4 beds £250K, within 1.5hrs London, where?

[fapl]

Hello, I am looking for suggestions. We are currently in SE London with a very active nearly 2 year old son. Usual situation really, we want to move out for hopefully a better quality of life for our ds. Husband works for himself from home, but does travel into London to meet clients on average once per week.

We need good state primary schools and preferably good secondaries so we don't have to move for that when the time comes. I know our budget would not get us a decent sized house in a nice commuter area, so I guess we are probably looking areas just beyond commutable distances to get something more affordable.

We are currently considering Broadstairs. Does anybody have any other suggestions?

Wrote a long message and just lost it. Grrr...

In short, we are in North Essex, just near Kelvedon station. It's fifty minutes into town and you could get a house that size around here. It's a lovely area and the schools are excellent. Check out the local villages (Kelvedon, Coggeshall, Tiptree) as they all have websites.

Good luck!

I was just about to recommend the Colchester area as well.

You can get to Euston in 1hr 10m from Birmingham International. This would open up all sorts of areas for you (worcestershire, warwickshire, shirley, parts of Birmingham). Have you considered going further north?

Northamptonshire? Milton Keynes? They are in the region of one hour or less out of london. Leicestershire is a bit more but surprisingly pretty in parts.

Up the East Coast mainline? Newark - lovely houses. Grantham - slightly less pretty but has state grammar schools, if that's your bag.

South Cheshire. Crewe station is 1hr 20mins from Euston. £250k will easily get you a detached 4 bed house. Schools are good. Lovely countryside.

North Herts/South Cambs - on the Kings Cross to Cambridge line. Royston is 35min to London.