Do the benefits of being in a village, being able to walk to shops, school etc. make it worth compromising on a house?

[Lightofthemoon]

My DS is currently one but we are house hunting for the long term and I'm struggling to imagine what will be important when he is school age (and hopefully another one).

If we move to a local village we will be walking distance to good local schools, shops and friends. However, it's a very expensive village as it's so popular. If we go a mile down the road we will be able to get a much bigger better house, but it's an out of town estate so we will have to drive everywhere.

At the moment having to drive everywhere doesn't bother me, but in a few years time with school age DC will I wish we had gone for the smaller place walking distance to everything?

Driving everywhere will drive you nuts in the end, pick the village every time (i like to send DC's out to buy rolls and papers at the weekend!).

Are the schools oversubscribed - are you sure you will still get a place being a mile away? Friends of the future (yours and his) are likely to be in both the village and in the estate - maybe more in the estate if this is more of a family area. So there will be opportunities to walk to friends in either case.

Walking to school is great - as long as you are not then wanting to drive straight to work, in which case you may end up driving anyway.

That's a good point apuski the schools are very popular, how does it work, the nearest people get priority? How do I look into this? Any advice is appreciated as I have no idea how the school catchment system works.

We're a mile and a half away from the children's school, and when it's nice I do regret that I have to do the school run in the car everyday (I could walk but we live on the side of a mountain, it's ok going down :o ), but when it's pouring with rain, I do feel a little smug that I don't live so close that it would be ridiculous to take the car :o

I'm saying nothing about the woman who lives round the corner from the school, and drives her children in every day :o

The biggest PITA I find is that all the DC friends live closer to the school, so they don't really have the ability to go out and play with them after school unless it's a pre arranged thing.

I was brought up in a village and while it is great for little kids, as a teenager I can remember being extremely bored! So, partly for the benefit of DD, I chose for us to live in a suburb of a city, with good schools nearby but also the countryside if you head in the opposite direction.

There are buses every 15 minutes into the city centre, so great for teenagers, and DD has also had a wide choice of friends.

Whereas when I got to secondary school (in another village, so traveling by school bus) my best friends lived in different villages and none of our mothers could drive. The result was I rarely saw them outside school and had a restricted social life. I didn't want this for DD, and it has worked out well so far.

Just some (anti-village!) thoughts, though I realise its different for you, as if you choose the estate you will still have to drive everywhere.

These are all great thoughts, I really appreciate them as it's so hard to imagine life with older children.

Is interesting what you say about playing with other children sera as I hadn't really thought of that and that's a good point nadia as the estate is in between the village and a bigger town so could have a benefit in that sense..

If we go a mile down the road we will ... have to drive everywhere.

Why? Is there nowhere safe to walk? If nowhere safe to walk then I would go for village, I'd hate being so dependent on the car.

I know loads of people that would just walk that an extra mile. It's only a 20 minutes extra each way, after all. Certainly by the time your DC are secondary age they can easily walk it both ways by selves.

lljkk that's a very good point as I'm certainly not a drive only sort of person and like walking but I've just worked out the walking routes on the map and it's slightly longer. Going from a house we looked at on the estate one primary school is a 1.6mile walk and the other is 1.8miles - that's quite a long round trip for a small child isn't it or would you put them in a pushchair?

School admissions - bear in mind that things may change in the meantime, but go and look at your council website under primary admissions and it will have guidance notes that include current admissions criteria.

Some schools have dedicated catchments, with priority to those who live within them (and within the catchment, prioritised by distance). Some schools are church schools (catholic or voluntary aided C of E), who will typically have additional criteria, usually related to church attendance. And most of the rest, those who live closest get priority (usually after looked after children, special needs and siblings). Councils vary in the usefulness of the information they provide - some tell you how close you needed to live last time to get in, some just tell you how much a school was oversubscribed by, but if you call them they will usually give more information.

Search for 'admissions' on the primary school topic or post there if you need to know more, there is loads of information on mumsnet on this.

I know someone that walks that sort of distance daily to school in all weathers, expecting her (many) school-age (& sometimes preschool) children to do it on own legs (occasionally lifts in pushchair tolerated); remember for the child it's only one round trip journey, it's you that would have to do both ways 2x/day. They did cycle it for a while, too. Dunno if that's reasonable for you.

I know the reality is that most people will not walk anywhere more than 300-400m away. :( And certainly not for a big shop.

I suspect the popular village is a better choice in that you'll have more community feel there, as opposed to anonymous housing estate.

Thanks apuski I really appreciate the information. Can't believe DS is one am I'm having to think about schools but it's pretty vital in where we choose to live!

Should say, if you're in Scotland it's completely different.

I live 3+ miles from every where except a little village shop which is about a mile and down a very narrow pavement-less road.
The downside is driving everywhere.
The upsides are a reasonable sized house, big garden with room for swings trampolines, etc. workshop and shed.
And only having to see, talk to people if you want to.

Pick your village with care but I really recommend it!

The first village I lived just outside of had no community spirit, it was quite a toxic and depressing place to live.

We moved to be near DS's secondary school (there are two lovely primaries here too) but house prices are much more expensive as the village is so great. We were lucky enough to find somewhere right on the high street - a huge flat above a shop.

It depends upon your lifestyle really and whether you like your trips to the shops, pubs, restaurants etc etc.

You may find that there are more children living in the out of town estate because you get more bang for your buck. Therefore, more friends for your little one when he grows up. Have a drive around now and you'll soon be able to tell how family friendly it is because of the amount of Christmas lights!

Are there any parks on or near the out of town estate? Most of the places I went to with my little one were parks. We do have a little shop within walking distance which is really handy, but most of the time we are in the car for trips to the post office, supermarket and now for school. But we are on a bus route too.

Also little ones don't always want to walk too far. My DS is always moaning why we can't drive to the park instead of walking and it's only 10 minutes away.

Maybe if you prefer the village location but can't get as much for your money, you could think about buying somewhere with potential to extend in the future? If you're planning to stay there for a long time you could expand as your brood grows but be in the location you want. Good luck whatever you decide!

Watch out for being on-top of each other in a village, when it' good it's very good but if you step out of line you can find you've put all your eggs in one basket.
Villages can be nasty insular places with pretty thatched roofs.