Winchester / Petersfield

[Lookingforahome]

Is anyone able to advise on the best areas of Winchester & Petersfield (and that broad area) for bringing up children? Looking for great primaries & secondaries, houses with a garden close to local amenities & well connected to either Winchester or London. Would love to find a village or small town which has the good schools.

Depends on your budget. Petersfield is a lovely market town with good train connection and decent schools. Winchester much bigger but also has great appeal.

Depends on your budget. Winchester is massively expensive.

Petersfield isn’t cheap either!

We have family in Bordon which isn't far out. Has good schools and good road connections. Lots of new builds going in and a new town centre at some point

I don't think you can go wrong with Winchester frankly. Good train links, lots of independent shops and cafes, all of the schools are good, it has a lovely theatre, a new sports centre is being built, and the Hampshire countryside is all around you!

What's your budget and what sort of size of house do you want?

Alton area is nice and medstead and four marks. Good schools in Alton (I know I work in one lol)

Thank you! Budget is £1.25

That would buy you a very nice house in the best roads of Petersfield. Winchester is more expensive but you would still get a decent house there as well. I don't know enough about Winchester but look around The Heath in Petersfield as those are the best roads.

Bishops Waltham is 20 minutes from Winchester and is close to Fareham, Portsmouth and Southampton, too. Rural but 15 minutes from the M27.

Schools: Bishops Waltham Infants, Bishops Waltham Juniors, Swanmore Primary and St Johns all an option for primary (there are also Durley and Upham, but they're small and unlikely to get in on distance). Secondary school would be Swanmore College. Some children who are on the outskirts go to Wyvern instead. Colleges are Peter Symonds and Barton Peveril.

Lots of green space, but still feels 'country'. Very safe.

Alton, Alesford, Stockbridge, Romsey, Wallops, Winchester all nice towns/ villages with good schools.

Chandlers Ford has Thorndean which is sought after.

Peter Symonds is an excellent 6th from as is Barton Pevrill.

form even - not from

Some lovely properties

Bishop's Waltham is a good choice
Wickham is beautiful too
Colden common if you want more families
Twyford is ££ but has a prep school and good state primary
Winchester itself is beautiful but ££

First time I've ever seen Bordon rec'ed as a great place to live. I grew up there in the 80s and 90s and my parents still live there. It's improved a lot since and is quite good value compared to most other places in the area. The regeneration is still unfinished though, there's no proper town centre, and I would say, not enough facilities/resources/transport links for the number of new houses as yet. The old army housing stock is being renewed/replaced but lots of areas are still very run down including the Forest Centre. With a 1.25 million budget I would go somewhere nicer.

Also, good schools? Mill Chase is now Oakmoor or something and has moved to a new building in the old army bit, but it definitely didn't have a great reputation when I was there and for a long time afterwards, and that was after a round of improvements. Alton College is good for people who want more FE college and less 6th form and you could get there from Winchester.

Thanks all this is really useful!

Spending our weekends finding the right spot with rail connections & schools!

Petersfield was horrible to grow up in - a boring, boring area for a child. It's very much an adults town. Very expensive, the more wealthy people who lived there weren't very nice when I worked there as a teen, would never ever go back. Winchester was always much nicer personally.

Botley also has some lovely houses. There's a train station there and Hedge End (M27) is less than 10 minutes away. The primary school there is excellent. There's also Curdridge, but that's more of a 'through' village.

@nevergoingoutagain

Alton area is nice and medstead and four marks. Good schools in Alton (I know I work in one lol)

Waves from Medstead!

Alresford is a beautiful village with lots of amenities in the village itself and 10 mins drive to Winchester.

I'm in Medstead which is also lovely, we are very close to Four Marks which has a lot of amenities.

15 mins drive to Winchester and 10 mins to Alton which has a mainline station to Waterloo.

All the schools around these areas are great.

I know this is a old-ish thread, but I thought it was worth a chance, does anyone know which are the nice areas to live in in Winchester? We are looking at houses on Oliver’s Battery Road North, and one in the Harestock/Weeke boarders at next week. Are either of those areas nice/family orientated? Otherwise info on other nice areas would be great if anyone lives around Winchester?
Another question (sorry!) I wondered how strict the secondary schools are on the catchment areas? Many thanks in advance.