Need somewhere within 1.5hrs of Cambridge

[runlikeagirl]

We need to find somewhere to rent within an hour or hour and half of Cambridge. Dh job will be there. Can't afford Cambridge itself.

Need 4 bedrooms (one as an office for Dh who will work from home 2-3days a week). All the usual, good schools, need reasonable transport links (A1?)

Renting to start with, budget of £650-£750 a month. Help me find somewhere, I'm driving myself mad on rightmove!

Maybe try around Wellingborough or Rushden? If you are looking to teach in a secondary school, then Northants (2 tier) may be a better bet than Beds (3 tier).

Friend lives in Hitchin Herts which is nice but have no idea of rental prices. She used to live in Godmanchester, also nice.

What about down the a14 so kettering, desborough, market Harborough ?

Colchester is a bit if a trek. Esp if the A14 or M11 has issues. Which it regularly does.
The traffic from Bedford can be horrendous. Black cat roundabout is being improved but the 428 in caxton gibbet is dire in the morning.
Then Madingley has so many problems right now due to building/roadworks.

I would go Norfolk borders to get a cheaper house to rent.
Not Brandon though.

Godmanchester is nice, but I would anticipate expensive. St Neots is also ok and has relatively cheap areas. Kettering is ok, Rushden and Wellingborough are a little run down.

I have old friends in Wellingborough, Kettering, Thrapston, Oundle, all good.

Corby might be hard work if you don't know people there already (or have Scottish/steel works connections).

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-33543882.html

Godmanchester, Huntingdon Camborne, Haverhill and Newmarket are probably the closest you're going to be able to afford to get, not the nicest places but would fit the bill so you can start searching around in person. Lots of my colleagues live around Beds places like Sandy, doesn't take them long to commute but we work unsocial hours

I know it's an aside, but it might help us understand other needs.
Why is it so hard for your DH to be 3 hours away for one night a week?
Do you drive, too, do you run a 2nd car?

I totally get the not wanting to work at home, Gawd I hate it too.

Just noticed that your in-laws are in Bedford. Could they provide a room DH could use as an office? Then you could manage with a 3 bed which is likely to be more doable on your budget.

Market Deeping, Glinton north of Peterborough?

Newmarket ks nice and surrounding villages, 30 mkn drive into camnridge, bury again beautiful but 50 min drive. I second newmarket ect. Do not do chatteris or march sory to offend but they are dumps. Ely agin is ok, and the villages near it, haddenham, sutton etc.

Hadn't thought about that as an office solution!

He finds it exhausting driving all that way and back, it's a lot of money in fuel that wouldn't be paid for by the company. He hates driving and hates commuting. I think he thought working from home would be perfect in that sense!

I have suggested that he does a trial of it from here first.

You might be able to negotiate the price down on something like this:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-47643463.html

Which is close to Bedford and I've heard that the lower school (Ursula Taylor) is OK.

...and I bet there is a bus to Bedford if he really doesn't want to drive.

There is. The X5

South Norfolk? Somewhere like Diss or surrounding villages you can get a 3 bed with separate dining room in your price range and it's 50 miles from Cambridge.

We are in a village outside Diss on Norfolk/Suffolk border. Sil commutes to Cambridge daily and says it's ok. There's a few on here might be possibilities www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/Diss.html?sortType=1&minBedrooms=3&radius=10.0&index=10

We are in Mildenhall, so about 30 mins from Cambridge.
I think a good place for you to start is to know if you want a town or a village to live in, what sort of transport options you have for getting around with the DCs (there are lovely villages around and about but you need a car to do anything!) and what sort of activities you all want to be doing. If DH can commute up to an hour and a half, then you need to find something that fits in with all of you first.
Cambridge is usually jam packed at morning commute time so if you can get as close as possible, it will make for a shorter car journey for DH or get as near as possible to a train station if that will be an option for him to get to the office.
Cambridge is a great city though!

Have been to Ely only once It was one of the coldest places I have ever been . Combination of hill/fen ? Cambridgeshire can be very cold-something to do with being very flat and the wind coming straight from Russia ( I kid you not)

postchildren Ely cathedral is the only thing between Cambridge and Siberia that sticks up, or so I'm told.

The "wind coming straight from Siberia" thing is a complete myth. There are several mountains between Ely and Siberia!

Yes definitely do a trial first! Otherwise what if he decides after a month that he can't stand the job?!

Paxman the myth lives on because it's so plausible! Some seriously cold winds blow over the Fens.

Paxman I know, it's one of those myths I heard when I was studying in Cambridge (in, not at before I get accused of a stealth boast!). It's highly plausible though, that wind is bitter.