Can anyone help with advice about Milton Keynes/Beds/Bucks/Northants areas to live, schools, quality of life etc? Thanks!

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Help! We may be moving - I can't do much more than research unless and until we've got a written job offer but it's looking likely and I have NO idea about the area, having commuted to it but not lived there for the last while. The job would be in Milton Keynes so where we live will need to be commutable to there. So, my questions are:

Where is the nicest but not prohibitively expensive place which is commutable?
Is Buckingham as nice as it looks?
Does it have decent schools?
Why is Towcester so cheap?
Ditto Brackley, is it horrible?
Newport Pagnall, yes or def not?
Where else should we consider that's nice with good schools/nurseries?
Northampton, horrible or nice?
Flitwick, too far?
Someone recommended Ampthill, anyone know it?
We need to rent somewhere where we will be happy to buy in a year or so dependent on jobs/happiness etc - i.e. I want somewhere nice but not so expensive that in a year we won't be able to live there when we buy.

Are there any mumsnetters who are happy for me to CAT them for advice?
Our main criteria are a decent school for yr3 ds and a decent nursery for 2yo dd. They need to be closeish together if out of MK. Or they could be in MK and we could live outside. I'm fairly sure I don't want to live in MK itself.

Any advice terribly welcome, I am completely blind here and it's a big step and one I don't want to get wrong. I feel like we f*ed up moving from Devon tbh and I can't do it again. I have a Buckingham paper here and a MK one from last week so am sorted for estate agents but any other advice or links to sites would be really helpful. TIA. I will unashamedly keep bumping this too, hope no-one minds.

I moved away from MK 5 years ago and regretted it ever since, first we lived in MK, then we moved to Newport Pagnell. There is not alot in NP to do unless you fancy buying a Aston Martin but all the basic shops are in the high street. (Woollies/boots) We sold our house in rapid time due to the fact that the schools are supposedly (sp?) very good, many people in north MK, try to get into NP schools - we moved before our kids were school age so haven't got first hand experience. The high School is Ousedale.

There may not be masses to do in NP, but with MK just 5 mins away, you are spoilt for choice there. NP houses tend to be bigger as they are not all new builds. HTH

We now can't move back down, can't afford it

Shameless bump for me and WWW!!!!

Oooh, Tanzie and Bethandherbrood, glad this is useful for someone else too. I think the commute from Bedford to MK is too much of a pita, I did it recently, it was crap. Dh has approached this v scientifically and drawn a computer generated circle around 20 miles and 40 miles commuting distance! Whoever asked about Brackley, I want to know too, houses seem cheaper there so I'm interested too. And rents look reasonable to me, looks like £800 a month will get us a 3/4 bed house but there are plenty in the local paper for less than that, 6/700 for 3 beds.

The commute from NPagnall to MK worries me but only because I've only done it when trying to cross the M1 roundabout and it was a nightmare. Maybe the back road routes are better. I have to say, compared to where we are now prices seem lower for housing and salaries seem higher. We ought to be thinking in terms of near a railway station for my/dh's next job in case it ends up being London I suppose but it seems that you get more for your money if you aren't near one, i.e. Buckingham. Golds, where are you now? And where's Iota?!

Tanzie, I've done the train journey recently from Euston to MK, it's not long, 45mins I think. Def preferable to the vile, vile, vile M1. I have spent more time than I care to remember on that motorway in the last few months

Hi melissasmummy-didn't know there was anyone else from LB on here. Nice to "meet" you . Are you Leighton or Linslade side?
Leighton Buzzard is a really nice town isn't it? We picked it off the map when we had to relocate back to the south and it was such a lucky choice. It has a nice library/theatre/cinema, leisure centre, enough shops, farmers market and while I wouldn't like to live in MK it's nice to have it there if you want a shopping centre, big cinema etc.

WWW- no,no for Brackley,sister moved there 3years ago,a very dull place but yes property cheaper for some reason.
Her husband commutes to Northampton.

Their dd is at Northampton Girls School-Excellent

The private one, notasheep?

Yes-one of the top in Northamptonshire as far as The TImes say

Yeah it is a excellent school, never stand a chance of mine going there though!

But the sad thing is they have ran out of school fees! So in September their dd will have to change schools!!!!!

Sorry WWW a bit of a hijack on here!

Is Northampton Girls the one that used to be a direct grant school back in the days of grammars? If so, that's my mother's old school. Not that it's particularly relevant to WWW, but now my sister is living there my mother is on at her to send her dd to her (mother's) old school. Is it wholly private now?

No thats a different one edam, still a very good school though, not far from where we live. Notasheep there are some good state schools in Northants, particulalry in Towcester which is quite near her in Brackley can't remember its name though

I'm in Staffs now, just about to move within the same area, but did have a look at MK first, but house prices more. There are 3 ways into MK from NP so alternatives if busy. I personally love MK, I know others don't. Its where I had dd and ds so I suppose I will always have a soft spot, also incredibly child friendly with lots to do and great for shopping. If you do want to live in MK and want to be within a short distance of a MLS then Loughton is a good place to look, he can walk to the MLS from there, nice place to live and good schools apparantley

golds, what's an mls?

sorry mainline station

I have close family on mine and my dp's side living in Buckingham, MK Towcester and Brackley. My sister who lives in Towcester is trying to move out as she is concerned about the secondary schools in Towcester, (she wants to move to Brackley) maybe this is one of the reasons for the lower house prices, although she likes the area very much. My sister in Buckingham likes the area and her kids go to good local primary Bourton Meadow(sp?) and doing really well. It is about 30 mins drive to MK. MK has lots of facilities, although don't know about schools. I live in West London and would love to move up here, i think the areas and the facilities are fab.

KateF, Hello, we are on the Linslade side. We basically moved here from Watford as we needed to get more space & didn't want to stay in Watford.

I do like it here, DD is starting playschool 1 day a week after half term, so I get 2 hours to myself! Yay!

Hi melissasmummy-we also moved from Watford (but had a detour up north first). We are in Leighton. Hope your dd likes pre-school. My older 2 (6 and 4) are at school now and the little one is onle 18 months so no free time for me yet . If I ever bump into a mummy with a little Melissa in Tescos I'll know who you are!

Small world eh?

You might find me trudging around Tesco or even the town at some point. Do you go to any of the parent/toddler groups?

I've just started working mornings this term but used to go to the toddler group in the Baptist Church - dd3 is still going with her childminder.

WWW - just seen this

Nothing wrong with living in MK you know!!!

Congestion from M1 and Bedford way is bad in the mornings, but coming up from the south is still easy on the A5 I think

We live in south MK and dh often works in London, so it's handy to be 10 mins from the station

CAT me - we should "do lunch"

and new MK schools are doing very well these days

something I'm keeping a close eye on as ds1 is in yr2

the local council run nurseries are very good - can reccommend them day nurseries

school info