Reply for you already, MissC!
"Well - it's all very beautiful around here and has a lovely rural feel to everything.
Your friend might like to also put Hook Norton into the equation. People do commute to London from here.
Chipping Norton is a market town and there is a good variety of properties around and a choice of primary schools although I don't really know much about them. Supermarkets, chemist, newsagents etc., some interesting shops and a great leisure centre as well (for my early morning Monday swim!) Also a very good theatre.
Charlbury is larger than Hook Norton but has a railway station with a direct line to London and a good primary school. Yes it is more expensive - rather a lot of Oxford academics live there. Once again there's a good variety of properties.
Hook Norton - well what can I say - we've been here 26 years and have no intention of leaving! It's quite a bit smaller than Charlbury so there won't be the choice of properties but if something came up in their price range I'm sure it would be wonderful. In that price range it would be an older property or barn conversion. The primary school is good and there are good local amenities for a village including doctors, village shop, post office, dentist, hairdresser, library and film society to name but a few. Lots of groups and activities for young families. M40 is 10 miles away at Banbury and Chipping Norton is 5 miles in the other direction. Charlbury is about 5 miles from Chipping Norton and would be closer to the motorway. The nice thing about Hook Norton is that it leads to nowhere and therefore there's really no through traffice. Charlbury does have a main road but doesn't seem to create a problem - there's still a nice rural feel to it with lots of things going on. From Charlbury there's a good Waitrose at Witney for the
weekly shop.
The catchment area for secondary school for all three is the comprehensive in Chipping Norton which has a good reputation and a 6th form.
Both our boys went to the Primary School at Hooky (local name) and then on to the Comprehensive at Chippy (also local name) and are well established in good careers.
Everywhere around is really lovely and I'm sure your friends would be happy wherever they move. I think they just need to explore to find what suits them. I would say that Charlbury and Hooky would offer village life whereas Chippy would be more the circle of friends you make and is a delightfuly market town. All are on the doorstep to the Cotswolds which is so beautiful - we do a lot of walking there.
There's also Bloxham which is closer to Banbury. It does have a main road running through it which I think splits the large village but has some lovely properties, a good Primary School and the seconday school The Warriner which doesn't have a 6th form so students move on to Banbury for that. A few shops - the usual village store, post office etc.
I do my weekly shop in Banbury - choice of the usual Supermarkets.
Hope this helps.
Am happy to give any further information at any time - it's actually quite nice to talk about the lovely area in which we live."
Hooky Primary is CofE I've discovered, don't know if that would bother you.