Best places to live in Hampshire?

[Heidi409]

Hi there,

I would love some advice on the best places to live in Hampshire. My husband and I are both originally from the Isle of Wight so have a lot of family there. We have lived in Amsterdam for the past 8 years and are now making the move back to the motherland...

My husband has accepted a job in Hedge End. Originally we were thinking of living in Cowes and commuting but think the commute may be a little bit too long...

We have a 6 month old son, so also need to consider good Primary Schools. I'm not exactly sure how the catchment area works, how close by do you actually need to be to get accepted?

We are thinking of renting initially to get a feel for the area and see how long the commute to work is. Ideally we would like to look for a pretty village with young families and a sense of community, somewhere not too far from the sea, Hedge End or connections to the Island (Read: Grandma's babysitting . Our budget for buying our first house is around the 350 mark. Sorry quite a long wish list I know :)

Have found some really useful threads on here (from quite a few years ago) that recommend Bishops Waltham, Ashurst, Romsey, Otterbourne, Chandlers Ford, Swanmore, and Warsash. It would be great to get an update view on where could be most suitable.

Thank you so much in advance for any help or advice. xx

Wychavon

Stubbington

all the best x

Hamble? I'm not a fan myself as too quiet for me, but it is a lovely area, very pretty, very small, by the sea.
Also.. I would assume lots of young families as new build houses are going up a lot there at the moment.

Hamble primary school ofstead.... reports.ofsted.gov.uk/index.php?q=filedownloading/&id=2496788&type=1&refer=0

To find the local schools to your area, just put the village or postcode in you are considering and will bring the local schools up... www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england. Depends how many schools are in the area as to catchment I think

My family moved close to Bishops Waltham when I was a teenager. Very pretty place, but fuck all to do once you start getting independent (if you are looking for somewhere more long term). No train station, buses are once or twice an hour so you need to be prepared to drive everywhere. Same goes for Swanmore. I also remember that because the villages around there are fairly small, you found people went to different schools and your friends lived all over the place. You might have one or two school friends nearby, but I never really felt like there was that much of a close knit community. Having said that, it might be different if you are there from when your children are much younger- I think it's more difficult to integrate once your family is past primary school age.

I would recommend Romsey, much better connected and a bit more going on. Has good schools and is close enough for commuting to Winchester (excellent secondary and college options) I know you want a village feel but Winchester isn't a big town and the commute to Hedge End would be very doable- however it is expensive to buy there! Otterbourne is on the outskirts so might be a good compromise?

Have a look at whiteley
Great family community

Emsworth is beautiful. I'd live there if I could.

Winchester.

Avoid Hedge End, built up nightmare. Possibly Botley, but I think a new estate is going up at Boorley Green.

Titchfield is good, nice villagey feel and a thriving community, and there are other routes to Hedge End from there other than the M27.

However, if I had to live in Hants, it would be Winchester, Alresford, the Wortheys or Sutton Scotney.

I'm in Fareham (wouldn't choose to live here) but Stubbington and Titchfield are both lovely villages and close enough to get to Gosport Ferry for passenger trips back to IOW.

I grew up in Fareham CombatBarbie and had to go back as I had relatives thereabouts. I am very glad that I will not have to live there again.

I noted with interest the potential congestion charge that was being mooted in and out of Fareham, specifically hitting the Market roundabout, so Tesco, and up to Broadcut, and all those coming off the Go sport side through Fareham to get to work every day.

Gosport, not Go sport!!

We're in Romsey and it is lovely with some great schools.
However I wouldn't fancy commuting to Hedge End every day along the nightmare M27, so I would go for somewhere nearer. Swanmore?

For primary school catchments etc, look at the information available online, if you go on the Hampshire County Council website their information is quite detailed. You can see what admissions category the last child got in on and how far away from the school they were for the previous 3 years or so. Just so you know the current Year R is a big birth year so threw up some odd things in some areas. (Not all siblings got into our local school for example as they were so oversubscribed with a huge birth year and huge sibling year) So I would look over all the years data available online to get a better idea.

There is a lot of building going on or planned at the moment particularly around Fair Oak/Bishopstoke/Eastleigh and Romsey so you need to do your research and think about impact on commutes and school places that might have.

I would personally avoid Hamble as getting in and out of it is a nightmare at peak times and this is only going to get worse with the new housing estate going up on the main access road.

I don't think your budget would go very far in some of the places mentioned, Winchester/Alresford etc is expensive as its nice and closer to London. Chandlers Ford is mostly nice, but there is a big split down the middle in terms of price where half is in one secondary school catchment and half in the other, and to be in the half of the 'better' school catchment adds significantly to the house prices. CF also isn't village at all, its very much a commuter suburb.

I would look Stubbington/Titchfield/Warsash kind of way or up towards Bishops Waltham. Its difficult as there is so much building going on its very hard to say any area will be nice in a few years even if it is lovely at the moment.