Surrey & Hampshire mums --- I need your help!!!

[lilQuidditchKel]

We currently live in SW London and need to move further out next year. Problem is we don't know where to go as I'm American and DH is German so we've no knowledge of areas outside London.

We have 2 LOs (9 mo, 2years) and a dog, so first of all want good (non-private) schools.

DH wants to commute by train to the City in under 50 minutes.

I just want some nice people around and shops to walk to!

Is there any hope in hell of finding such a 4-bed place for under £500k out in Surrey or Hampshire? HELP!!!

many many thanks

woking, guildford, godalming and there is a station at Brookwood (outside Woking) which has fast trains to London and is easy to reach from the surrounding nice villages. But I also vote for Farnham (excellent Farmer's market).

Depends what your definition of fast is - living in Basingstoke the fast trains don't stop anywhere except Woking, on occasion, or go straight through to Waterloo.

I like Farnham too, and would happily live there as a town but it has horrendous traffic and was once voted one of the worst towns for traffic related pollution in the country. That was a few years ago but the traffic, if anything, has got worse. We go through there to get to Guildford and it is always a bottleneck.

Actually, if you don't go for Winchester, I would give a big vote for Guildford.

I live in a village on the outskirts of Woking. It is not too soulless really, okay the 1960's centre is a bit dull, but nowhere near as bad a Basingstoke was. Also the Peacocks centre is great, and Woking has a fab cinema and 2-stage theatre complex, the larger one of which attracts big name productions.

Train travel to London is a mere hop, don't know exact times, but around 30 minutes I think.

The villages on the outskirts have excellent infant and junior schools (the ones in our village are Ofsted Excellent and Ofsted Very Good respectively) and we have the choice of two big but good (Ofsted Very Good) secondary schools.

We are also on the doorstep of the Basingstoke canal and many areas of Heath and Woodland, the famous Horsell Common (war of hte worlds), Chobham Comman and many many others. So the best of both worlds - good facitilies in the town centre, speedy link to London, and lots of country side for walking, horseriding, cycling, kite flying, what ever takes your fancy

So odn't write Woking off just because the town centre is not pretty - it has fab ameneties and you would not live in Woking town centre anyway, as the detached family homes are outside the town.

Also, forgot to say, Woking Town Centre is undergoing a program of improvement/regeneration, suddenly it appears to be awash with delicatessens, countless coffee shops with tables on the pavement in the summer, a modern canopy covering the pedestrian area to the front of the station and other oddities.
Chances are that Woking will not a an ugly duckling for the rest of it's life

Neicie

The traffic is only bad at peak times and believe me a price well worth paying.

Another vote for Farnham or Winchester.

lilQuidditchKel - shopping wise, tend to get food locally, but things like clothes, dvds, computer equipment etc. from local towns - Woking, Camberley, Farnborough, sometimes Guildford.

Hippi/Nannynick I am very likely to have 2 tickets to see a Queen Tribute band tonight in Camberley would either of you like them?

What sort of shops do you want to be able to walk to? This may help you decide between living in a village, or living in a town/city.
In a village the shops will be limited, in a town there will be more shops, but as a result more traffic. Is traffic a consideration?

Can I just gatecrash this thread and ask a "local question" from all you peeps who know Fleet/Basingstoke area.

We are moving to Hook shortly and are dithering between two local private schools! Am just wondering which you would say has the best reputation out of Daneshill School and St Nicholas at Church Crookham ?? For a 7yr old girl - sensitive type.

Thanks

and sorry for gatecrash !

OP - I would avoid Farnborough and Aldershot if you can - they are soulless. Hook, where I am moving to is a small town with a mainline station - about 45 mins to Waterloo, a Tesco and lots of stuff going on for families. You could definitely get a 4 bed house in your price bracket there. Hartley Wintney is lovely - but houses carry a premium and I have never been convinced it is worthy of it !

Any house near are Farnham Park would be nice but rather expensive I expect. I used to know it well as a child.

The rail line parts Farnham town into posh and not so posh.

Posh, Rowledge, The Bourne, The Sands, Tilford and out towards Frensham (they actually sound posh).
Not so posh, towards Aldershot, Farnborough, Badshot Lee, Upper Hale and Heath End.

Further out Liphook, Petersfield, Bentley and Hook small towns, but Ok.

Get a map and look at the A3 road out of London past Guildford to Portsmouth route. Most places along the way are fine. Petersfield is an hour train commute so anything past that might be too far out.

I've heard of St Nicholas', but not Daneshill. Not sure that's any help though, as I expect I know of St Nicholas' due to it relocating from Fleet centre to it's current location.
ISI report: St Nicholas'
ISI report: Daneshill

St Nicholas or St Nicks as the locals call it, is meant to be very good, like nannynick says.

