East Sussex

[SparksAndShiningDragons]

We're looking at moving out of East London and considering East Sussex.

We need to have amenities in walking distance or on a quick and reliable public transport route including good primary and secondary schools and a station. Ideally independent shops, pubs and restaurants, a nice gym/ health club and clubs/sports/entertainment for the DC. We also want to be somewhere very safe, with a nice community feel and in easy reach of lovely countryside.

Absolute max budget £650k, ideally for a 4+ bed detached, but would consider 3 beds and/or semi for the right location.

Any insight into Crowborough, Uckfield or Wadhurst? Any other suggestions that might suit us?

Thanks!

Eastbourne, and surrounding towns and villages, are lovely.

Horsham - nice town with good rail services. THis is half a mile from centre of town and station

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118952375#/?channel=RES_BUY

If you don't mind being a bit further out there is this
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/113838095#/?channel=RES_BUY
or this
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111566783#/?channel=RES_BUY

Crowborough and Uckfield are a little on the dull side.

Crowborough makes much of the fact that Arthur Conan Doyle once lived there, and it has a Waitrose. Trains into London take a long time and the east side of the town is a bit iffy. Don’t know Uckfield as well, but it is remote.

Wadhurst has some lovely properties and there are nice villages nearby too. Drive up to Frant and you’re back on the faster Southeastern main line to London. Town is quite small, but close enough to Tunbridge Wells for that not to matter as much.

Lewes ticks your boxes and is in gorgeous countryside.

I find Eastbourne depressing (sorry Eastbourne people).

Wadhurst is probably the one that ticks all your boxes, especially on the train front. However, it’s a much sought after location and properties come at a premium. You might just get a 3bed semi for that amount. You’re also in the catchment for the Kent Grammars if you wanted to go down that route with schooling.

Uckfield is definitely worth looking at. Your money will go further there. There is a train in the town, but it can be unreliable at times. It depends if you need to commute to London a lot.

Everywhere round ther is pretty lovely OP :)

There are a lot of scientilogists / alternative types around Forest Row but apart from that all pretty conservative in Wadhurst Uckfield etc.

The coastal towns are a bit tired but the inkand villages are lovely

We moved from London to Haywards Heath (just over the border into West Sussex) and love it. Lindfield and Cuckfield are lovely but more expensive than HH. Great rail links/ surrounded by gorgeous countryside and enough to keep us and the kids busy.

I live in a village near Eastbourne best of both worlds. Lewes is lovely, might be a bit quiet for you. Got a couple of cousins living in uckfield. Perfectly nice.

We've lived in Brighton for years so know the area well.

Sorry to offend in advance but a big NO to Eastbourne and Haywards Heath IMO - just avoid!

My No1 choice would be Lewes - we were there yesterday and it's full of gorgeous independent shops, has a beautiful independent cinema/restaurant, outdoor pool plus leisure centre, good schools and one of the prettiest mainline stations, but you do pay a premium for that.

There's a few four bedrooms on this search but a nice range for your budget. Central Lewes is very old but suburbs are a mixture:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Lewes/4-bed-houses.html

Sorry, when I clicked on my link it didn't add your budget that I'd searched with before!

Thanks for all the opinions and suggestions so far. Lewes and Horsham look worth investigating, in fact I really like the look of that first Horsham house, @londonmummy1966

Horsham is nice but is in West Sussex rather than East.

Lewes is gorgeous. Also only a stonesthrow from Brighton for shopping, trips out etc.

Looking at those links you do get a lot more for your money in Horsham. Lewes is very chic and a bit exclusive so you do pay extra for that.

My DH's dream is to one day move out of Brighton and buy in Horsham as he has a lot of old friends who grew up and settled there, and he also likes its small-town vibe. They're all into road and off-road cycling and there are some great trails there.

Horsham is much bigger than Lewes and nearer to London, but still only a 45 minute drive to Brighton. It's also get a great Waitrose attached to a John Lewis home store which we love going to.

Love Lewes and Lindfield.

FWIW didn’t feel safe in Brighton the last couple of times I’ve been.

Also, worth looking at the Gatwick flight paths.

Not enough budget for Lewes, have you considered Seaford?

Plumpton?

Uckfield, Crowborough and Wadhurst will have you losing the will to live very quickly OP, coming from East London and with your list of requirements. I speak from experience.

Lewes (but you won’t get a house that size on your budget). Parts of Hasting perhaps. Or what about Brighton or Hove? Maybe East Grinstead or Forest Row.

Lindfield a good call too. But I think property is quite ££££ there too. And Haywards Heath as your nearest town is a bit soul destroying…

I suggest spending a week in an Air BnB in the area in the Feb half term and exploring the area. Don’t do it in spring/summer as everything feels glorious then. Winter is the real test!

Seconding the Eastbourne suggestion – and ignoring the diss above. You can walk from the town straight up onto the Seven Sisters, it’s glorious. Also here’s a 5-bed detached which is gorgeous:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/119345588

Forest row is lovely if you're older. There's no station,good public transport. A good Michael hall school of you have a massive budget. It's also very expensive
Hastings is a lot cheaper than Eastbourne,centre and sea front very tatty run down. DH and I both had our jabs in pharmacies on the outskirts at shopping parades I wouldn't feel safe in at night. I was born in cuckfield. Lived in Lingfield till I got married. Very pretty,no secondary school,and very village mentality. My old school friends still live there,a couple of roads from their parents, never learned to drive.

Lindfield, finger slip because I moved here from Lingfield
Oldest DD lives in Horsham,nice and clean. East Grinstead, expensive and not much there.Youngest DS lives there

I read in the Times this morning or yesterday that Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne are moving up in the world very fast as creatives move from London to the coast. Old Hastings is charming, but the rest is fairly grim; ditto most of Bexhill, apart from Cooden (much more £££). Don't really know Eastbourne, but it has some nice huge houses and is ripe for rediscovery.

Eastbourne does have lots going for it. Great housing stock. Beautiful countryside. Good beaches. Has a leisure centre/ gyms. The Towner Gallery is a real gem. But the town isn’t great for indie shops/ cafes/ restaurants if that’s what the OP is after. But it is on train line to Lewes and Brighton for better options. Has direct train to London Victoria, but it’s not fast and it’s expensive.

Not sure about the schools situation - as in how good they are.

I live in a village near Uckfield... Uckfield is a bit dull but... it does have an independent cinema, Waitrose, Tesco, pool. The schools are good and crime is low. Crowborough ditto but nobody will tell you about the winter fogs and mizzles. The town is so high that in the winter it can spend the entire day in low cloud when surrounding towns are fine. Lewes is lovely but not cheap. Hastings is great, there is a lot of faded grandeur in the old town that is still relatively cheap but there is such a lot of deprivation there and crime is high for the area. People have been saying that its coming up for the last 25 years. Eastbourne... ditto and its becoming very heavily developed.

Personally, I think East Sussex is head and shoulder better than West. I would go for somewhere in the High Weald, the most beautiful country yet still only 45 miles from London.