. I wouldn't look at Braintree. You might think about sudbury I think there's a way to Stansted avoiding the difficult bit of the A120. Sudbury has a half decent shopping centre without the parking hassle of Colchester.

Just read your comment about water sports. Sudbury has a rowing g club and canoeing and kayaking on the river there. Bures is nice with a lovely primary school but it's a bus to which ever secondary school. Fordham also has a good primary and is in the catchment for Stanway which is one of better comprehensives. West Bergholt primary is good but not sure which senior catchment it is in. However the grammars are good but very competitive. It isn't like it is in Bournemouth/Poole. (Dorset native!) West Bergholt and Fordham still land him with the A120 traffic.

Thank you for the info. We are near Dorchester at mo. Not sure how many years we will be based there so not overly worried about senior schools just yet. Thanks for all the tips :) I might have been having an off day yesterday or been in the wilds of Dorset too long ;)

hi jnl0612 , which area is dodgy? could you please elaborate.

White city isn't a great area.

Thank you