Best place to live in East Sussex? moving back from US and panicking.

[marmalademomo]

This is my first post...eek I am flailing about trying to work out ( from US) best place to move us next year. I need secondary and primary schools, can anyone enlighten me about Hailsham Community College, Uckfield and Heathfield? have to do state schools, ideally good language as they all speak Spanish and we want to keep it going.( I know that's not going to happen with primary). I don't know East Sussex, but good location for DH work in Victoria. Had got Suffolk lined up ( which I know) but DH not so keen as would have to work from home. HELP!

Brighton is lovely, busy seaside town 50 mins from Victoria.

If you want something more rural you would probably be better looking around Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill as on the mainline to Victoria.

I am moving to Newick village soon. No station, but excellent schools. Uckfield and east grinstead a nice places too. Would avoid Hailsham to be honest.

Good luck!

Good luck. A

Sussex is beautiful - we just spent the weekend in W. Sussex and I'd love to live there. I've heard that Lewes is really nice in E. Sussex. Brighton is very busy, lots of nightlife, clubs, gay scene, etc. If you want a bustling seaside resort sort of life - yes - but with kids I think I'd rather live somewhere a bit quieter. Lewes is just up the road from Brighton and it has a castle and a train station with direct trains to Victoria taking just over an hour.

Uckfield is quite nice but the train line to Victoria is quite slow and not as frquent as the main London-Brighton line. The main commuter towns in Sussex up to Victoria are Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Hassocks, Brighton. There are also fairly frequent trains from Lewes, which as said above is a lovely (if pricey) place to live. There is also a nice village called Balcombe which is on the train line. I only know the secondary schools in Haywards Heath, which are pretty good and I think there are also several good ones in Brighton or Hove.

Lewes would be good. I wouldn't want to live in Hailsham & Heathfield is quite a way from a station.

Thank you everyone for being so helpful, this has been great. It has helped to sort out a few decisions.

My family come from near Heathfield (Burwash Weald), unless it's really gone down hill recently, it's not a bad little town, with a high street of small shops; not sure the housing is all that special but not awful. It's not that far from Stonegate Station (Charing Cross line), and the country around that part of Sussex is utterly beautiful (IMO).

Wadhurst is lovely. Uplands is a good comp. Mainline station too but not to Victoria (Goes to London Bridge and Charing Cross).