Ware, Hertford or Hitchin for family and work/life balance?

[CanadianKiwi91]

Hi all!
My family and I are planning on moving back to the UK in one and half to two years and my husband and I are torn between these three places: Ware, Hertford, and Hitchin.
I'll be a newly qualified dental hygienist and my husband works in unscripted TV production - he'd be working hybrid between home and London and I'd be working locally. We have a 4 year old and will (hopefully - fingers crossed!) have another little one either on the way or already with us by the time we move over and are trying to figure out which of the above three places would give us the best work and family life balance and which feel the safest/most family friendly.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and any advice any of you have to offer!

Thank you in advance! xx

Where are you from originally in the UK? Do you have any family/ friends nearby?

Im from Hitchin (not living there at the moment) and it’s lovely for families, lots going on always, good schools and good train links to London, but houses are becoming very expensive and it’s becoming a bit gentrified as less well off people (like me) can no longer afford the rising prices and so hop the boarder to Bedfordshire for more for for their money.

Ware is nice but a little boring in my opinion. I love Hertford, and it’s nearest to London, so probably your best bet, but like Hitchin, can be extremely expensive.

Hertford is also incredibly expensive, our rent is nearly £3000 and council tax is £300, only living here coz schools and divorce. It’s one of the loveliest places in the world if we could just afford it 😶

Hitchin and Hertford are better for trains into London I would say. Schools are good in Hertford. Ware may be cheaper and everything in Hertford would be accessible from there but in my view it's just not as nice. So it may depend on your budget but budget allowing I would go for Hertford.

I would take a good, hard look at the trains from each of your towns. Look at these things:

• Parking situation at stations - is it plentiful? How much does it cost per day?
• How much is an anytime day return to your DH's office?
• How many services are there per hour in rush hour and how many of them are express trains?
• What's the time difference between express and normal trains? I know that some of those trains are extremely slow and in Hertford there are two stations - Hertford East and Hertford North, so where you live/which station he commutes from will make a big difference;
• Which stations do the trains arrive at in London and how easy it will be for your DH to get from those stations to his office?

All three are lovely towns with historic buildings, nice shops, bars, restaurants, lovely countryside nearby, so there is not much to put between them from an attraction POV (other than perhaps house prices, although I suspect these are similar - but also drill down into the detail of those). In the case of Ware/Hertford they're next to each other, so location-wise they're pretty much identical.

One more thing: all are lovely, safe, family-friendly towns with parks, playgrounds, stuff to do, good schools, etc.

Ive lived in Hertford and Ware with a toddler and I'd take Ware over Hertford any day. Ware feels more family friendly. It has lovely parks and walks by the river, plenty bars and restaurants too. I found rents were similar.

Trains from Hitchin into London Kings Cross/St Pancras are fast and are on the main line. House prices are higher than it warrants really. Don't know about the other two. You could always look at Flitwick and Bedford - both have a station, and housing in both places is cheaper than Hitchin. I wouldn't say that car parking is plentiful at any of them.

We live in Hertford which is very expensive (been here forever). If I didn’t have any particular ties I’d choose Hitchin out of the 3, or to add a wildcard / Royston (also very good for Cambridge). All have terrific schools, pubs etc. Train from Hertford and Ware is in London Underground zone so reasonable cost.

I like all three but the traffic on the A414 through Hertford during rush hour and at the weekends is awful. For that reason alone I'd probably choose Ware or Hitchen.

I live near to Hitchin and I would choose there. Beautiful town and good transport links. Ware is lovely but not as easy to commute. I lived in Hertford years back and again it’s lovely but outrageously expensive and there isn’t very much in the town. It does have good transport links. It would be Hitchin for me definitely.

Thank you so much everyone! I really appreciate all of the info you've all shared.
My husband is originally from the UK - he was raised in Bedford and I'm originally from Canada.
In regards to trains in and out of London - my husband would be relying on those on a part time basis as he'll be doing hybrid work and would like to be able to either walk or bike to the station. I would be relying on either a bus, bike, or walking to get to and from the DH practices I work at in an effort to make drop offs and pick ups for our daughter easier to manage when she's at school.
We're looking to find a place that has a strong sense of community support and involvement as it's something we really struggled to find both here in Toronto and when we lived in London after our daughter was born.

Also - if there are any other suggestions for locations I'd love to hear them! Will check out Royston for sure.

Thank you all again!

We're looking to find a place that has a strong sense of community support and involvement as it's something we really struggled to find both here in Toronto and when we lived in London after our daughter was born.

Many areas of London have a very transient population and any place with lots of small flats will change hands regularly. So I'd say: buy in a nice town and buy a family house on a nice street with lots of other family homes, because that's what we did. The majority of the homes in our area are lived in for about 25 years before they change hands and there is a very nice sense of community around here. I'd also move somewhere with established community hubs that you can get involved with - schools (obviously), churches/other religious communities (if you are religious), sports clubs and teams, theatre/choir/etc, local pub, particularly if it has things like pub quizzes, live music, etc and then join stuff and go out and meet people, introduce yourself to your neighbours, all the usual stuff to help you plug into that community and make friends.