I want to move south and live near woods, where can I afford?

[Neednewwellies]

We live in the North. It’s cold and damp and I’ve come to hate it when I used to love it. We have 3 children, one in senior school (y10) and two in junior school (Y3&Y1). Our eldest is very academic but also easy going so would happily move somewhere else for Alevels. So my biggest issue would be looking for catchment for an excellent senior school for all 3. We are very urban here with not much greenery and for health reasons I want to take a step back from work and get a dog. I’d really love to be walking distance to woodland or if not then maybe some coast but not a commercially built up seaside town. Ideally I’d like to be in Hampshire or Sussex but open to ideas. We need 4 bedrooms and DH would need to get to London 2days a week. I don’t want to be somewhere too build up so just what we have here but further south if that makes sense. I crave more space around me but I also know with a teenager, we can’t be in the middle of nowhere. Our absolute max budget would be 700k but ideally no more than 675k. Is any of this doable? Is my head in the clouds? Where we live is expensive and that gets us a good size 4 bed but I know it’s far more expensive in the SE. Any help appreciated and we’d be looking to move when my daughter finishes GCSEs so next summer.

I live SW and used to live SE. SE is much much drier and more sunshine hours, even though I prefer SW in every other regard!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88188332.html

We moved to Folkestone from London a couple of years ago and absolutely adore it. We have fantastic countryside and woodland for long rambles (culminating in a pub with a roaring log fire) and gorgeous coastline with lots of independent restaurants and shops. Was never on our radar and bought on a bit of a whim, but easily the best move we’ve ever made...

Also just seen you need schools...ours got into the local grammar with no problem at all as competition is much less fierce than the London suburbs we moved from. Both local grammars (Boys and girls) are outstanding. DH commutes daily into St Pancras and HS1 is less than an hour and actually as commutes go, quite a picturesque and stress free one! If you want to be right on top of good woodland, look at a Densole just up on the top of the Downs...

@JoJoSM2, thanks for those links re schools. I don’t think I want London. And I don’t really want to get into the car and drive 10 or 15min to countryside. I want to walk out my front door and 10min walk later be in woodland or heathland. I think where you are is very affluent urban and therefore very similar to where I am now (I’m in Wilmslow in Cheshire) and whilst I have 3 or 4 NT places within 15min drive and a huge park, it’s not what I want now. Our house has just been valued at 850k and I know it will sell quickly. I don’t want more of the same. I want a shift change and a different less crazy school experience for DC2&3. Our local school is very good but lots of crazy, affluent pushy parents.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88113659.html Is less than five minutes walk to the sea the woodlands at the Lower Leas park AND the HS1 line for London...as well as being easily inside the catchment for both grammars!

@NewYearNewWho, that house looks lovely; perfect in fact if I can do all those things. I think I’ll call up and enquire, thank you.

Everyone is being so helpful. Thanks so much. So far I’m going to investigate the area around Marlow although my budget doesn’t go far there, the areas around Reading and now the area around Folkestone! Thanks

OP, sounds like you do need to be out of the commuter belt.

Folkestone and the surrounds (Hythe, Sandgate, Saltwood etc) do have a lovely setting between the sea and the hills and the added perk of being able to get to the continent in no time. So I can second that area - only you do need to get your children into the grammars as the non-selective schools are pretty poor.

Happy to help! As I say, we took a huge gamble moving here (no knowledge of area at all and no family ties - in fact I had only visited Folkestone once previously and very briefly in 2012 and absolutely hated the area at that time) but it has altered beyond all recognition and really has exceeded everything we had dared to hope for. Come back and let us know if by some quirk of fate you do buy that one as I run past it regularly and will be curious when I eventually see the sold sign!

There seems to be a lot of us near Mortimer!

Forgot to add there are loads of local events in mortimer and burghfield. Box cart outdoor cinema beer festival etc. Good community spirit.

Tring.

Tring high school is very good.

Epping, like someone said - chingford.

There are also woods in Herts though, Brickenden and Hertford Heath. Trains every 30 mins to London and takes about 40 minutes.

@mogtheexcellent thank you. I’d very much like a sense of community so that sounds fabulous.

You could do brighton with £700k -then you’d have the woods, the South Downs, and the sea, and 50 mins into London.

@SisterAgatha, isn’t Chingford urban commuter belt? I’m trying to get away from that. Is the forest a few minutes walk for there? If so then maybe it’s worth a look but I don’t want busy urban good for commuting needing a car type of place.

@FenellaMaxwell, can you walk to the South Downs from Brighton? I want woodland literally on my doorstep. Brighton seems a bit too busy and buzzy for what I’m looking for.

Thanks everyone. Just to clarify; I’m not looking for where in the SE I can get a 4 bed in budget. More where can I get a 4 bed in budget and literally be able to walk to woods or hills or heathlands from the front door. I’m currently making a little digital scrapbook of ideas

We live in a small town in Lincolnshire. The weather is good and the countryside is on our doorstep including lots of woods. Our town has a station and you can be un London in just iver two hours. Lincolnshire also has grammar schools. We moved here 6 years ago and I love it. Ive lived all over the UK with my job and this is my favourite area. I won't move.

Buriton, in Hampshire you can walk to the woods of the country park there. Chalton, Ditcham have some lovely countryside walks.

@Neednewwellies yes, it depends what bit but from the outskirts - Rottingdean, saltdean, falmer, was you absolutely can.

Thanks @lincsmum71. Any ideas where I should look to have direct access to woodland? I don’t associate Lincs with woods.

Can recommend Winchester. Easy commute into London, and very good schools, including Peter Simmonds College for A Levels. Its a compact city so you can easily get around without a car (good for teenagers!). Some houses on rightmove within your budget at the moment - Teg Down area is very close to the Clarendon Way and some wooded walks, and the South Downs Way starts from Winchester too.

Upshire in Waltham abbey you can walk to Epping. Plenty of little villages around there. Yes people do commute as much as they do from anywhere with direct kings cross/liverpool street/Stratford access but Epping covers Essex and London. Chingford has plenty of little hide away bits. Loughton or Epping village would not be for you.

Any of these areas - Rottingdean, ovingdean, saltdean, woodingdean, falmer, stanmer, a lot of hollingbury - it’s all on your doorstep. Where we are, you literally walk to the end of our road and it turns into a wooded track up onto the downs.

Surrey is the most wooded county in England. The Surrey Hills are beautiful and there are lots of properties surrounded by woodland with loads of footpaths, ideal for dog walkers. As others have said the area around Dorking is lovely and has the added bonus of a relatively cheap season ticket and the choice of two rail companies (southern and south western) ideal for when one or the other is on strike!