Anyone here live in Hungerford

[Adeona]

Hello. We're new to West Berkshire and currently living in the Reading area. We have a son who will start school in Sep 2014. We are looking to buy a house ideally in a small town or a village but good schools are our main criteria. We have lived a short while in Newbury and liked it but houses around the good schools are too expensive or too small for our budget. We looked at some of the villages in the area and Hungerford seems like a nice place to live, house prices are still not cheap but there are loads of period houses, some with stunning views of the countryside etc. The primary school sounds good although I am only relying on the Ofsted report. But their secondary doesn't seem to be doing well. My son won't go to Secondary until 2019 so should I be worried about that now? I would love to hear from people with young families who live in Hungerford. Is it a nice place to bring up children? what are your experiences with the schools? i am also open to suggestions on other places to live. Many thanks for reading this.

I lived in Hungerford for a couple of years. It's a very friendly place, and felt like everyone knows everyone which can be a good thing or a bad thing I guess. Felt a bit like the middle of nowhere though, but then we didn't have a car until just before we moved away. We also moved there to get out of Reading and DH commuted to work by train.

I can't comment on schools - I looked at the OFSTED reports and decided that since the primary seemed good, we would worry about the secondary when we got to that stage.

The Christmas lights are great! As are the Victorian Steam Fair thing and the carnival they do each year. In general, there's a good sense of community.

We moved away because it was so far away from any hospitals. DD needed a lot of treatment and it just wasn't practical from that far away. We're in Oxford now - same time commute for DH to work but more frequent trains, some really good schools, doesn't feel like a big city but not the arse end of nowhere either. When we were looking last time, it didn't even occur to me to think of Oxford because I was so fixated on being in a village or small town. With hindsight, that was a mistake and I don't really miss Hungerford (with the exception of the farm shop, the amazing view from the kitchen window and our lovely next door neighbours!).

If you want estate agent recommendations though, Russell Marshall are fantastic. They sold our house for us when we moved away for no fee when they heard about our DD's illness and they took care of everything. I can't recommend them highly enough.

If the secondary school is really a deciding factor, ring Ed Authority and ask them realistically what schools you could apply to. St Johns in Marlborough for example is very good and 20 minutes (?) away.

I used to live near there. Would you consider sending your son to school in Newbury? A lot of kids used to catch the train in Hungerford and walk to St Barts together.

Quite a lot of people in the Hungerford area send their children to either Bedwyn or Shalbourne primaries.

There seems to be tremendous flux in quite a lot of the primaries in this most Western Side of West berks. Quite a lot of head changes etc. I would research more than the Ofstead reports. Droves of people have left what is on paper the best primary in Newbury.

It is worth visiting the primaries at the North end of town where the houses are a bit cheaper.
St Barts was mentioned it has decreased the size of its intake so children are unable to get in now from outside the RG14 postcode.