Moving to Canterbury - areas suggestions?

[saudades15]

Hello, we're planning on moving to Canterbury area (anywhere around 20min max from Canterbury west station) but don't really know a lot about the villages around it, especially where the good schools are, and genereally where is a nice place to live. Also, I don't know anyone around this area so if there are any locals that could suggest me anything, I would really appreciate it! We have two kids (4 and 2 yrs old) and My 4 years old starts school this year! Can anyone tell me anything about good places to live in/near to Canterbury, please?
I heard Wye is OK but I would much prefer to stay closer to Canterbury. Also heard to avoid Sturry? Any tips would be amazing, thank you xx

20min max walk or bus/drive from Canterbury West?
Traffic - like all towns/cities is congested in the morning.
St Dunstan's/St Stephens/Harbledown are nice areas on that side of town.
What's your budget like?

Thank you fastliving, I meant 20min drive from Canterbury. Do you recommend any particular places that are nice for families?

We looked in Canterbury when moving down from London. I quite liked the Chartham area and there is apparently a cycle path from you can follow all the way to the station. Also Bridge and Pluckley (however that is meant to be most haunted village in UK) Ended up in Folkestone though as the sea, much more property/land for our money and the quicker commute won us over when we came down to visit. Still love Canterbury for shopping ☺️

Thank you so much @Timeforchachachanges - We're looking around these areas too. Bridge looked very nice. Does anyone know anything about Blean or Sturry?
Pluckley seems a bit too far from Canterbury but I'll still have a little look/research. Thank you so much x

Yes Pluckley probably is. Sorry, my bad. We cast our net fairly wide when coming down (all across Kent and East Sussex) so was just listing places I recall liking. One thing to consider if you haven’t already is secondary schools. I know may seem crazy as yours are so young, but competition for the Canterbury grammars is pretty hot (though nowhere near as fierce as London) so you might want to factor that in and position yourself as close possible to the ones you’d hope to get into...

Yes Pluckley probably is. Sorry, my bad. We cast our net fairly wide when coming down (all across Kent and East Sussex) so was just listing places I recall liking. One thing to consider if you haven’t already is secondary schools. I know may seem crazy as yours are so young, but competition for the Canterbury grammars is pretty hot (though nowhere near as fierce as London) so you might want to factor that in and position yourself as close possible to the ones you’d hope to get into...

Yes Pluckley probably is. Sorry, my bad. We cast our net fairly wide when coming down (all across Kent and East Sussex) so was just listing places I recall liking. One thing to consider if you haven’t already is secondary schools. I know may seem crazy as yours are so young, but competition for the Canterbury grammars is pretty hot (though nowhere near as fierce as London) so you might want to factor that in and position yourself as close possible to the ones you’d hope to get into...

Yes Pluckley probably is. Sorry, my bad. We cast our net fairly wide when coming down (all across Kent and East Sussex) so was just listing places I recall liking. One thing to consider if you haven’t already is secondary schools. I know may seem crazy as yours are so young, but competition for the Canterbury grammars is pretty hot (though nowhere near as fierce as London) so you might want to factor that in and position yourself as close possible to the ones you’d hope to get into...

Yes Pluckley probably is. Sorry, my bad. We cast our net fairly wide when coming down (all across Kent and East Sussex) so was just listing places I recall liking. One thing to consider if you haven’t already is secondary schools. I know may seem crazy as yours are so young, but competition for the Canterbury grammars is pretty hot (though nowhere near as fierce as London) so you might want to factor that in and position yourself as close possible to the ones you’d hope to get into...

Yes Pluckley probably is. Sorry, my bad. We cast our net fairly wide when coming down (all across Kent and East Sussex) so was just listing places I recall liking. One thing to consider if you haven’t already is secondary schools. I know may seem crazy as yours are so young, but competition for the Canterbury grammars is pretty hot (though nowhere near as fierce as London) so you might want to factor that in and position yourself as close possible to the ones you’d hope to get into...

Yes Pluckley probably is. Sorry, my bad. We cast our net fairly wide when coming down (all across Kent and East Sussex) so was just listing places I recall liking. One thing to consider if you haven’t already is secondary schools. I know may seem crazy as yours are so young, but competition for the Canterbury grammars is pretty hot (though nowhere near as fierce as London) so you might want to factor that in and position yourself as close possible to the ones you’d hope to get into...

Blean is lovely and quiet and has lots of walking in the forest. If you're driving to Canterbury West you're within the commute time you mentioned.

