I think I want to live in Wymondham, Norfolk. Any reasons I might not want to?

[Honeydragon]

It looks nice, good schools, train station. Not far from the sea.

What's wrong with it?

(This would be quite an uproot btw)

(I haven't actually been there, you understand)

Lots of applications for big housing builds. Rejected/pending so far, I think.

Not many facilities for younger kids. E. G . Shit play areas.

But it is lovely otherwise and I may well end up living there in the next five years :)

Friday market and farmer's markets.are.nice. Not.many useful high street type shops. Mostly estate living though.

Is Waitrose the only Supermarket?

I live in a small market town now, but not with the accessibility of somewhere like Norwich. Or with as good public transport as Wymondham

Housing stock is restrictive; tonnes of 3 beds, harder to get bigger or different.
Traffic can be lousy (trains every 1/2 hour though which is nice).
Schools can be horrific to get into, fine if you have preschool kids only.
Because of popular schools, house prices are high compared to surrounding areas. Commuting distance to Cambridge in theory.
I wouldn't consider it close to the sea.

Yes we wanted to live there, couldn't be sure of school places, though.

Where would you want to go for work?

Works not an issue we have a factory in Norfolk and one in the SE hence we're debating a possible move to Norfolk.

Does living in Wymondam not guarantee a secondary school,place then?

(Anything under two hours is close to the sea in my book

Secondaries are both very good - Wymondham High or Wymondham College. I don't know if they're hard to get into but if you google Norfolk County Council Admissions they're usually very helpful.

I like Wymondham - has a nice swimming pool, a nice feel to the place. And a damn fine Waitrose. No distance to Norwich, which is, as we all know, a Fine City. And Wymondham to random nice beach (Winterton) is only 45 minutes.

Could you plan a short holiday visit to explore the area, test commuting, look at housing stock? Might be an opportunity to visit schools and get an idea of the community before taking a huge leap and buying.

Winterton is a fabulous beach and has seals with pups sometimes!

anywhere in England, then.

(2 hours sea, I mean)

Yes, but there's sea PigletJohn, and naice sea.

I've been to Norfolk on holiday. And I'd visit the area.

Just from googling Wymondham is like where I live but a bit better.

I can't find anywhere else in Norfolk that has good schools, and such a good transport link with a decent leisure centre and market town amenities.

I was born there, and my mother still lives there! Very pleasant if you like that sort of thing (sleepy norfolk towns ;-)) nice pool, nice waitrose, now has an Aldi too. Some older housing stock but a lot of samey newish builds. Couple of decent pubs. Schools good but no idea how close you have to live; I went to Wymondham college from town but that was many many years ago!

Does living in Wymondam not guarantee a secondary school,place then?

No, of course not. Why would it?
Okay if you're resident by the time of the application deadline, so by end October when you're child is in y6. But your child would not have a place at a Wymondham primary either... well, maybe. Because no 30 cap on KS2. But you'd have to take it to appeal, etc.

Places are usually at high schools in Hetherset (part of de Souza chain) or Attle-something (next one down the train line towards Ely).

It's not an aldi patrician. Morriston.

I.think you need to.be careful with school places. No one living anywhere outside catchment gets into college.or.high. And other schools.nearby may be ropey.

Winterton has to be at least 1 hour drive from Wymondham.... It's an hour for me & I'm a lot closer than Wymondham (but roads not so good).

We nearly moved there but decided against it.
For us it was neither here nor there.
Too small really for a town, nothing for the kids to do and just boring really.
We opted for the country in the end and dh stopped working at Wymondham College soon after anyway.
Thought at first our kids would end up going there but it wasn't anywhere near what it was cracked up to be.
We aren't in EA anymore, we moved several years ago now.

And that's why it's worth asking Mnet. Initial querying (ie estate agents) said that it wouldn't be an issue as long as were near one of the schools

I love wymondham! Have lived there for two years, the people are really friendly, everything's really accessible. Trains are really good - I use them four days a week to get to Ely. They run ever hour. Schools are all good. Loads of stuff going on, genuine sense of community.

What school year(s) are your kid(s) now, Honeydragon?

Dd is in reception and Ds in in year 7 so wanted somewhere they could continue walking to school.

BigSpotty

Isn't it weird, we found it the complete opposite really unfriendly.
In fact we found most of Norfolk unfriendly until we had lived there for several years, then it became apparent they were just reserved.
We had several moves too, so it wasn't just one area, but everybody experience will be different.
We have a few friends we met there that we are still in touch with and it is a beautiful place, but ime they don't take to outsiders easily.
A friend told me it was because of it being invaded because of all the sea, in a more educated way obviously.
The best area we lived was the countryside round Bungay, just inside Suffolk.
I'm not saying which village though.

More than - definitely right. Some places are, IMO, really unfriendly. Not a massive fan of cringleford/Eaton/golden triangle, but having lived in central Norwich people were lovely there too. Just depends really on who you meet/circumstances of how you meet. Wymondham is the only place in Norfolk though where I've walked around with a buggy and two kids and have had a chat with people on the street, in the shops every time I go out - they just seem friendly.