Want to move further out into Kent, to get more property for our money and good schools. Can anyone tell me about Faversham? Or any other suggestions?

[BumptiousandBustly]

Faversham seems to suit what we are looking for in that we can afford the size of property we want there, and it looks like a nice town, but we are reading such different reports - from Lovely sleepy town - to Chaversham Faversham.

Would love to have some first hand reports. Also any other suggestions for places to live in Kent that are nice but affordable, would be really appreciated.

Well what do you mean by affordable. What is your price range and what are you looking for housewise?

We really want a 4 bed (as are running a business from home) and could probably stretch to around £410K.

Also want to move to a really nice place - good schools etc - as I know everyone else does.

a final fact is that DH will still need to work in London - could cope with a train journey of an hour or an hour and a half.

bump! anyone?

Anyone at all?

Faversham's a really pretty town with a huge amount of historical significance. Lots of cute shops in the centre and you get lots of tourists but as you have correctly spoted there are a few chavs on the ground there. We went there last week shopping - really pleasant rural village/town type feel. The best end of Faversham seems to be down towards the 'antique attic'/docks part of town - lots of furniture/antique shops. Lovely period houses and so on. Don't know about schools. Suspect it's a fairly quiet town.
Big brewery - still working. mainly working class with significant 'creative' community. Lots of pensioners and tourists. It's okay but the shops are limited and mainly geared towards tourists or run of the mill stuff. Nothing big or statementy.
Have you thought about Whitstable down the road? More chi chi/much more glam. Or Canterbury - cracking shops/much bigger. Herne Bay - beautiful seafront houses, much cheaper/less glam but has a certain attraction.

Agree with everything greentown says.

Bear in mind that Faversham in the daytime is lovely - pretty market town with quirky shops. Faversham at night is grim. There are some estates at the edge of town and the youths come into town at night - cheap pub culture. There are a couple of very good restaurants (one is michelin starred) but if you are not going to them you stay out of Faversham at night. It's not dangerous, but there are simply nicer places to spend an evening - C'Bury/ Whitstable for example.

Temper that with some of the most amazing independent shops in the area. google macknade and brogdale and 'butchers of brogdale' for some of the flavour. further afield check out the whitstable oyster fisheries, the canterbury goods shed, the sportsmans restaurant.

Schools are a mixed bag. At primary level there are some superb state schools - Luddenham is amazing and Selling also very good. Hernhill quite good too. At secondary level if your child passes grammar tests then there is Queen Elizabeths (mixed) which the pupils adore (I know children from the top Canterbury schools - Barton court & Langton - who have switched to QE for sixth form because it is popular). However, if you miss out on those primaries or your child fails Kent test then it is far more of a challenge - especially because you are out of catchment for some of the better secondaries in Canterbury. The two religious secondaries - Archbishops and St Anselm - are both in Canterbury which will mean a commute for the kids if you are religious. If you can go private there are 3 very good senior schools in canterbury (13 plus, 2 have associated feeder schools for age 3+), and lorendon prep in faversham also highly rated.

whistable is nicknamed 'Islington on sea' for good reason and is very popular. It is one stop further along train line (though you often have to switch trains/wait at Fav station). Canterbury is far more established and your budget will be fine for there, and you get more choice for schools at secondary. If you google "Langton physics" you will find plenty of press about what an amazing school it is - people are taking their kids out of King's (one of the best private schools in the country) because of Langton's reputation in this area. If you live in Faversham you will not be in catchment for this school.

Selling is a boring village with great school and good housing. Wye is growing town with very good train links to London. Chilham very nice (not sure of commute time). Hernhill, Lynstead are nice. Boughton OK too.

... before committing to anywhere outside of a town in Kent check out the bus services.

A nice rural community with a good village school is great when the kids are little but not quite so appealing when when they get to be teenagers and there are only three buses a day to the town/city (none on a Sunday) and the "last bus" back arrives in the village at 6.30pm... you will find that you are forever picking up and dropping off.

If you look anywhere to the South of Canterbury (eg Wye) - you would be able to travel to Ashford International and pick up the fast service - 39 minutes to Charing Cross - from memory..

