Moving to Oxford / Oxfordshire / villages / areas for a small family

[lookingforhomemum]

Hi there. Me and my husband are originally from London and hoping to start our family soon. We will be new parents and feel completely new to this side of life having it been just the two of us for many, many years. It's exciting, but also quite nerve-wracking not knowing the future.

We are strongly considering the West Berkshire (around Newbury) and Oxford areas. I am swinging towards Oxford mainly because of the access to healthcare and hospitals. I don't really like the idea of accessing maternity facilities from Newbury that are over an hour away from Newbury, so Oxford seems like a better place in that regard. Newbury/Berkshire is otherwise perfect for the countryside which we adore!

Which areas do families recommend in Oxfordshire?

We are seeking a family home with 3 good sized bedrooms (not the third one being like a small/box room) - we saved up more for our deposit just for this and it took a few more years 😅. A garden is really important to us - medium/large and green - somewhere we could potentially build a small office or annex at the back. We would prefer our own driveway/garage, but it's probably the only thing we could compromise on so long as we aren't fighting for car parking space every day. We both would work for companies in London but I expect i'll be out for the children for a few years, and my husband will work hybrid (a mix of remote and office days). We don't mind driving to the train station and park up, in order to get to London for work, but so long as it's about 30 mins max (ish) drive. Schools are really important (for primary I expect homeschooling might be our first option, but secondary school is really important to us).

Btw, do secondary schools include 6th form/A-levels in Oxford?
Good access to healthcare is important (GP, maternity, generally hospitals).

We enjoy the outdoors, seeing and being in the countryside and do make 1-2 visits to town/city max, mainly for food shopping and the odd window shopping just for something different to do. Otherwise, we don't really like the hustle and bustle of city life. Our last rental had a garden (first time) and it's really helped us see how we might enjoy our life in this next phase.

I guess it sounds like we are asking for everything and this first post is getting quite long (sorry!)... but in terms of the above, where is best for families that's nice to raise your kids and safe too?

Thanks so so much :)

thanks so much for this! This will be our first baby and I guess I am so anxious and already know I want a hospital delivery and just wanting to be near care for our new life. I appreciate your response and will think about this :)

Thanks so much! I'm not sure how to research the areas as there are so many. We plan on making a list based on this thread and then head out for a whole day in each place and kind of get a feel, and then look at schools and access to healthcare. There's so much work to do. Someone else mentioned Wallingford too, so I'll have a look at this place for sure. thank you again

yes, we've defo been advised £500k might still not be enough in Oxfordshire for what we are looking for. I think this will be our forever home too, so the house for a small family is so important right now. thank you for responding and I'll look into Banbury - I hadn't thought of it before :)

I've heard some great things about Hungerford. Is it in Oxfordshire? I thought it was in Berkshire. We plan to explore there next weekend just because some friends recommended visiting for a day out. Thank you for bringing it up in this thread, and yes, looks like the fastest train to London is 48 mins which is pretty good :)

Lovely villages near Banbury. All of them are beautiful.

Wow, you found my ideal family home! The garden, especially with the fields is what we hoped for <3

Hungerford is in West Berkshire (as is Newbury), it’s a 20 minute drive to Newbury (west). There’s a maternity unit in Andover, 30 minutes south of Hungerford.

I meant Hungerford is west of Newbury not Newbury is west of Hungerford! Glad you like the house.

That’s about what you would get in Chinnor or Thame at a push. Hungerford is nice. We know it well! Not that close to Oxford or London though. South Oxfordshire has the Chilterns and the Thames is in easy reach. Loads of lovely villages. Really nowhere is bad! Friends who lived in Long Crendon could go to High Wycombe or John Radcliffe for maternity.

If you’re in Newbury/Hungerford, you get a choice between Swindon and RBH. Both are great. RBH is one of the top hospitals in the country. My friend gave birth in Swindon and it was an amazing experience. Newbury and Hungerford are very very family friendly, small places, but close enough to Reading/London when you want more. Excellent schools and low
crime. I’d pick them over the sticks or Oxford any day. Wantage is an equally lovely town, as long as you’re the right side for Didcot station, although they have been doing massive amounts of house building so that might change. Oxford is outrageously expensive and it affects house prices nearby. I personally wouldn’t live there. I live 25 mins away by train and still barely go - especially not in summer!

