Flitwick, Sandy anyone know either of these towns?

[soonbesailing]

Thinking of moving to North Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire areas, we need to be able to commute back into London so wanted to know what these towns are like as they are both on the train line into London.
Any thoughts good, bad, ugly would be useful.

Are you definite on those areas? Hitchin and Letchworth are also on the lines into London (Kings Cross). We've recently moved to Hitchin, its a really lovely town, and the fast train into London is about 25 mins to Finsbury Park and 30 to KX - you generally get a seat as well.

We would like to be near Letchworth really due to school, but there are a few interesting houses in the towns I mentioned so I wanted to know what they were like.
I'm a bit worried that Letchworth is a bit quiet for us, but it's hard to know really, I have a bit of a romantic notion that I'd like to live in a village, but have lived in London for the last 25 years so it could be a bit of a shock to the system. How are you finding the move Nelly?

Really happy with it, we've been here 6 months after 10 years in London. Yep, it's quieter! But in a nice way, its very friendly here and there is lots to do for the kids. But its easy to get to London, Cambridge, Milton Keynes.

Sandy is bleurgh..I really would avoid...and school (Upper School) was an "over my dead body" one that is what made us think about moving. Careful of being swayed by the romantic notion of villages as you have already mentioned. We did a tiny one for 8 years - no shop and everyone knowing your business was a nightmare. I would recommend you think more about market town size as a minimum. Also Bedfordshire has a weird 3 tier schooling system - it is why prices can be cheaper than over the border to Herts.

No idea about Flitwick. We are now in Baldock (next to Letchworth) and love it. Outstanding schools and on the doorstep of Letchworth/Hitchin trains as Nelly mentioned to Cambridge.

I've just left Hitchin having lived there for a few years with a young family (and lived in London, but without the family).
Controversial maybe, but IMO Hitchin is massively over-rated. House prices might not be as expensive as St Albans / Harpenden, but they're on there way there (especially in the desirable areas). Schools are massively mixed. The people who bought our house live c.100 yards from the local outstanding School. They didn't get in (only 2 non-sibling children did) 300 yards from the 'good' School down the road. They didn't get in. A 10 minute drive from the sink School on the local council estate.... they did get..... this would really worry me.

Trains are generally very good, which is a plus, and more frequent than Letchworth. Hitchin has a bit more 'yummy mummy' culture than Letchworth, but I really object to the fact some of the groups charge a ridiculous amount (£6 a session) which tbh is a bit too much like social engineering for my liking.
Sandy and Flitwick both suffer from the 'Harpur effect' WRT Schooling (at least from Middle School) - lots of the affluent children get bused in to the private Schools in Bedford.

Knights Templar in Baldock has a good rep....

Pamplem0usee - that is why we avoided Hitchin and Letchworth (the schools) - I wanted as good a guarantee as you can get with the state schools. Just out of interest where did you go from Hitchin nosy cow

Thank you for all the advice. We aren't looking at state schools, the reason we are thinking of making the move is because our eldest DC has just moved from a noth London state school to St christophers in Letchworth, he will do his GCSEs there and if we move maybe 6th form as well, so we would not need to look at secondary schools.
That also means that I will not be looking at toddler groups etc, so really more interested in the life that my husband and I could tap into, Letchworth doesnt seem to have many pubs and we like to take the dog for a walk and have a quick half!
Also things for the children, drama, music etc.
Not used to villages or the busybodyness that may come with them, but where I live in London there is a real sense of community and lots of people know what you are up to, I know all my near neighbours etc so it does feel a bit like a small town.
I probably should only be looking close to Letchworth but having years of the stress of needing to live in catchment for state schools in London I was enjoying the freedom ( in my head!) of being able to cast the net wider.
Def don't want to end up with a lovely house in a crappy town (my mum lived in lovely rural Wiltshire but in the most horrid town wouldn't want to repeat that) so need to make sure I'm not swayed by the prospect of a good renovation project ( which is what were looking for) in the wrong place.

I used to live in Biggleswade, near Sandy. Biggleswade had a much better train service and was considerably less scummy IMO. I liked Hitchin, very much, and Letchworth was OK too IIRC.

Letchworth is notoriously low on pubs as almost a ban on them when the Garden City set up (or something like that)...so there are masses of them in Baldock and everyone in Letchworth walks to Baldock for beer....
Sandy still a dive - Biggleswade nicer by far...I still prefer Baldock/Hitchin over the two.

Ahh interesting, hadn't realised all the pubs were in Baldock, not that I want to spend all my time in the pub, just like to know it's an option.
Haven't seen much for sale in Biggleswade but have only just started looking, does anyone know what Royston is like as I think being on the Cambridge side of letchworth looks like it could be interesting.

