There's a chance we may need to move to the Peterborough area for work. We wouldn't want to live in the city itself. We live in a gorgeous Herts market town at the moment and want to find something similar. Stamford looks perfect but pricey! We also like the look of The Deepings. Primary schools are important. Anyone know these two towns / areas? Thank you!
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Stamford / Market Deeping, S Lincs
184 replies
imabeautifulfennelcalledjoan · 31/01/2016 23:50
OP posts:
Myredcardigan ·
09/02/2016 18:51
Hitchin and Stamford are similar in quite a few ways. I prefer Hitchin though but that might be more because it doesn't feel so isolated and twee. But then we lived in Berkhamsted before moving to StA and I hated that too. Yet it's also highly rated. I did like it when we lived in an urban bit of Cheshire as that seemed to have everything such as close to major city, excellent schools and the Peak District on our doorstep. We're now on the South Coast and it has taken me a long time to adjust but with 2 at senior school now we're sort of stuck, I think I've realised that I like urban best so DH and I plan to to retire to a city centre rather than the coast. 
Myredcardigan ·
09/02/2016 18:55
I always struggled to park in Stamford. A nice big practical multi-storey is what it needed! 
Myredcardigan ·
09/02/2016 19:36
We saw the house we lived in Betkhamsted was recently on the market. It's a small 3bed ex local authority semi. They've converted the loft to make 4th bedroom. Downstairs is a smallish kitchen diner and a lounge. It was on at 485k and sold almost immediately. It's not even close to the town centre. I found it to be massively insular and snobby and that's the same feeling I got in Stamford. I liked living in the Cheshire town because although it was affluent, it was full of people who had grown up all over Manchester and moved there. Also racially and culturally mixed. Whereas In Berko and Stamford, it was full of lots of 50+! People who had lived there for 30+ yrs and expected deference! Down here it's a bit more down market but the old people eat ice cream instead!
Nodowntime ·
14/02/2016 13:14
OP, when we lived in Oakham, I used the trains every week in the first two three years, when we had only one car, though DH could walk to work initially. Buses in small towns stop running at 5 
and the route which is 10 min by train takes forever by bus(50 min). Though there is only one train company running on this particular line, so being monopolists there are no deals, they can charge extortionate prices. Still after living there I wouldn't consider living anywhere with no train station.
Oakham is quiet-ish, but I know lots of people who chose it over Stamford, also compared to Deepings there is more stuff to do, and there is Rutland Water cycling distance away.
Also Uppingham in Rutland is charming, I actually liked it better than
Oakham, but it didn't have a train station, only one expensive supermarket(Co-op) and it IS tiny. Schools are really good though.
Visit both Stamford and Oakham and see for yourself, it's less than 15 min drive between them.
As for Stamford. Funnily enough, I had an acquaintance, only for a year, her DC was in the same reception class as my DC. We were invited to her DC's birthday party, they were nearly the only ones who organised the party and its theme themselves (parents and friends+family), all the other parties we went to had a brought in entertainer. Anyway, I thought it was really fun and original, and the kids of course joined in, but parents were all standing around a bit po-faced. I could tell straight away her and DH were not locals
Turned out later they were renting in Stamford and her DH was commuting to Stevenage, and by the end of the academic year they moved away, to Hitchin! She was SOO excited to leave! She said Hitchin was more hip and them, and Stamford was nice, but a rich people's bubble. (which does sound a bit strange to me now that I've heard of Hitchin's property prices on this thread). I had never heard of it until she mentioned it.
We are certainly not rich, but also we are not born and bred locally.
Incidentally, myredcardigan, you must had lived here before we moved here, we did in 2010, and by then it seemed that every fourth person in Stamford was not Stamfordian/local originally! Maybe it used to be insulated, but it had such a powerful influx of newcomers(esp. people from London and Cambridge), and I've witnessed it a lot myself in the last five years, so maybe its feel has somewhat changed? I don't know, it's difficult for me to judge, I grew up in a very busy European capital(I'm not English, but DH is), and my only experience of living here was Bath(amazing, but couldn't afford to stay), Oakham and Stamford. I was so crushed by small town living in Oakham and had to change culturally and all my habits and what I enjoy etc, that even a move to Stamford felt like a massive upgrade - so busy! so cosmopolitan ;) (relatively! but Oakham was 99% white British) has an Art Centre! cinema! DIY stores several supermarkets There is even a direct train to London in the morning, could be there in under an hour. Etc.
Nodowntime ·
14/02/2016 13:37
I realise I made it sound that only people who are not from around here are worth knowing Of course not. Our next door neighbours, in their 70s, she Rutland born and bred, and he was born in Stamford and lived here all his life - they are the most amazing, warm, kindest generous couple, always full of energy and buzz. They became my daughter's surrogate grandparents, she actually calls them granny and grandpa (their granddaughter is the same age as my DD and in the same school). They know her better than her own GPs (who are not originally locals, but love it here! live a mile down the road and never in their life took her even for an hour's walk. But they are a bit weird I think, I know no-one as lukewarm towards GC).
And they(the neighbours) are interesting, and full of enthusiasm for life. The ladies who work at the library and run a story hour for pre-school kids are the same, really fun and uninhibited, and kind and understanding. They are all local(or sound very local), and they are super.
By contrast ladies at Oakham library were a bit cold and snooty 
(disclaimer: in my and DH's opinion, also they might not be working there any more!).
Basically, my and DH's experience of living locally was that most people are really friendly but we could find very few who we could think of as kindred spirits, and in our case they are not local at all, though settled here (Scottish and Spanish). However, maybe it's true of most small towns? Just smaller population=smaller selection of potential friends?
Toria2014 ·
15/02/2016 15:58
I'll defend Bourne too!! I would chose it every time over Spalding!
Scarftown ·
15/02/2016 16:01
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
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