What's Dorking like for young families?

[TheTermagantToaster]

That's it really. What's it like for young families? We would be able to stretch to a decent 3-bed fairly close to the centre. It seems lovely from visits. I'm very lonely where we currently are and would like to move somewhere there are lots of opportunities to make friends.

If you know it, what are the people like? The civic life? Are there lots of things for families to get involved with? How are the schools? What's the secondary like (there seems to be only one state secondary)? Is it the kind of place (like most of Surrey) where people assume you're going private? Cos we ain't

Bump. Anyone?

Some of my family are there. It's great, lots of family friendly cafes, restaurants etc. Primary and secondary very very good. Reasonable social mix (for Surrey ), no 'shame' in going state. (and you wouldn't want to mix with anyone who thought that anyway ). Great countryside. Too many cyclists. Bit of a long commute into London, if that's relevant.

We've often considered moving there, if it wasn't for the commuting time.

I grew up near there and its a lovely place. Beautiful countryside, very safe and actually not that far into London really imo. The schools are great and there is a fab state secondary in nearby Leatherhead too. I would love to move back if I could only afford it

What's the fab state secondary in Leatherhead?

We are currently not that far from Dorking and the commute would only add another ten minutes or so, so doable.

Therfield is a really good state secondary in Leatherhead. There is also Howard of Effingham too which is supposed to be good too

Hmm, I live extremely fairly close to Therfield and really hadn't picked that up...

Dorking is very nice, although I?m slightly biased.
Leatherhead is very nice also, there?s not much to choose between the two in my opinion.
I?ve just had a quick look at The Therfield School and judging by their web site and results there would have to be very good reasons for moving out of Leatherhead to Dorking.

Dorking is fab, the sort of place where you can walk down the High Street and see ten people you know. Very safe and lots of family opportunities. Some would say it's a bit dull/provincial/middle-class if you're a big city type, but I'm not. I love it.

There are two state secondaries in Dorking (Priory and Ashcombe), both very good, but in different ways (Priory, small and caring, Ashcombe big and slick). DCs are at the latter, but I'd have been happy either way. I checked out Therfield; hated it, I'm afraid, but it is only ten minutes out of Dorking if it's what you want. Generally all the schools in the area are good.

Train service to London sucks, though. You'll get there, but not very quickly.

Really Dan? Thanks for coming over. TBH, I really dislike Leatherhead (where we are now). It's waaaaay too small for me and the town centre is deserted at weekends. We also moved to the less salubrious part of town (just down the road from Therfield) and the drug and alcohol-related issues here are both surprising a really off-putting.

There you go, I'm a snob :(.

Thanks Cointreau, those are the things I'm looking for.

That's one of the reasons I didn't like Therfield. The area is as rough as a bear's arse. I agree about Leatherhead Town Centre; I have lived in/near Dorking for 15 years now, and how many times have I visited central Leatherhead? About five times although I did get married there.

Ashtead is nice too, but a bit of a residential sprawl.

Rough as a bear's arse...tis true, sadly.

Ashtead is a bit too far in the other direction for us I think. Stockbroker-ville. (Nothing against stockbrokers btw, just think I would still end up lonely).

Dorking is ideal for young families. Good choice of primary schools. Two decent secondary schools. Newish sports centre with decent pool. Friendly town. Lovely countryside all around but within reach of London.

The drawbacks are the slow train service to London (although season ticket cheaper than many) and the cost of property (also few houses come on the market as people like it so much they never want to leave). Supermarket provision is lacking but Waitrose is supposed to be doubling in size soon.

I think Howard of Effingham is the sought after secondary near Leatherhead.

Ha Ha Toaster - you live in Leatherhead already? I thought you might have lived miles away. Dorking is only just up the road so probably quite simple for you to find out what it is like by visiting and by joining groups etc in the area to get a feel for it. Thats the only way to get a good feel, by seeing for yourself.

I went to Therfield and lived in Leatherhead for years. I used to think the area was rough down by the school too until I moved closer to a big city hundreds of miles away. Trust me, it really aint all that bad

Oh and the pupils who go to Therfield come from miles around. Not just the immediate vicinty. I had friends who went there and who came from very affluent families. Its a great school and we all pretty much without exception did really well in both GCSE and A Level

Yup, we don't live too far away and have been checking it out for ourselves. Just don't trust my judgement after last time, when we ended up here...

And we've lived in London, in a place not unlike this. It's just that we thought we had left . But yes, as I said in a previous post - this is not me being a particularly nice person :(.