Fishfingers without outing myself completely I moved to Bedford. Clearly not particularly salubrious but we're able to opt-out of the State School system when we like now due to my husband's job and reduced private fees.......

Potton is a nice little village, if Cambs is an option, but no railway station.

Villages around Royston v. nice. Countryside v nice. Wimpole Hall & farm lovely for outings & picnics, Therfield Heath great for kite flying. Royston good for trains into London and also into Cambridge for lots of choice of schools. Lots of walking/equestrian/cycling/village pubs & fetes. Locals mostly v friendly
Baldock state secondary locally renowned as excellent, however. We may have gone there if we'd found something decent to buy at the time.
Royston to Letchworth also very quick along the A505, if you stick with St Christophers. Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge is excellent, and state, however, as an alternative for A-levels.

Cambridge also great for cultural stuff & shopping/messing about on the river......

Thank you fish for your PM, very interesting.
Mylovelymonster it sounds like looking on the Baldock up to Royston side of letchworth would be a good idea, I like the idea of being close to Cambridge.
Very interesting about 6th form.
I've not seen much property (only really looking on the Internet at the moment) the looks interesting in these locations yet but it's early days yet, I'm trying to finish off jobs on my London house so that if we see something of interest we could get our house on the Market quickly, it sounds like you didn't find a property there did you end up somewhere else?

Oh and Hills Road in Cambridge one, if not the best, sixth form colleges for Oxbridge. Letchworth/Baldock/Royston line goes to Cambridge...worth a thought for the future.

We lived in Flitwick when we first left London but were both still working there and we still have family who live there. It's convenient for commuting - virtually all the trains from St Pancras stop there - but that's about the best I can say about it. It's become a real commuter town consisting of housing estate on top of housing estate and where there used to be lots of local shops there are now estate agents, hairdressers, takeaways and a massively inadequate Tesco which serves not only Flitwick but all the villages around despite being tiny. There's no proper town centre because the town is split down the middle by the railway and trouble seems to be on the increase with gangs of kids coming up from Luton at night.

We only stayed there two years before moving to a village a few miles away - best decision we've ever made although it's much easier now neither of us work in London. When DH was still commuting it was hard work as parking at Flitwick station is expensive and all the streets nearby have been double-yellowed. DH ended up buying a scooter but now they've got rid of almost all the bike parking so that would no longer be an option.

There's also the coming CenterParcs to consider, no idea how that is going to affect the town but I suspect traffic is going to be worse than ever.

I personally wouldn't recommend Flitwick (can you guess?!) but this area in general is nice, if sometimes a bit pricey because of the proximity to London (but not as expensive as Bucks/Herts). Bedford is not as bad as you think, actually lovely in parts and MK is souless but has lots of useful facilities eg reasonable shops, good theatre, nice parks, cinemas, restaurants etc. Being so central means it's convenient for lots of places - London is easy obviously but we also go to either Cambridge or Oxford fairly often. Locally there are some beautiful little towns/villages including Woburn and Ampthill and we also go further afield to Hitchin from time to time. Unfortunately most of the nicer places are not on the trainline so it's a choice between convenience and comfort in my opinion!

Thank you whythebigpaws I don't know anything about the plans for Centerparks where are they planning to be?
This is all good stuff and def making me think we should look on the other side of letchworth.

Really recommend you look at the lovely village of Harlington. It's the next stop from Flitwick and has a fantastic village school. The Upper school got the best GCSE results in Bedfordshire. It's a real old fashioned friendly village with two great pubs.

Thank you wineandnibbles the village sounds lovely, but we are sorted for school and think we need to look further east rather than north, but I will have a look ( always glad to know where to find good pubs!).

CentreParcs is being built on the far side of Flitwick (so people would probably leave the M1 at J13 and go through Flitwick to access it if coming from the South). They're calling it Woburn Forest but in actual fact it's a few miles away from Woburn - guess they think that sounds posher than Flitwick!

Opps just looked it up and see it is further South which is good, do you know if you get lots of plane noise when you get closer to Luton (that's a really stupid question I know because of course you do but how much and is it a problem?).

More planes over Baldock than when were up Beds way - but TBH don't really notice them. Think they can get worse high season cos stacking to land at Luton. Ones I have ever noticed tend to be up high though so don't really notice. However if you are Bed/Cambs border there is a totally annoying fucker guy who has a bi-plane and practices his loop-the-loops EVERY FUCKING NICE DAY fairly frequently which got a bit grating after a while. You would definitely have to share that experience in Sandy. Do not miss his one bit - and so high commercial jets have not impinged at all.