Nice places to live in North Kent

[vicdubya]

May be relocating, any advice on nice / no go areas, good schools (primary) etc?

Need to be no further than 20 miles from Medway towns.

TIA

Hi, I'm in the Medway towns. There are great bits and not so great bits of each area around here. I'd be happy to chat about it if you wanted to. Do you work in Medway? Where are you at the moment?

Dh possible job relocation to Gillingham. Thinking maybe living towards Maidstone?

We are coming from a rural location so probably prefer a village but hopefully somewhere with a couple of shops, pub etc rather than hamlet with no facilities, and reasonably close to a town of some sort!

I am a SAHM atm but will probably look for something part time when we get settled.

It's only tentative at this stage but although I was born in Kent my family haven't lived there for 30 yrs and places change!

Any tips appreciated

There are some nice villages between Medway and Maidstone. Pricey though! Bearsted is nice as is Boxley (great pub there). There is Wouldham, Burham and Eccles at the bottom of Bluebell Hill which look lovely from a distance (I haven't been there for a good 18 years!) and the Toastmasters Inn in one of those villages does great curry and real ale.

(little hijack - Mornin' Cadbury).

Hi sweetheart! How are things?

There are some lovely villages around Maidstone (says she who lives in the centre of town!). However, the journey from Maidstone to Gillingham is not the easiest, especially if you go for a village south of the town. There are some nice villages to the east of Gillingham. I grew up in Upchurch, which is very nice and friendly - has a number of smallish shops, pub, fish & chips, etc.

I think I'm qualified to say that, having grown up in Upchurch, spent my formative years in the Medway towns (went to school there) and lived for the last 13 years in Maidstone, Maidstone is by far the nicer place to live. Whether in town or in a village, it has more facilities, good schools and a choice of different environments. Apologies to all who live there, but, whenever I go back to the Medway area, I always feel very depressed.

Freckle I live in the Medway area and I agree with you, there is something depressing - but maybe that's just Strood!

Someone tell me somewhere nice around here where houseprices are the same as Strood so I can move! (Not hi-jacking, vicdubya, helping the thread along)

I think i am 20 miles from gillingham, am I cadbury?

I think much of the north coast Kent area is very despressing. Because of its proximity to London, it has been overdeveloped as a dormitory area, with very little money having been spent on facilities and environment. When the Navy left the dockyard and many jobs were lost, the whole area seemed to sink into a depression and it hasn't come out of it yet. It needs massive investment in all areas to make it a place where people would want to live rather than simply because house prices are more affordable there.

This isn't just confined to Medway. If you look at Dartford, Gravesend, Sittingbourne, the Isle of Sheppey, they are all incredibly unattractive places to live too. You need to move further south or east to get to the nicer parts of Kent.

@freckle

Sorry, but I've grown up in and around north Kent, so I know the area probably too well. Where are you FFF?

Agree with others who say you might be scrabbling around with this one...both dh and I are from this area and it is not the most appealing for all the reasons that Freckle lists. Gravesend especially has a miserable ambience.
Shoreham and Eynsford are pretty villages (though Eynsford is on a busy road), and Otford, Kemsing and Wrotham are also attractive. Sevenoaks has excellent schools but is ridiculously pricy.

I like out where FFF lives...but that's East Kent surely FFF? I interpret North Kent as deffo Gravesend/Rochester/Strood/New Ash Green/Longfield...

I'm in herne Bay, so not posh at all

My husband used to work in Erith and I wouldnt even contemplate living there tbh

He is now in loveley sevenoaks but we cant afford it LOL and dd is in school in canterbury now so wont be moving

yes Marina but you think I live in Whitstable surely

Erith Belvedere - my dad grew up there. Still one of the most affordable parts of Greater London, for good reason...

I like Herne Bay, honest Fio. It's less chichi than Whitstable these days

Erith sounds too much like dreary and Belvedere sounds like it should be nice but isn't!

I like the beach better at herne bay (can I say that?) and the coastal walks are great, esp up to reculver,,,bit tenco on a windy day though!

Is Whitstable s'posed to be posh?

I didn't like Herne Bay when I went there because there were lots of gulls which looked like pterodactyls to me. (Got a thing about dinosaurs and birds.)

they have killed the gulls

Oh good, I might come back down there then, the beach did look nicer than Whitstable.

Big vote here for Herne Bay/Whitstable/Faversham and the surrounding villages. Top mumsnetters both there and Medway

turq. And soon to be one more lovely mumsnetter

I agree with everything that has been said about the north kent costal area. It can be bleak.

Caligula-I didn't realise you were in Strood! There really is a large number of us in Medway and Maidstone now. Who fancies a medway meet up?

Medway meet up would be good - vicdubya you could come and find out what Medway is like!