London Commuter town - no aircraft noise?

[Julia2132009]

I am moving from Southampton airport's doorstep and I desperately want get away from low-flying aircraft. I want a nice town for DS to grow up in (He's 4 yrs). DP needs to commute to London for his new job - under one hour on the train. There is a ring of airports all around London - can I avoide the air traffic? I was looking at Sevenoaks. Can anyone help?

Sevenoks is lovely! Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells a bit cheaper but longer train journey. That train line into London is really good and fast though.

Have you got money?

Berkhamsted - 30 mins to Euston - it's lovely, no aircraft

Hemel Hempstead - 28 mins to Euston, bit round the station is the nicest bit, no aircraft

WOuld you go north of London? Hardly any plane noise there. Luton airport pretty quiet and only has a tiny area that if affects.

what about surrey? ashtead/leatherhead/dorking way

Horsham

We live in Banstead, 30 mins to Victoria, lovely little high street

banstead is nice. i used to live in epsom and out of the two banstead wins

I think Sevenoaks is a great place to live - fairly expensive, though. Can you give any more information about what you are looking to work out what sort of place would suit you?
(In-laws live in Banstead - it's nice enough, but there is much more road congestion there than there is in Sevenoaks.)

LaurieFairyCake: DP's joining the civil service fast stream, so I think we we'll have enough money to rent somewhere (very) small in an expensive area initially; then could buy a better house as training progresses and wage goes up. HazeltheWitch: He's been told he'll have to move around departments over the next 4 yrs, so I'm looking in all directions from London (we don't get told where the first posting is for a few more weeks). More CS offices from Victoria though, I think.

Thanks for all your suggestions so far - I'll look into them.

Cavell: My ideal place would have a station, theatre, swimming pool, library and cinema in the centre, where I could walk to, and some independent shops. I'd like the town to have it's own unique character where I could feel a sense of history. Plenty of green spaces to explore with DS. Low aircraft noise and traffic congestion. Pehaps I am asking too much!

epsom has station, theatre, pool, library, cinema. depending on how close to the town you are you can walk it, also if you get somewhere close to the common you could wander round there and find the stew ponds. plus the downs.

it's ot a lot less air traffic than living on the doorstep of an airport. yes it has traffic congestion, and it has it's bad points but it could be a lot worse

plus is on mainline for victoria and waterloo

Further to what LAurie said, if you go up that line (for Hemel and Berkhamstead), you get to leighton Buzzard, Bletchley and Milton Keynes. I don't know LB very well, but the latter 2 have most of what you mention, plus great schools, and are cheaper. The thing they don't neccessarily have is history/character although there is history about, it's just not what they're known for. TRavel time on quick train is 40ish mins to Euston, plus a quick hope on Victoria line. Good for roads as well.

Or go a bit EAst from there, to Bedfordshire. Less nice (IMHO!) and not as many amenities as MK. Quick trains into KC, and quick hop down Vic Line also.

I'd suggest working out your budget, and what you need in terms of home, then seeing where fits. Herts (St Albans, Welwyn GC etc), has everything on your list but you pay for it!

Yep, we've got all of those amenities within walking distance in Horsham plus a beautiful park and lovely woods all around. Trains go into Victoria and London Bridge.

I'm a civil servant and started on the fast stream. As you say he will most likely be based around Westminster / Victoria so anywhere with trains to Victoria, Waterloo or Charing Cross is ideal as he could generally walk from those. I commuted from Cambridge for a while which is great but the tube on top of the train drove me mad so we moved to south east London

pm me if your DP has any questions about the job. Otherwise good luck!

Reading ticks most of your boxes - 25 mins to Paddington, no aircraft noise. Surprising to some, it does have lots of history and parks. It's not the prettiest of places but it makes for a good place to bring up a family. Downsides are that the traffic isn't great.

Lots of places to research! Thanks glorious, I may do that.

Aircraft fly quite low over Tunbridge Wells - it's on the Gatwick flight path.

I am always amazed by the aircraft noise when I go there.

thanks for letting me know magimedi - I was thinking Tunbridge Wells looked like a good possibility. What a shame! It's hard to tell from looking at the maps which towns will be affected.

I am sure that there must be a website showing the flight paths in & out of Gatwick - in fact I just googled UK flight paths & there is an endless list of sites, maps etc.

As the crow flys TW is only about 20 miles from Gatwick.

the trouble is they vary the flight paths and may add news ones in the future. I was hoping to find somewhere that was far enough away from any of the airports that the planes would not seem low or loud if they did fly overhead. I'm just not sure how far that needs to be.

Guildford - 36 minutes to Waterloo. Or if you want smaller towns, Godalming (48 mins), Haslemere (50 mins) or Farnham (55 mins).

All have excellent schools, and are surrounded by beautiful and accessible countryside. And no flightpaths (except the odd Chinook from RAF Odiham)

Lewes ticks all your boxes but the commute would be longer. It's a really lovely town.

Beckenham is nice. Yes you get planes but it's London - cant avoid them. They're not intrusive.

It's got loads of parks and train stations and easy for London Victoria, bridge and charing cross.

The problem is people get very used to flight noise and don't notice it. I was looking at quite a few of the places mentioned on this list a while ago, and discarded the vast majority because of flight noise!

It's not generally very low flying aircraft, but anywhere in the west or south of London is at risk of having circling aircraft overhead waiting to land in Gatwick or Heathrow IME. Not a huge issue for most people, but if you are sensitive to aircraft noise (as I am) it could be really annoying.