Cambridgeshire living

[househuntingFTM]

Hi All!
Cambridgeshire mums!
Where is best to live with a little one?
Somewhere with good schools, good public transport into Cambridge, but really want to avoid anywhere with student accommodation. A nice family area please!
Ideally somewhere rural and pretty quiet but with amenities. Bus and train service needed. Community would be nice!
Budget 350k ish!

Thank you :-)

*rough

Girton and Histon are nice. Melbourne is miles out. I think Cambourne would be nearer to Cambridge.

Thanks everyone, this is all so so helpful :-)
Where would you say it the prettiest/best place to live in Cambridgeshire?
Would like to move somewhere which friends would enjoy visiting us in!
A fancy market town or beautiful village, nature a bonus! (good public transport needed though as need to commute daily into Cambridge for work.)
Thankyou!

@orangina01

Sorry if you want rural try Great gransden or little gransden.

Thanks, they look great! Do you know if it's possible to do a daily bus or train commute to Cambridge from great/little gransden or would you have to drive?

I think the issue is your budget just isn’t going to stretch that far in the nicest areas as Cambridge house prices are in a London-esque bubble.

Cambourne is great for families, lots of new builds, child friendly.
Ely is also a good about.

Somersham, St Neots etc

My dream location is to move to Great/Little Wilbraham. So beautiful and rural yet only 15mins from cambs city centre.

Not everyone's cup of tea as it's a new town but Cambourne is lovely. Great for families - good schools, country parks, parks and close to both Cambridge and St Neots.

Camborne is not pretty though. It’s a new town full of new builds on the A428. It’s fine but it’s not picturesque.

£350K will buy you a shed in the Gransdens. Unbelievably pretty with prices to match.

Try St Neots, St Ives, Papworth, Cambourne. St Ives prob best with the guided bus.

Buses? From the Gransdens? Don't make me laugh! Poss once a day of you are lucky and it will stop in every single village en route.

I actually really like St Neots. Even with the mass building at Wintringham it’s a nice place with good links. You might even find some pretty tucked away places. It’s not a rural ideal, but you will find something in your price range with food transport links.

St Ives is a lovely market town with a direct bus into Cambridge. Lots of nature, pretty town centre, leisure centre etc.

I’ve always found St Ives traffic to be diabolical though. I guess if you only took the bus it might be less intolerable.

For £350k, you’re not going to get Histon/ Girton. I’d second Ely, schools are good, its got a few things going on. And on the train line. Do you drive? If not, I’d avoid the villages around Ely and public transport is not good. If you want nearer Cambridge, have a look at Waterbeach, also on train line and buses.

If you like horses, Newmarket has quite a lot going on, high street is OK.

It partly depends where you need to get to in Cambridge, if you’re working at Addenbrookes or that side of Cambridge, don’t look at Ely until they open the station on the Addenbrookes site

You definitely need to think about where you want to get to in Cambridge for work and how you intend to get there. Traffic into Cambridge is bad so living on the right side of the city can make a big difference.
Like others have said the nice villages close by are expensive.

Addenbrooke's is fine from Cambridge station - the guided bus and other services get you there really quickly and frequently. It's a shortish bike ride too, if you're prepared to cycle. From the main station you can also walk to the city centre in about 20 minutes or cycle in 10.

Personally, I'd go for somewhere in the railway line any time over somewhere on a bus route! (The guided bus may be an exception to that - I haven't used it for commuting.) That means looking at:

Waterbeach
Ely
Littleport (probably not picturesque enough )
The villages south of Cambridge, like the Shelfords, Whittlesford, Foxton, Shepreth, Meldreth, etc (picturesque but expensive)
Newmarket or Bury St Edmunds (further away/fewer services than the above)

As others have said, it depends what you're hoping to get for your £350k - how many beds, a big garden, etc. And where you'll need to get to in Cambridge (and is that just in normal office hours, or will you need public transport that operates at night or very early in the morning?)

You will not get prettiest/best place to live near Cambridge for your budget. The beautiful villages cost £££, have few amenities and next to non-existent public transport. Depending where in Cambridge you are commuting to, Sawston might be your best bet for affordability and amenities/transport closest to Cambridge, but it's not chocolate box pretty. It'd probably be most useful for you to look at what you can find for your budget, rather than looking for lovely areas then trying to find something you can afford there. Cambridge City/South Cambs are very expensive for housing.

You can get this in Histon within your budget:-

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86541556#/

This in Girton

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/74443417#/

Milton is great. Lovely country park, within walking distance of the P&R (you can use it without parking), Lion & Lamb pub does great food. Milton Primary is good. £350k won’t get you anything massive but it will get you a respectable start.

For the price I’d want to live somewhere that didnt stink 👀

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/milton-tesco-smell-sewage-cambridge-16030997.amp

Me too. I have family in Milton, north side of the village and they have never had a problem.

What kind of salary do you need to live comfortably in Cambridge.

Is it just as bad as London?

All surrounding villages are expensive, st neots is a good recommendation for your budget

North Cambridgeshire here. Schools generally good. Villages have practically no crime.

I'm not sure where you got n Cambridgeshire as rough from? Towns have a bit more crime than villages but that's it.

New a14 from huntingdon has made getting into Cambridge quick. I would live in one of the villages though.