North Oxford and Bicester house to buy

[austenwildfell]

We like the area, we have driven around and had a word with Estate Agents in Kidlington.
Vital to have good public transport, we need 3 bed house and a garden.
Any General Suggestions please.

What is the soil like? for a keen gardener wanting to grow flowers and soft fruit.

1950''s 3-bed semi in Kidlington, quiet edge of village location with 180ft+ rear garden which backs onto Oxford Canal & fields. 15-min walk to Oxford Parkway railway station, half that to main bus route.
Soil is good, Dad used to be an avid vegetable gardener and all plants / trees seem to thrive.
Went live on Friday, have had eight viewings with same number booked for later this week (all bar one are sold and ready to go).
£400K. Waiting until all viewings complete before accepting offer (already had a few). No chain.
PM me if you want more details or the postcode (by the way, not with a Kidlington EA).

Bicester is has a huge number of new estates. It’s unrecognisable from even 10 years ago. I’m assuming you don’t really mean North Oxford where a semi will be mega £££. I’m assuming you mean one of the settlements.villages around that way! Kidlington is quite spread out but has a busy road through it. If you look at the villages around Bicester there are some nice ones.

Good transport to where?
What’s your budget? Lots of the villages have excellent soil as lots built on old farming land. Will be crap soil if you’re looking at new builds.
Technically West Oxfordshire but Hayford is a nice place with a station as is Charlbury. You will need a car though it’s not an area known for great transport really.

You can replace crap soil. Or work compost into it. The size of garden in a new build is a bigger issue. If you want better connection regarding transport, somewhere like Thame is nicer in my view. Station is around 2 miles away but the M40 is handy.

@TizerorFizz @WhatAWasteOfOranges
Thanks for comments. Yes Oxford itself is too much everything really. We like the idea of being able to get into the City for concerts or Theatre by bus. Getting old you see, driving will become a problem. London once a month would be nice.
Anyone know Islip?

Yes, Islip is very pretty (on the edge of Otmoor) and very handy for the train (it has a station) but is somewhat of a rat-run with a very narrow centre which means you can get quite a build-up of traffic at times.

Also check the frequency of trains to Islip station. It’s always been fairly sparse but during lockdown I think it went practically non existent and I don’t know if it’s started back up again fully

Thame is far nicer! Is Woodstock too expensive? Not sure about a station but Abingdon is also nice in places. Lots of new estates though. Bicester is certainly ok and has the stations.

A couple of 3-bed semis for sale near me in Garden City in Kidlington. They're probably on for around the £350k-400k price.

I have a planted a cherry tree in my front garden, we have raise veg beds. The soil can be a bit clay-y but I've successfully had black-eyed susans, honeysuckle, fuschias and my marguerite daisies are still going strong! Oh, and I'm a gardening novice!

@SuziLikeSuziQ I have been through Rightmove thanks for info.
Gardens look Ok and might be better than ours which is a bit too big for us now.

Abingdon is nice but check the flood maps carefully!