Chichester, Horsham or Billingshurst?

[Amy1976]

Hi girls,
I'm hoping you can help me out.
My other half's job is moving us down to West Sussex from here in Buckinghamshire. We've been looking around at homes to rent and places etc. and have fallen in love with Horsham and Chichester, as well as Billingshurst village.
We have no real preference, and just wondered what the differences etc. were in the areas as we have found nice houses to rent in both.
We are looking to rent for the first year or so, just to make sure all is ok with the new area etc.
We are both 37, have a 2 year old (Harry) and are expecting a 2nd in January.
So just wondered, if you girls had the choice, or could point me in the right direction and give me some thoughts on the areas, (Mother-In-Law, lives in Emsworth, near Chichester, and as much as i love her to bits, I don't want to be right on top of her!!)

Look forward to hearing from you all

Amy

mimi, yes, but er..you wouldn't pay the express fare most of the time, would you? it's something like 20 pounds one way! plus the fare H-Gatwick. I thought due to this lots of people take a regular train to Victoria - I've been on one in te summer and it was packed. But maybe that is only the case in summer. At least going into London, you'd get a seat easily.

ah well, maybe for those people it's fine. Neither I, nor my friend who is considering Horsham have subsidised travel (and wouldn't commute daily anyway so buying it is a bad value as she wouldn't need to travel in peak hours when she does, but frequently enough for the cost to matter). OP's partner wouldn't go to London daily as I understand, so probably not an issue for them.

Commute from Horsham to London far easier than Chichester to London. Horsham has more trains than Billingshurst.

Yes Horsham is undergoing a fair bit of development, we've yet to see how that will impact but I suspect from how things already are that demand for school places will be higher than supply.

The other issue is hospitals. Chi obviously has St Richards. (DS 2 was born there). Maternity plus A&E on your doorstep. From Horsham your hospital choices for maternity and A&E are a East Surrey 18 miles north, taking approximately 40 min, princess royal in Haywards Heath (DS1 and DD born here) 15 miles East (again takes approx 40 min) and Worthing 17 miles South - times very dependent on traffic which is unpredictable.

For Billingshurst add 7 miles /15 min to those figures.

mimi, it's just I'm comparing with places like St.Albans and Bromley where the commmute is 20-30min (the train only) - to me that's 'easy'. But yes, Horsham is cheaper, at least a little cheaper than Bromley, where I'm considering to move, possibly. Also, to be fair, it's 1h15min to victoria, I think, and the shortest is an hour (well 58min) rather than really under an hour. But as I say, to OP not relevant as her partner will work in West Sussex. That's why she has the choice of all these places, luckily. Agree that some people think an hour and a half commute is fine, if you take time from the station home as well and then plus travel in london. I'm derailing the thread though as it's not about london trips for OP.

Yep - I was saying Horsham was an easy commute compared with Bilingshurst and Chichester. Not Bromley and St Albans. Although I don't see that it's much different to the St Alban's commute. And like you say, commuting wasn't the OP's concern. I was only mentioning that it put me off as you couldn't get a train back to Billingshurst after a night out in town, seeing a show for instance, as you had to get a train by 9ish, or fork out for a taxi from Gatwick/Horsham. It just feels more cut off, but that may not be a problem for OP.

Road links are good from Horsham, though. Right next to A23 and A24 and can be on M25 within 30 min.

Hello we are moving to chichester from York. I am looking for a nice primary school for my nine year old who will join in year six. What I line is for her to go to a primary whih has children who'll go to her secondary which would ideally be bishop luffa. Any ideas? Thank you.