I would highly recommend The Horton Midwifery-led Unit, Banbury
for straightforward births.
I commuted for 6 years from Kings Sutton rather than Banbury, but you need a pretty flexible role for that to work.
I would avoid Bicester as it has grown so fast it will be a few years until the community spirit can be confirmed.

Yesterday was oxford uni open day so not typical. Everything was rammed

I would recommend that you have a look at everything within a 40 minute drive of Didcot.

Didcot isn’t beautiful but it’s got everything that you need for a town. The train station is easy to get to, reasonable parking right in front, and lots of easy trains to London.

Both Abingdon and Faringdon are nice, are an easy drive to Didcot and both have good bus links into Oxford. Your 500k would buy a detached 4 bed in Faringdon.

One thing to bear in mind is that travel time to London will make it very difficult to combine standard childcare with London jobs for both of you because you’ll need to leave home before childcare starts, and get back afterwards. It could work if you have different London days.

I live in a village close to Didcot and have lived in Wantage.

In recent years Didcot, due to Great Western Park build (and the incoming Valley Park) we have a situation where none of the GP surgeries are accepting new patients, no NHS dentists (this could be all of Oxfordshire to be fair) and nurseries and CMs are all full with waiting lists. I was told in 2022 Sept 24 for places for my then 1year old.

Wallingford MLU And wantage MLU are both very good. DGS and SBS are good secondaries.

Primary schools are often oversubscribed too here, though that may not be an issue depending on how close to school you buy. Lots of new developments cropping up right next to schools are reducing catchment areas in the villages. It's worth joining local FB groups to get an idea of local situations too.

It is a lovely place to live but the demand for infrastructure is greater than supply right now.

RBH is brilliant and has a great team of consultants and is big enough that they can cope with multiple emergencies in worst case scenarios eg they have multiple theatres for emergency c-sections.

But also has a midwife led unit for pool births etc if that’s what you want

Thank you so much! this is a very good idea and i'll get my map out for this. Do you know if the schools in Faringdon etc and good (primary and secondary)? Thank you again

this is so good to know, thank you so so much!!

There are two primary schools in Faringdon and several in the villages around. They’re both nice and have a good reputation.

There is one secondary in Faringdon which I think has an outstanding ofstead rating but anecdotally I know of a few people whose children have struggled there. In particular with send support.

Hi all, thank you so much to each and every one of you for your advice and info. It has been much appreciated!

Just an update: we visited Oxford city today just to see what the traffic was like and to experience it…. It was horrendous and parking was stressful (and expensive)! The mall is great though and lots of places to eat, and it would suit us on those days (rare!) when we would want to go shopping and eat out.

We thought we would check out Jericho, Marston and Headington just to see them as we’ve read they’re more family friend. Although very very nice areas, lovely houses, they felt quite busy with a hum from the nearby A road from Headington (is this something others have experienced too?). I’m not sure if there are any quieter pockets in these areas though?

These latter areas also reminded us of the London suburbs like Wimbledon or Clapham Common (if you’re familiar with those areas). So we felt like that London rush was still here, something we want to avoid in family life. But, it may suit people who don’t mind that as the areas are very pretty too.

We are going to do another few dates in the villages you have all recommended and will update you with these insights.

Thank you so so much!

Marathon and Headington aren’t particularly nice but they are a lot cheaper than the nicer areas to live like summer town, park town, Jericho.
If you want to be convenient to oxford you could look at Cumnor which is very fast in, has good secondary schools and is better value than oxford itself. Alternatively maybe kidlington which is a good place to live, 15 mins - 20 mins into oxford but crucially has Oxford Parkway station into Marylebone so you do not need to go into oxford station.

Marston

How about Hungerford? Just a quick pop down the M4 to Swindon hospital.

The area around hinksey park (new hinksey / Grandpont / hinksey village) sometimes has houses in that price band. It’s a bit of a hidden gem (so small an area that few seem to know much about it) but you have a beautiful park on your doorstep, lovely village-style school, it’s walking distance into the centre of Oxford and caters well for those with young children.

We are relocating from beautiful countryside in Yorkshire to Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire…..we haven’t decided yet…
we are looking for- a short drive to a train station that goes direct to London in no more than 50mins, quiet village with nice cafes, shops and Pilates, dog groomer and vets close by and countryside walks with the dogs- no need for schooling as our children are past that stage- please could anyone recommend nice areas? We are completely new to the areas! Thank you