Thats very helpful everyone thankyou. Very interesting about Faversham - it does look so lovely, but really good to understand about the problems in the evening. We have two sons, so really would worry about that as they grew older.

Whitstable looks absolutely lovely, and we would LOVE to move there - but the housing that we can afford seems to be in the Yorkletts or in Chestfield. Now I hope I am wrong, but they seem to be basically outside Whitstable, with nothing walkable around them - or am I wrong? (hopeful emoticon).

We certainly are considering Canterbury - very interesting about the school - and will look at all the other places mentioned.

Have you looked at Tenterden and surrounding villages? There's decent-ish train service to town from Headcorn and fast train from Ashford.
Have a v good friend who moved there from London, they love it, it's a gorgeous little town and her DH does commute c 3 times a week.
£400k should get you a nice 3 or even 4 bedroom I would think.

Having grown up in Whitstable I'd say - don't live there! It has become a bit poncey with all the London second homers now (was quite shabby when I was growing up) and has got pricey. Also, unless your DCs go to the grammar schools in Canterbury (quite a long bus journey, I did it from 11 to 18 yrs so I know!!) the community college is not great. It has probably improved since my days when it was considered pretty rough. Not sure about the catchments for secondary so best to check, when I was at school if you passed the 11+ the choice was the Canterbury grammars or the Queen Elizabeth in Faversham. Canterbury is lovely, a great city and good schools. Good connections to London/Ashford etc too.

I'm in Faversham and have been for fifteen years, and we love it. Selling, Sheldwich, Ethelbert Road, Luddenham, Hernehill all very good primary schools, Boughton, Eastling and Davington not bad either. It really depends on what you like - I have friends with children at all the above schools, chosen after viewing them and choosing what will suit them. QE Grammar School is amazing, pastoral care there much better than at the Langton's in Canterbury which are very results focused. The Abbey School has the best GCSE rates of all local High schools (excluding the church schools), so beats Canterbury, Whitstable etc if you don't pass Kent Test.

Very strong community spirit - the market place was packed for the Christmas lights switch on on Saturday, will be again for Carols on 23rd December. Carnival in October, Hop Festival in September, Charity bike ride annd Classic Car Show in May - all well supported and great fun. Yes there are some chaves - but there are anywhere, and the last fifteen years have seen a marked increase in professional people moving in. Community opera of Noye's Fludde was on last weekend with loads of local schools, amateur and professional musicians involved - both DS's were in it and loved the experience.

I think that is a resounding yes!

Will def look at Tenterden, thanks for that Greygardens.

Suburbandream - very good point about the schools - and distance to travel. Also very concerned that if DSs don't pass 11+ that doesn't signal failure for them.

Singinggirl - brilliant endorsment - thankyou very much - very interesting. - also v good point about there being a school they don't need to pass 11+ to get into - but is still good.

Tenterden has the advantage that Homewood is a good school even if you don't pass the Kent Test.

Yes, I was just going to add the schools are pretty good, although I think it's out of catchment for Cranbrook which is the best in the area.
Not sure how old you chil(ren) are Bumptious, but friend's DD is at Tenterden Infants which seems a v good school.

Waves at stillsquiffy, how are you?

We're in Faversham and love it. DD is in reception at Davington and is thriving, academically and socially; we're pleased with it and have just turned down an offer at one of the village schools(Luddenham) that received wisdom says is better.

I have friends with children at all of the primary schools mentioned earlier - pros and cons to 'em all i think.

Agree re: ' chavs'. We're in a Victorian terrace on part of the route back to an estate from town and we do occasionally get a bit of nonsense, but usually just shouting. It's pretty rare. I go out of an evening and haven't seen any trouble, but then we used to live in south london so it's all relative I suppose.

Agree with singinggirl, the town's got a great community spirit; people are generally friendly and there's a lot going on. DH and I both grew up in big cities, so I wonder what the DC will make of a small town when they're teenagers, but we'll see.

Anyway, OP do PM me if you want more details. DH and I both commute to London so can help with advise on that score.

We're kicking along. Haven't seen you in ages...

Thankyou very much, we will look closer at Tenterden, the only issue seems to be that its quite far from any station, for getting to Central London.

