Where is the best / nicest place to bring up your kids in the UK?

[womanwholivedinashoe]

Hi Ladies,

WWLIAS again lol! After my attempt to look for houses in Norfolk have failed, i'm literally just playing with rightmove now and have NO idea of where to start looking at for possible areas to move into.

My criteria : Small ish village / town but not too small so more than 500 and less than 5000.
Good schools if not in town within 5 miles driving possibly.
Good community spirit.
Pretty (yes i'm a real girlie and I want to live somewhere where I go ahhhhh)
We like by the sea, in the country and by rivers so very flexible now you see why i'm scratching my head so much.
We'll be renting and surprisingly there aren't that many houses out there 4 beds up to £950 pcm.
Within a 30-45 min commute into a major town for jobs or travel back to London for original jobs.
Phew thinks thats it.
Oh and I LOVE village greens and people playing cricket.
Must must must stop watching escape to the country???
Any views ladies, please feel free to promote your areas or areas you've visited then I can actually type in a name into rightmove lol :) :) :)

Scottish Highlands - not good if you want commute - should meet all your needs.

Lovely thank you ladies, thought this thread had finished v v pleased it hasn't , secret squirrel loving the information thank you!!!!

Lol at colditz. I knew she'd respond on here. It was her sales pitch of her town that moved me here. And it's fab. Leicestershire.

hehe, let me know if you have any questions

Ilkley or Skipton.

Ely (Cambs)? I dont know it, but I think its very pretty (I live in Godmanchester, Cambs, which definatly does tick your boxes although commute to London is at least 45 mins on train plus 15 mins getting to Huntingdon station and I cant find anything to rent at that price)

A village with a green they play cricket on, with it's own (junior) school, shops and amenities, welcoming community, good commute links to London, looks picture postcard pretty and has plenty of rentable property?

I'd say Aldbourne or Marlborough in Wiltshire covers all the above! It has houses all around the green overlooking it and a pub on it also and they used to play cricket yonks ago when I lived there, dont know if they do now.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldbourne

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5318595/Court-judgement-could-threaten-village-green-cricket.html

Where in Leics? I lived there 6 years, most of that time with small children, and was very happy to move back to... Norfolk.

Not Coalville, I expect .

Ladies pleased to announce that a deposit has been put on our place in Norfolk so hopefully we'll be in Norfolk by the summer. Moving to Long Stratton, still classed as a village but truly a big big to be one really, i'd say a small town. Not as pretty as places we've seen but need to get ds2 ready for school year 10 rather than moving during it :(. Once we know the area better and DS2 & 3 are settled in their scholls we can look for a driveable village from ther. But yay so excited to finally be moving out of London!!!!!

Hurrah! Norfolk is nice apart from the inbreeding

Seriously, parts of Norfolk are lovely.

Thanks i'll keep my eye out for the 6 fingers lol!!!

Was going to recommend round here as it ticks all your boxes ('cept price), but you're all sorted now. Hope the move goes well.