Those who moved from Surrey.....

[whereishome]

Hi everyone,

If you have moved from Surrey and gone somewhere else.....please share your findings. Where did you go and was it a good or bad move?

I have also started a different thread - hope this is ok. But we have a few weeks to move back to the UK and I have no idea where. Love Surrey but have to be realistic - it is too expensive for us ; (

Or has anyone moved to Surrey from another area and could give me a short summary of whether it has been a good or bad move. Many thanks!

I'm from the NE and now live in Surrey (not a particularly nice town btw). How old are your dc and will you be using state schools? If so Surrey is a nightmare not enough places etc etc.

Things I hate about Surrey - traffic, so congested, air is filthy always black windowsills from the pollution, people are so busy commuting long hours they keep their family time sacred at the weekends.

I would be asking for information on good areas to live. Friends moved up to Leicestershire a few years ago, Ashby de la Zouche - fantastic schools, small local town but has leisure facilities, plenty of cities nearby for proper shopping.

Hi - moved from Surrey to rural Dorset almost 2 years ago. Good points - loads of really good state schools around us, and very strange to be treated like royalty in an 'outstanding' primary school because they don't have enough pupils! This is all slightly confused though by the fact that we live right on a banding line....long story. Good points - definitely cheaper housing, utterly stunning countryside etc. Bad points - too rural for me. Have to drive everywhere and do spend far more on petrol than before. The driving is bat crap crazy when the tractors are out (as they are now with the silage) 8 tractors on a 13 mile journey on tiny narrow lanes....flipping annoying and damn dangerous at times as they go zooming around blind bends! I do miss Surrey, but don't miss the pushy Surrey mums....they are definitely more laid back as a general rule down 'ere!

Gloucestershire.

Fab schools, not too rural, cheaper, beautiful countryside, lovely people

Thank you! Hearing about your experiences before or after life in Surrey is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I like Surrey and don't want to go from the frying pan into the fire. People who have lived in Surrey know where I am coming from, the good and the bad : )

Other friends moved to the coast near the New Forest, fantastic life down there no regrets whatsoever and they were Surrey born and bred.

I love Surrey, not living there any more but would do so in a flash if we could afford to. It's my home county so may be slightly biased!

I think it's the "if we could afford to" - if we could afford to live in a nicer part of Surrey with much better schools I'd be much happier with my lot in life but we have the negatives without the positives.

Also didnt mention the M25 - queues and tailbacks on the Junction 9-14 section pretty much daily now, not sure about further around as rarely go that way to take notice!

I know what you mean, my home town is just lovely..Really the only place I want to live. Will do again one day.

RandomMess where do you live? Doesn't sound like the Surrey I know!

SW Surrey (Godalming/Farnham/Haslemere) is nothing like what you are describing. Perhaps the northern end of the county, which is just London sprawl really, is as you describe?

Surrey's really diverse, as are the house prices. Depends if you want rural, or urban fringes. I suspect I live in the "London sprawl" bit, where people are less pretentious and snobby than in Godalming/Farnham/Haslemere elsewhere Five or six excellent primary schools within a couple of mile here too

Hi We moved from Surrey to Kent almost 5 years ago.

We lived in Epsom and felt it was really becoming London. There was traffic all over and schooling had become a who can afford to live near the good schools.

For our kids to see what a cow looked like you had to either drive for 30 mins to the country side or take them to a play farm.

We felt there was not a great deal of community spirit everyone busy getting on with everything else and after some school issues for dd2 where the council was deeply unhelpful as was the school she was in (Apparently you cant be dyslexic until your 8 - council, and she could not be dyslexic because she wasn't clumsy - Senco) We upped sticks and moved to Kent.

It was a gamble worth it. We are closer to MIL and the children have been able to get a better relationship with her. The kids knows cows aren't blurry grins and we live in an area with a great community feel. Whilst dd2's issues didnt go away we got better help for her and she is now in secondary school doing ok. The children went to a primary school with 109 kids in total having come from a infant and junior with 60 intake a year.

Downsides are dh has a longer commute and has to be more aware of the time (only 1 train an hour to where we live) before there was a train ever 15 mins. Took a good half year for me to stop running out of stuff as we now rely on online food shops. Our lifestyle is healthier we spend more time outside I do not worry about the kids meeting up with friends in the high street.

I actually close to (but obviously not in) Weybridge

Huge wealth on the doorstep yet absolutely poverty hand in hand, I think the poverty and low income families just seem worse as the contrast is huge IYSWIM?

Morrisons supermarket have bought a site in Weybridge and the locals are campaigning against it...

I too like Kent. Not too far from London and high speed line from Ashford making journey times from E. Kent relatively short. But lovely countryside, some nice coastline. Wealth in some area of W. Kent (eg Tunbridge Wells) but perhaps a bit less showy than Surrey. Handy for Gatwick and the Ferry / Channel Tunnel ports for going away. House prices are very mixed largely depending on whether you need to be near a train and how quickly you need to get to London. State schools generally seem good. Still have grammar school system here which is a mixed blessing...

Thanks everyone. Going to sit down and have a good look at all your helpful suggestions. Have I posted this on the right forum by the way? I was looking for a talk forum on moving but couldn't find one. Not sure if I just wasn't looking properly!

Hmm not sure there is a property/diy one too?

Or you could post in Chat?

Probably best to think what you do need/want in an area that you move to - then ask for recommendations of places that have x y z or located near a b c or something like that?