Essex - Wickford?

[phon]

Hi, we are looking for a house around Essex now. currently, living in flat in Gidea Park and planning to buy 3bed house with under 450k (too fussy but good size of room with a big garden)
I love Gidea Park and looking for the area, however, my daughter is 3yo and consider of her secondary school.
We would like good secondary, or reachable to grammar school and also commuting to the city by train so within walking distance to the station and good driving distance to Ilford.

We went to see few area such as Chelmsford, Billericay, Brentwood, Hornchurch, Upminster, these places are over the budget for us...

We haven't been to Wickford but found house price is not that high.

Any opinion about Wickford area?

Ive lived in Wickford for ten years and I absolutely love it. We've never had any problems with schools or crime here. It has gone slightly downhill since the closure of the towns police station, but I imagine it's still miles quieter than Romford(where I have also lived before, as a child and again when I left home). The two local secondary here are okay to good. My kids all went to the OK one and did well enough. The grammars locally are very good but quite selective. They are a 40 minute bus journey away but the transport links are fairly good. I use buses for work and they do the job. There's plenty of employment here, it's easy to get to london(though the line from Basildon is more reliable and cheaper). I think it's one of those little leafy market towns that the house prices have stayed reasonable in. You can get quite a lot for your money here and lots of houses have nice big gardens.

I would avoid the area very close to the town centre, and Appletree way. Anywhere else is nice. The Wick the houses are quite small for the money.

Nice parks, good schools and some nice houses but the horrible high street would put me off. Mainly charity shops. No nice bars or cafes. Can you afford Rayleigh? Much much nicer, high street really come on over the years.

Wickford high street does need some investment, but the Cossins bakery is fab, and there are some nice small businesses there.

Thank you everyone!
I work at the city but my partner works close to Ilford station.
How is traffic like on A127 during peak time, early morning/afternoon time?

Traffic on the 127 is horrendous unfortunately, as is the A13 and A12 but you'll get that on any major/trunk road

I see,, we drove down to Wickford from Romford yesterday, it was not too bad maybe because it was weekend..

It was a bank holiday, plus a lot of people are not working so there isn't the usual amount of traffic on the road. I'm on the 127 London bound at 5.45am and it's busy and increasing. It's slow from 3.30/4 and gridlocked from 5 Southend bound usually. Problem is, all the major roads around here are gridlocked, as are the smaller roads people try to use to beat the traffic and it's only getting worse. I hope it doesn't put you off, after a while you just get used to it if travelling by car (it's much better when I'm on my motorbike)

I've lived in Wickford (on the Wick) for 20 years, we like it here but prices are high. On the other side of Wickford houses are older and the area is more mixed but you get more for your money. DH travels to East London every day and traffic is busy but it moves on the A127. Usually best to avoid the times between 7.30/9 if you can, he leaves earlier than he needs to.
Schools are good, both primary and secondary, and the high street is ok, nothing spectacular but it has what you need.

Thank you for your message regarding travelling in morning on A127.
How about rush hour around 4-5pm from Ilford to Wickford?
Would it be a long journey home?

It took DH 40 minutes today (he's working in Ilford at the moment), he's estimating around an hour once traffic is back to normal levels.

Does your partner have to drive? Wickford-Ilford isn't a bad train journey.

Thanks! he prefer driving as leaving home in early morning. I guess it's not a big problem in the morning but it would be long journey home once traffic back to normal...
That info help me a lot;)

Wickford to Ilford isn't an easy train journey unfortunately so driving is easier and, usually, far quicker