Chinnor

[JumpingBeanJumpingBean]

Hello!

Just wondering if anyone knows what Chinnor is like as a place to live? My partner and I are considering moving there with our son to one of the new developments. I need to be able to get to the train station in Risborough for work, and my partner would need to get onto the M40. Any opinions about the location of the Bovis (Lower Road) and Bellway (Crowell Road) sites would be much appreciated. We will be visiting both schools with our son as he will be due to start school next September. From looking online it seems there’s quite a lot going on there, but it would be great to hear from people in the know!

Thanks for any advice

Firstly you need to have your head around the fact that even if you’re in catchment you may not be offered a place. I live locally and have already had this chat with the Heads of Risborough, Thame and Chinnor.

Chinnor was nice, a typical English big village/small town’ feel. It’s turning into commuter-belt city just like everywhere else now, including Risb & Thame. Have you looked at Longwick at all? Croudace, Bellway and a few other developers are there - you will need a car for amenities though.

The Chinnor doctors surgery have buildings there and in Risb but because of all the new-builds (and thousands more people) had to join forces with what was a completely unrelated practice in Thame now.

The Lower Rd site isn’t as close to the pharmacists etc as far as I know, from memory (I only drive through once every fortnight) and you may need a car whereas I recall Crowell being walkable to amenities. I am happy to be corrected

The Head of one local school has tried to stipulate that children in the area before new-build families got priority re school offer. You need to look into that.

Thanks so much for your insight, some things to think about! I was under the impression that St Andrews was increasing their intake from this year, do you suspect this will be insufficient for the number of new families coming into the area? Are schools allowed to discriminate against newcomers in that way? Doesn’t sound too welcoming 😬 Although I can totally appreciate why the locals would feel like that, given the amount of development that is going on!

We hadn’t looked at Longwick but will investigate that too, thanks for the suggestion! What appealed about Chinnor was the fact that there are things going on in the village for families, especially if we have another baby (fingers crossed!). It would be nice to be able to walk to amenities, although it sounds like the infrastructure might be a bit stretched given the number of new properties!

Also, what’s the traffic like when you drive through? Obviously lots of construction traffic/traffic lights at the moment...

I don’t think the schools are allowed to discriminate but the Heads have certainly made it known that they are unhappy about having to offer places to ‘new’ children rather than established ones.

Chinnor is great for families - the park on it’s own is great for a full day with a picnic. You’ve also got the good coffee/reading shop for when you’re child-free

The new & ever-increasing traffic is the reason I used past tense...was nice. But Chinnors amenities will still be nice, there will just be a few more faces around the streets. You get cars everywhere now.

True, I know several areas locally are having to expand! It’s just daunting as we could do with more space but don’t want to get the area wrong (especially as we like where we live already!). Guess we’ll just need to keep going across at different times of the week to get a feel for the place. The coffee/bookshop is lovely! Our son was mesmerised by the little train running around the top of the walls.

Did you end up moving to Chinnor @JumpingBeanJumpingBean ? Considering the move ourselves. Wondering where I am going to be able to find 3 primary school spaces 🫣