Relocating to Newbury region - advice please

[BigBird123]

Hi we are a family of 3 looking to move to The Newbury / Thatcham region and would like to understand which are the areas to avoid eg. rough areas, flood ares and areas that get the smell from the sewerage works etc. Any good primary school recommendations would be appreciated. My husband will need to commute daily to West London is this feasible within an hour from Thatcham or Hermitage. BB :-)

Commuting by road or rail - and whereabouts in west london? M4 does suffer congestion!

Shaw in Newbury is very nice (we've just bought there!) Will he be walking or driving to the station. Generally you will get more for your money in Thatcham, but Newbury is nicer.
Lower Way flooded badly overwinter and I believe can get smelly around there.
I believe Speen is very nice too. Can't help with primary schools ATM!
xx

We are looking at relocating there later this year, too - so will be watching this thread with interest.

Bumping as we're thinking of moving to Newbury too..

Just updating as we spent a day with some search agents there yesterday: I'm not sure if am allowed to put their site details on here so PM me if interested.

We only looked at Newbury but it seems that all the primaries and both secondaries are good, less desirable areas are few and far between and are normally just the odd street and flooding impacted the station a bit but they are making improvements so it shouldn't happen again.

HTH

Don't be fooled in Newbury by the claim of 'making improvements' re the flooding. The area around the station and Bartholowmew Street has had severe flooding problems for many years. The council are doing little about it and the situation is significantly worsening not improving.

Thanks fivepies - that's what we were told but good to know your thoughts.

Depends on your budget really.

If you're commuting into London - and many do - then you need to be south side of Newbury for easy access.

The primary schools are generally very good - though again, south side ones generally have a higher reputation.

I can't help with Thatcham, aside from: avoid Lower Way (smelly and flooding)

There are many, many new houses near the railway station - all very nice but stacked.

Hermitage is nice but you'd have a 3-4 mile drive to get to either Thatcham or Newbury through early morning traffic.