Sturry village (and also Fordwich) is nice, Sturry Road is the one you would probably want to avoid. Sturry has its own station but you would have to change at Canterbury or Ashford for the high speed.

I used to live in St Dunstan’s. Lovely community spirit, good schools nearby ( St Peter’s and St Stephen’s) and train station to London. You have Westgate Gardens right by you.

South Canterbury has more detached houses and is still walking distance to centre.

Nice villages are Bridge, Littlebourne, Wingham, school, shops and lovely walks.

I personally would avoid Sturry and Hersden and that side of Canterbury. Fordwich is lovely but used as a rat run by commuters.

Have you thought about living by the sea? Whitstable is great. Six miles from Canterbury with direct trains to London.

@francienolan @Crawley65 amazing tips, thank you so much, very helpful @Timeforchachachanges - wow!!! My head is barely getting the hang of primary schools at the moment haha but that is great tip though, thank you. I’ll definitely get this in mind

Blean is lovely, the village is quite long though and you could easily be out of catchment for blean school (which is outstanding according to Ofsted) if you were the wrong end, but there are other good schools towards Whitstable like Herne hill. St Stephens hill area is nice, and at Stephens school is good, Tyler hill is a nice village, the estates that lead off from Whitstable road heading towards Canterbury west make the station a good commute and in catchment for some of the better schools if you're nearer the university.

Those are really good tips, I’ll look into these @gaffamate Thank you so much
We’re probably going to come and do a recce of these places soon :)

the estates that lead off from Whitstable road heading towards Canterbury west

Careful here--some are perfect lovely residential roads and some are full of student houses! Visit during term time if possible.

Yes the houses off harkness road are quite studenty but many of the students have been priced out of the whitstable road area. Definitely avoid all the estates around st Stephens hill onto the Hales place area though, unless you like parties!

Thank you @francienolan and @Bellesavage. I'll keep that in mind for sure.
We've been looking at areas such as Nackington, Littlebourne and Fordwich... do you know anything about these areas at all? Are they OK, family-friendly, etc...?
thank you xx

OH and also Rough Common?

I have friends in Littlebourne who like it very much. Test the drive to the train in rush hour though as the station would probably need you to go on a busy ring road.

Never been to Nackington. Fordwich is adorable, we looked at some cottages there. Really nice pubs.

Rough Common is a nice area and very peaceful with nice walks in the Blean. No pub though!

Rough common is lovely, busy road though if you bought roadside. And agree to check commutes to the station, it could take you half an hour to get from fordwich or littlebourne to Canterbury west in rush hour

I live between villages just on the outskirts of Reculver/Herne Bay. Apart from the drive to the station, are you planning on driving pretty much everywhere to get around? Because if you’re looking for ‘village’ locations, you’re probably going to have to. I’ve spent the last 15+ years being a taxi service to the children because the buses are not frequent enough or you can’t safely let them walk down lanes to the nearest bus stop. As long as you’re ok with that, you’ve got lots of choice of lovely country or coastal villages. I’d 2nd the suggestion of the Folkestone area if commute time is key to you as you get a lot more for your money there. Other than that, with young children I’d look for a village with a good/outstanding primary school EG Bridge has Bridge and Patrixbourne, Hoath has Hoath, Chislet and Reculver primaries near by, Blean, Rough Common have Blean primary etc and check with their admissions the furthest from them you could expect to get a place as some are easier to get in to than others. In our experience it was easier getting a place in the Canterbury grammars than in the nearest (good) high school. Of course there’s always the independents, of which there are many excellent examples in the Canterbury area. Nackington area is good for the grammars if and when you want them. Fordwich is beautiful but tiny and there’s only really the pubs there (one of which is probably the most expensive pub in Britain ) though Sturry village is nearby. Rough Common/Blean is ok but when we were looking for primaries they were oversubscribed and we wouldn’t have had a chance of getting in unless we lived on top of it (might be different now) so we moved where there was more choice of primaries.

@Judashascomeintosomemoney Thank you! Those are very valuable points I hadn't really thought about and it's definitely given me more to think about. I'll look into Folkestone. I know it's a similar time to commute to St Pancreas which is the main thing for my husband, really. I like the idea of a village but feel afraid to feel too isolated and like you said, be the taxi for my kids haha...

Thanks @francienolan and @Bellesavage for your tips as well. I have a lot of homework to do :)

What about Faversham? Lovely town, good schools, not oversubscribed, affordable in terms of housing as there are a lot of new developments. 15-20 drive to Canterbury West station, but also already on its own high(ish) speed line to London (55mins IIRC)