House swap to Horsham, Hassocks, Haywards Heath areas

[Angemou3e]

Hi everyone,
We are a family of 6 needing to re-locate to West Sussex to be nearer to family in Cuckfield. My OH will be based in Bracknell for work but will work in London mosty, so we are also looking at Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey, but ideally would like areas surrounding Cuckfield
We are currently in Cornwall in a Housing association property looking to swap into these areas but my dilemma is I don't know about council or social housing areas that are good, safe and happy for my 4 teens.
We just want to feel happy and safe coming from sleepy Cornwall, any good, honest advice would be greatly appreciated.
Also, any info on best or great schools would be amazing,
TIA x

I’m not aware of any bad areas in Horsham. Secondary schools all very good. A town beloved of mumsnetters. Always seemed a bit dull to me. Bit of a slog on the train to London but you get a seat.

I’d have thought people would be falling over themselves to swap to Cornwall.

Cuckfield is lovely. Council housing there is nice as is Ardingly (really cute tile hung cottages). Bits of Burgess Hill can be a bit more iffy but generally the whole area is really nice and won't be a huge difference (apart from no sea, fewer tourists, better transport) than Cornwall. Cuckfield has Warden Park School which is amazing and highly thought of. Haywards Heath has Oathall and St Pauls - again well thought of. Horsham has Milais for girls. I would steer clear of Crawley.

Thank you!
I thought Cornwall would be a hot choice too, seems it is for people in Crawley but as mentioned we are avoiding there (no disrespect to anyone).
I had heard Roffey wasn't great in Horsham but then you get pockets of areas anywhere, I just don't want to upheave family to a not so desirable area! But I would love Horsham, I am drawn to it.

There was a place in Ardingly but 3rd bedroom and house too small, this has been our main issue and we have 4 teens so need 3 good size bedrooms really. Not many 4 beds available.

I have been in touch with Millais school and the Forest school for boys and both had places
No-one in Cuckfield wants to move to Cornwall, I have found a lot of people want to stay up there, possibly to do with finances.

Thank you x

Regarding the Crawley comments don’t rule out Copthorne, it’s catchment school is the very good Imberhorne. Also Maidenbower whose catchment school is Oreil. Trains from Three Bridges are 30 minutes into London and run every 10 minutes during rush hour.

Thank you DampSquidGames,
I have looked in those areas but as we will be swapping, not buying, our choices are limited.

Horsham is a lot better for shopping than Burgess Hill. Horsham schools are also supposed to be good although I don't have direct experience of them.

Parts of Crawley are ok. Worth, Pound hill, Maidenbower are fine. Faygate is OK too. Just avoid Broadfield. Horley is ok. If you find something in Horley, let me know and I can go and look at the outside for you.

Oh, and Warden Park has a massive catchment area including Horsham. I'd try for there for boys before Forest.

Easy Grinstead is nice, West Sussex, trains to London.

Schools Sackville and Imberhorne, both good.

LostArcher, do you live in Horley? We had looked there but I wondered how noisy it was being close to the airport? Also Imberhorne dies look good, I have checked :)

Moretodo, there is a house in Sackville gardens but someone said every one wants to move form there! We have searched East Grinstead too, somewhere we would consider but dont know enough about the social housing estates.

Horley is parallel to the runway with little airport noise. Horsham and Copthorne would hear more. Primaries are ok, but secondary less so with no sixth form. Many kids go further afield to Redhill/Reigate.

I live quite close to EG, and Sackville Gardens is OK.
Stone quarry seems to be the place to avoid.

Sackville has a 6th form which is V good. Close to olde High Street which is lovely.

Horsham is so desirable, would think hard to get into.
Redhill a bit tired.

You can't go wrong with any of those areas - they're all good. Horsham in particular out of all of those. I know it is slightly out of what you're looking for and apologies as I have not read all of the replies, but one area to avoid would be Crawley. It's not got the best reputation and some of the Council estates are problematic. Again, out of area, but you would also want to avoid the Whitehawk, Moulsecoomb and Falmer areas. The secondary catchment for Falmer in particular is very poor. The school has an appalling reputation.

• Whitehawk, Moulsecoomb and Falmer - Brighton.

Pretty much all of Horsham is good. Roffey is fine, just not as desirable as the rest.

Burgess Hill and Hayward’s Heath are not as nice as Horsham but still good towns for families. Still have good schools just not as pretty as Horsham. Better train links to London/Brighton. Lots of new houses going up in BH, HH and Horsham.

Hassocks is lovely, you could try Hirstpierpoint also or Wivelsfield or Plumpton. Downlands is an outstanding comprehensive too. House prices have gone through the roof recently. 4 bed 1970s semis that were £530000 last year are now £700000 this year.

@Angemou3e Yes, Horley. Noise is fine. I would avoid down near the end area of a23 near Hookwood because there you can hear the engine whine. The Acres, Westvale, langshott get less noise. We can walk to the airport from our house and I am noise averse so if I can stand it! Local secondary had a poor rep but has really improved. Kids get automatic entry to Reigate College Sixth Form and East Surrey College - both have good reps. The nice thing about Horley is there are lots of walks locally through fields. So it's urban but sheep and cows in fields five mins away. Loads of woods and bluebell woods. Tons of NTrust places nearby. 405 mins to Brighton. Quick up to London.

@LostArcher Thanks for the info on Horley, nice to get inside info rather than relying on Google! Also good to know that Warden Park is in the catchment area, I thought it would be too far out, maybe the school would run a bus to collect children (I don't drive) but I should imagine the Education authority would say they had to attend Millais and Forest as closer?

@Moretodo it is funny how people have different opinions, someone said everyone wants to leave Sackville gardens so if we went there we would never get out again if we didn't like it!

@paperpusher thanks for the advice.

We have now been made aware of a house in Haslemere, it seems lovely but again, not sure on the area.

Haslemere is a vair nice Surrey village/town. I very much doubt it would have dodgy areas!

Not sure how much fun Haslemere would be for teens.

(Ps are you only allowed to look at towns beginning with H?)