andover in hampshire

[lewislewis]

What is it like for families with kids? Friend is thinking of buying there but scared of leaving London.

Lived and worked in Weyhill, just outside Andover 20 years ago, can only remember a lot of sqaudies!

have been there a few times ,quite a while ago.A bit of a nothing place,newish,not much character,squaddies,get my drift.
Nice countryside around though.alresford is lovely ,expensive though .

Have just moved away from Ludgershall which is just outside Anover. I moved there from Reading so I was used to a big city and to be honest Andover was rubbish! It is very much a small town in the middle of lots of countryside - which is nice for a while but I soon missed the 'real world'!! I found myself going to Salisbury (hour on the bus) as it was a much better town.

Alresford is miles from Andover though! (I grew up there & Cheriton)

(I called it a fascist country town when growing up there

Alton has good schools

Basically my friend was considering Andover because there you can buy a 3 bed house for 150K and you are only 1 hour from London. Is there anywhere else that is nice that she should consider? Her hubby works in London so they need to be a 1 hour train journey from London.

CD Alresford - fascist?

You are talking about my people!

is altham abbey do able?
We looked there and was v reasonable price wise.

lewislewis, Winchester is one hour from London on the train and is 1000 times nicer than Andover but then it is 1000 times nicer than most places (it is my much loved home town!) However, your firends would not be able to buy a garage there for 150K! so perhaps Andover is not a bad place to try instead. The countryside is very stark round there - think Salisbury PLain and lots of army owned land - but Andover is supposed to be a growing town so you would get lots of young families there I would guess. For kids, we always go to Finkley Down Farm, Jeungle, Jungle (soft play place) and the Hawk Conservancy (bird place). Also, has good travel links with the A303, M3 and A34 nearish. You could do worse.

waltham abbey even

piffle, as someone who knows hampshire blindfold, I was deeply concerned trying to work out where Altham Abbey was!

fleet aldershot farnborough
We didn't like Andover when we were looking to move from Fleet
Farnborough has it's bad points but there are some really good areas too. Lots of mums and kids activities and some decent schools.

Alton WELL expensive too now.

my grandparents live there (andover). It has definitely improved massively over the years - I think the schools have gone up in the world and now seem to be half decent. They have recently refurbished the playgrounds and they are actually very good now - the shopping is OK (waitrose, M&S, huge Tescos on the ring road) and it is the largest town around for a while.

I don't know which part of London your friends are in but I imagine moving from London to Andover would be a fairly massive culture shock. It seems to have an odd mix of a load of retired people and squaddies getting outrageously drunk. Having said that, I have definitely noticed in the last 5 years that there has been a big influx of young families (I imagine the cost of property has been a factor in that). It is surrounded by some lovely countryside so if they like long walks etc. they should enjoy that.

these properties are within 5 miles of Fleet Here

Alton is too expensive

Message withdrawn

they live in Columbia Road in the East End where they have a weekly flower market which I think is really lovely....

friend lives in andover. i don't think she likes it that much. dh is an ex-squadie. she's got two very young children and she's unimpressed. i think they only live there because of the house prices.

TBH, I would avoid a 'squaddie' town if I possibly could.

Message withdrawn

Will pass this on, sounds nasty.

Message withdrawn

sorry lonelymum! Didn't mean to offend

I wonder if I know you....

Lived near Andover for my entire childhood (well Basingstoke but had a lot of friends in Andover). It was be a HUGE culture shock moving from London as it is very small. There really is not much to do there and you would need to have a car if you had children there so at least you could get to decent places. I personally would have trouble moving there as I would find it too isolating. I'd prefer a smaller house near Basingstoke or Reading where at least there is something going on (also considerably nearer London for commuting) than a large house in a run down Squaddie town.