How Wood, St Albans - good for a young family?

[Stalemate1123]

We like a property in How Wood, St. Albans and are potentially planning to offer on it. Our budget is limited and this property ticks all of our boxes.

I and my wife work in London so the 1 hour commute (door-to-door) via Watford or St. Albans should be doable.

Based on online research, local schools and area seem good. We are a young family with a 5-month old child and OK with village quite life. We can go to London or St. Albans on weekend, if needed, for entertainment.

Does anyone know How Wood well? Is it generally a nice area and would you recommend it?

Thanks

Gentle bump. Anyone know this area?

Hopefully someone will come along with more up to date local knowledge than me as I moved away from the area some time ago.

As far as I know it’s a great family area. The only thing that I’d suggest is to double check your commute times. To commute from Watford you’d need to drive to Watford Junction or take the ‘Abbey Flyer’ train from How Wood to Watford which always used to be quite unreliable. To commute via St Albans, I think you’d have to drive to St Albans Station as the Abbey Flyer only goes to the Abbey Station. I’d just double check if it’s do-able in an hour.

I know it. It's a quiet, attractive area close to some pretty, peaceful countryside walks. Some really lovely houses and How Wood School is a very highly regarded primary. Not sure about secondary schools - Marlborough might be the closest, also rated "good". There is a handy parade of shops with a co-op nearby and the Abbey Flyer train to Watford, as mentioned above. You'd need to allow a good 20-25 minutes to drive to St Albans station for direct trains to London - possibly even a bit more in rush hour. Parking at the station is very expensive, though I'm sure there are buses.