Very interesting about Faversham - will think about it all very carefully - Thanks theoldestcat will PM you with any questions - much appreciated.

Will also look up all the other places mentioned.

Anyone able to tell me anymore about Whitstable? Or any other suggestions about places?

Whitstable was really grot 20 years ago but has turned round now and become very trendy. Janet Street Porter and a few other media luvvies live there now which is either good or bad, depending on your politics...

The regeneration has pluses and minuses. Now there are any number of fab restaurants (almost all serving the locally landed fish/oysters), loads of boutique shops, 'independent' cafes and suchlike. There's a small theatre and a cinema which shows trendy films. And there's the beach of course. Pebble beach but very very shallow for miles out to sea, so very popular for learning to sail/windsurf. If you want to get a flavour google 'whitstable oyster fishery' and book a weekend in one of their fisherman's huts on the beach.

And the downside? Well, it is full of the Boden brigade at the weekend and many Londoners have second homes there, which means it is rammed on summer weekends (sometimes taking 45 minutes to travel the 1 mile into the town) and deserted mid-week in the winter. I think the closest good primary is Blean which is a good 20 minute drive from Whitstable (and you may be out of catchment). I think also that secondary children mostly commute to Canterbury, but am not entirely certain. The Tescos is way out of town so you need a car for that (or bus) - whereas in Faversham the supermarket is in the middle of town. Public transport links Bus/Train to Canterbury/Fav/Herne Bay are very good.

Chestfield, by the way, is boring but quiet. There is a very large golf club there and that's about it. BUT it is civilised, full of families and bus links are ok. It is surrounded by woods which you can roam in. The train station though is quite a way out of the centre of the village.

Tenterden is really lovely and rurally. that part of kent is far more 'Darling buds of May' country than fav/canterbury/whitstable. It is more charming but also more expensive. Friends who live there tell me that train commutes are not great (crowded) but I have no idea on that. You will get more for your money around Fav/whitstable than Tenterden I think. But that of course is because people prefer Tenterden (esp re: schools)

If I had to pick top recommendations for 'traditional village' I'd go for Wye (though it's v big now) or Boughton under Blean, or Blean itself - primarily because they have good schools, shops and transport links. If I had to recommend a town I would go for Canterbury first, then Faversham then Whitstable, primarily based on (a) general convenience and schools and (b) hellish drive into Whitstable on summer days.

Do you have to live in Kent? For me I'd go for anarwa that wasn't an 11+ one, that had a good secondary school
There's too much pressure on kids to pass Kent test iirc

an area

Let's be blunt - is there anywhere in Kent, nay England, that is chav free anymore? It's all about what you can tolerate and in my experience country chavs are a milder breed than the city variety.
Totally agree with the 'community spirit' comments on Faversham - I think if you lived down the Abbey Street end of town, you'd never even know chavs existed - have never seen any down there.
Whitstable is pricey. Chestfield is quiet but nice - agree. Have you considered Tankerton/Swalecliffe (between Whitstable and Chestfield and with a train station to London) very near the sea, cheaper that Whitstable and will probably be chi chi sooner rather than later.
I think Tenterden as an alternative is like chalk and cheese - the Kent coastal towns are very different to inland Kent - (Tenterden is also MILES from a decent city ie Canterbury) Personally I wouldn't want to be in Kent and too far from Canterbury - best employment opportunities and 2+ universities which really bode well for the future and all stuff cultural. Good summer work opportunities for your kids and if you ever give up on working in London, Canterbury has possibilities.
If there's a single factor that elevates one town above another it's got to be a university - changes the entire social make up of any area for the better.

This is all very interesting, and I think really points us towards Faversham or Canterbury(where we can afford the kind of house we want). Now just worried about length of commute for DH and COST of commute - especially on fast trains. - its like having a second mortgage to pay every month!

Yes the fast train is expensive but it cuts travelling time by over an hour and it's worth it. Most people I know who live down here work from home a couple of days a week or get a job locally. The commute gets to you after a while I think

Yes, train prices hurt. but when you factor in that you buy fresh veg and organic meat from farmers' markets, get your fish from the harbour as the fishermen deliver it, and rarely pay London prices for quite a few things (restaurants, theatre), you will still be a fair bit better off, IMHO.