Which would you choose? Hertford, Bishop's Stortford or Hichin?

[Rahdera]

Thinking of moving to one of these places, but do not know anything about them other than what I've read online. Have visited them all once too, but they all seemed fairly similar to me. What can you tell me about them? Things that we rate/need;
Schools good - both primary and secondary
Pleasant countryside nearby
Stuff going on like a cinema, swimming pool, active clubs, yoga etc- a bit of a community feel
Stuff for teenagers to do
Somewhere with a heart and not just a commuter town
Liberal feel
Decent pub
Fairly painless commute to city
Prefer period property
Which one, if any, do you think would be the best?
TIA!

If you want an outlying village then you do need to choose the actual road carefully! eg in Pirton one side of the village is catchement area for the Girls School and one side the Priory. Ickleford children go the the Priory.

Have you looked at prices? I saw some examples from another poster earlier here and they are a bit behind the times.

This www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51480374.html is a bog standard semi - not especially nice area- north side and very close to the Priory School.

I love Hitchin but you are looking at £450+ for a 3 bed family home now.

Cheaper but modern

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51994070.html

Yes, sorry when I said 375-400k on the south side of hitchin, that was the kind of thing I meant, most of the housing stock over there is 70s onward. I think that one is right next to the train line though so depends if that bothers you. We looked at one and decided it would.

There has been a steep rise in Hitchin recently but I think it may be levelling off. I'm seeing lots of properties go on at frankly ridiculous prices then come down after a couple of months. Things that are fairly priced sell in days. The house we're buying went on at 425k. We got it for 381. That's for a three double bed detached 115m2 on the south edge of Hitchin. It needs about 10K of work to update it. We'll also do a garage conversion at some point.

It's a bit of an outdated snobby view re Hitchin Girls/Boys vs Priory. The Priory now has a great head and achieves comparable results. The sixth forms are also in a consortium.

South side of Hitchin is indeed lovely but don't believe too much of the anti - north side hype: buy one side of the Bedford Road (Bearton) for considerably more than the other but they're literally across the road and mainly the same school catchments - and both north Hitchin. But Bearton area is largely Victorian terraces and v trendy. Alas this won't get you much for your money.

You might want to consider Letchworth and Baldock too: both nice, decent towns and very close to Hitchin. Both commutable. Letchworth has more of an arts scene so slightly more liberal feel.