Cheltenham, Bury St Edmunds or Woodbridge or even Cambridgeshire to live

[Oldermummy2019]

Hi everyone,

Keen to move to Cheltenham but failed to find a house with some land.Say 5 acres. Partner keen on his outdoor space. Key criteria

• excellent fee paying prep school with flexi boarding up to 13
• within 2 hours to London
• South East
• no more that £3m on the house.

Please share your knowledge.

I'm not sure i understand exactly what you are looking for. Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge are East and Cheltenham SW I believe. Cheltenham is expensive compared to Bury, which is a much smaller place. There are a wide range of private schools in Cheltenham to choose from.

Orwell Park prep and Suffolk / Essex boarder area sounds good.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114846503#/?channel=RES_BUY

Two hours to London according to Google maps. Half an hour's drive from Culford school (I have no idea what they're like). Grounds total about 6 acres.

I want 1.6million now

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118427669#/?channel=RES_BUY

This one's a bit closer to London (about the same timings from the school)

Thank you for the help so far.I live in Southwest and know Cheltenham well, that’s why I need advice on the SE areas. I will look at the suggested links and report back.We just can’t find anything that suits us in Cheltenham after several months of looking.

Merryhouse,

This houses are lovely for the money, compared to Cheltenham and Bristol they are good value. Let me dig more into the villages. Do you know the area at all?

Sunshine, Thank you for your suggestion, can I ask if have you any experience of Orwell Park School?All these school websites look amazing so it’s best to get word of mouth recommendations.

Cansu, not sure you meant to be helpful or rude. I am assuming you are a mum and you know that fancy websites are not always a reflection of the realities of a school and area. This best reviews come from word of mouth and personal experience. Just because a school is fee paying does not mean it has good pastoral care or ethics. There are a multitude of reasons people choose to pay for education and they are not just for academic reasons. Not sure what your motivation is for your comment, but happy to listen and help you be less negative.

@Oldermummy2019 , Orwell Park is the smartest prep boarding school in east Anglia. There aren't many in east Anglia, you can also look at Kings in Cambridge but it's in the city and the traffic on the school run is bad, similar to Oxford traffic etc. You may do best to have a secondary school in mind and work back to preps that feed.
For example if you are happy to consider Framlingham College, The Leys or Greshams as a secondary option then they have feeding preps but if you want Eton then you are looking Orwell Park/Kings.

Cansu, for the record, I am not privileged but hardworking and require the flexibility of flexi -boarding to support my work ethic for when my DC’s are older so I don’t need to dump them on friends and relatives not that you would understand. Funnily enough there are people who actually believe in meritocracy and are happy to support a fellow mum navigate the challenges of being a mum with a career. If you ever decide to be less bitter and more productive we will support you too.

Thank you Sunshine, I will arrange a visit to Orwell Park and feed back to the chat so others can benefit from the help you have given me. The house prices in Suffolk are definitely better than Cheltenham and Cotswolds. I was thinking Rugby,Marlborough or Winchester for senior schools. Will work backwards as you suggest. I don’t fancy sitting in traffic. I will do more research on Framlingham etc.Is Ely naice?

Love the first property merryhouse - would they throw the harpsichords in for free do you think - mine would like some friends...

Marlborough is a really long way from Suffolk but rugby and Winchester are possible school options. Yes visit Orwell park, it's a beautiful setting.
Framlingham College and Greshams in North Norfolk are the big 2 east Anglian boarding schools if you discount Cambridge schools. It might be helpful if you view the secondary destination schools on the Old Buckenham Prep school website too. Uppinhgam/ Oakham/ Oundle boarding schools are accessible too due to the A14.

Ely has a beautiful cathedral and a big private school but the fens are a unique area and you would need to visit to see if you wanted to live there - very different to the Cotswolds in every way!

Thank Sunshine, the current headmaster at Cheltenham College prep was at Old Buckenham Prep school, he says it’s a good prep. so you think Suffolk will be a closer alternative to Coltswold than Cambridgeshire? I here Cambridgeshire is flat. I know it’s picky but I do love rolling hills. Makes for good views. Is East Anglia noticeably drier than Somerset? Does anyone know. We live just outside Bristol and it rains quite a bit.

I come from east Anglia and yes it's drier, that's why the fields are full of crops and not livestock. Cambridge is funny as it use to be rural/uni but because of the growth of the tech sector it's one of the most expensive places to buy property now, people will spend £3 million on a central Cambridge house and then knock it down and rebuild it.
Outside the city it's either commuter areas into Kings cross or rural farming and it's very flat.
Suffolk is beautiful and has rolling hills and a wonderful coast but it's not the Cotswolds.

I know a couple of families based nr Cambridge whose children go to Rugby - I think it's about 1hr 40 ish - so a reasonable drive.
I too would consider secondary school first, bearing in mind that some children are not as academic and would benefit from a school with a stronger sports or arts based ethos.
Allowing for a couple of options for that, then look at potential areas to live and consider how far from the school you want to be - especially if weekly boarding will be an option.
Suffolk does limit options in terms of how long commutes will take if you chose a school in the SW. It's a fantastic place but the A14 is tedious.

Thank you Sunshine, Suffolk it is then. Although for some reason,I have not researched Hampshire. I will let you know how the visits go.visited Ipswich and didn’t like the city. Don’t want to cut off completely. Would you say visages near Bury Would be prettier than near Norwich? Not visited Norwich or Bury yet. Just trying to figure out which has better links for a monthly trip to Bristol.

Bury st edmunds is pretty but it's cut off, for many years the slow train line meant you couldn't live there and commute to London. In east Anglian excluding Cambridge the income comes from farming or commuting to London, there aren't other high earning industries. Once you visit you will see this.

Hi Garysmum, Thank very much for your comments.I think staying under 2 hours for weekly senior boarding is a good plan. Can you suggest any areas/ preps on the Cambridgeshire side. I have a short list for Suffolk. Looks like Bury is a bit it cut off, so focus on the Ipswich London train. Areas around lavenham/Woodbridge . I have been sent a link to a nice house in Bottisham CB25 if anyone knows the area.

Bottisham is a fairly large village east of Cambridge - I would say that for your budget there are nicer villages around. Also if you don’t want to actually commute into Cambridge you may aswell be more towards Suffolk or you’d be paying the Cambridge premium for no reason. Cambridge has a lot of very good private schools though so don’t discount it.

Thank you all Squirrelonwheels, some suggestions on nice village names near Cambridge will be really appreciated if you know any.Thanks again.

A popular one for commuting in to the private schools is Shelford (Great or Little) and also Stapleford which is a little further out. It depends if you would prefer more rural or more outskirts of Cambridge though. Probably worth you visiting the different areas you’ve mentioned as they are all quite different!

How about something like this? www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118051925#/?channel=RES_BUY