Scatterbrain - Don't know about Daneshill, but my niece went to St Nicholas pre-reception class and her parents very happy with the school.

lilQuidditchKel if you want old world charm around North Hampshire I'd got for Farnham (but train line into London is slower than Fleet/Farnborough) or Odiham (but no train line). Both Farnham and Odiham look like something straight out of a Jane Austin novel.

Fleet and/or surrounding villages all have good schools, reasonable selection of shops (Waitrose in town centre, Starbucks, etc), but lack the charm of Farnham or Odiham.

Winchester/Guildford are both lovely but expensive.

Best thing is to have a look on www.rightmove.co.uk

There are also some nice part of Surrey Epsom, Weybridge, Windsor, etc, but I will admit to being bias to North Hampshire as I live in Fleet.

I nannied in Rowledge (a village near Farnham) and from the point of view of being at home much of the time with young children, I found that Farnham area lacked things for young children to do. Walks in Alice Holt, Playgym at Aldershot, Farnham Park plus playground and riverbank in central Farnham. I found it a struggle to find places of interest for the children. Perhaps I didn't find the places to go... or perhaps Farnham doesn't have much. With young children, what facilities there are locally for entertaining them, may affect your choice regarding location.
These days I nanny in Windlesham (a village between Camberley and Sunningdale) which is alas similar to Farnham in that there isn't much to do locally, but lots of places are within easy travel, such as Coral Reef, Legoland, Windsor Great Park.
Just another thing to consider.

Cargirl, thanks for the offer but am going to have to decline. We have just come in from swimming, am about to cook a risotto and open a bottle of wine to chill out tonight.

Have a fab time, and thanks again for the offer.
xx

Nannynick

What else do children need except open spaces, stacks of fresh air and the opportunity to run around like loons. ??

Genuine query, not a defence of Farnham query.

Children need parents who love them and spend time with them... alas, not all children get that.

Indoor things I find are desired (though of course not needed) from time to time. I grew up in London and we often went to the major museums. Farnham museum just isn't the same as The Natural History Museum.
Spring and Summer are great times for being outdoors - Winter is harder (muddy puddles of course are lovely). Every child is an individual and will like different things, so it's finding things that appeal to each child - not all like being outdoors in muddle puddles.

Can I raise the flag for Woking once more?

We have a mahoosive leisure centre, with the fab 'pool in the park' (teaching pool, half of olympic size competition pool, leisure lagoon with flumes, wave machine and rapid river)
Indoor play area at Goldsworth Park (Toad Hall) if you like that sort of thing
Walks around Goldsworth Lake and play area
Walks on Horsell Common and down canal, as well as other commons locally
Two theatres, which put on frequent children's plays
Large selection of active Rainbows/Brownies/Guides or Beavers/Cubs/Scouts groups
Selection of dance groups in village halls, from ballet to jazz and street, as well as theatre groups ranging from council run to private expensive..
Many many courses run for children at various places, any sport you can probably think off is catered for
The newly opened Lightbox gallery, recently hosted a fab Aardman Animations Wallace and Gromit display, and has many other fab collections of art and the like
Mizens Railway in Knaphill - brilliant miniature railway which do rides throughout the summer, as well as Halloween and Santa specials...

And there is much much more.... if you can see past the drab 1960's concrete town centre....

I live near Woking and there is a lot around to do here with dc and plenty of diff areas with diff price brackets for property IYSWIM.

Weybridge has one of the best playgrounds for miles, Guildford, Walton, Staines & Woking have all the shops needed between them and all quite quick and easy to get to.

NannyNick

I take your point, but I always work on the principle that London is on our doorstep.

I personally love the fact that Farnham is so sleepy.

Gggglimpopos daughter came to stay with us for the weekend last summer, we were chatting and I said that we did not have an M&S, or a Debenhams or a Mc Donalds or for that matter a cinema..............long pause...........what do you have.

Cargirl, I am so sorry, I did not realise...

Unfortunately our loft conversion man died last summer
He is a real loss to the profession, he believed what he was doing was a craft, he did not believe in 'cobbeling something together', he did it right...

It is a shame, and on a purely selfish note, I am looking for some builders to do our extention (single story off the kitchen) and he was going to do it for us and now I don't know who to use...

Sorry cargirl, I hope you find someone suitable...

if you put an advert on ratedpeople.com - you actually get people turn up and give you a quote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meant to add, I am planning on getting some builders to quote for my extention, will ask if they do loft work, and if yes I will contact you