South of Birmingham

[susiewong]

We are considering relocating from Scotland to somewhere south of Birmingham - a very scary for me since I've never even been to that part of the country yet! Can anyone recommend any specific towns/villages that would be good for family life (2 school age children) ? Or tell me where to steer clear of !
thanks

Hollywood and Wythall are nice - smaller areas, decent schools but short distance to Birmingham. Technically Worcestershire but Birmingham postcode. I like it.

as if by magic wikipedia!

Do you need to get to Birmingham everyday.

We are in Warwickshire - about 30 mins into Birmingham on the train, lots of nice villages and grammar schools.

Looking again - do you actually mean South Birmingham or South OF Birmingham - because taht could make a difference

I mean south of Birmingham - don't want to be in city centre. DH's job will be in Wythall so needs to be 30-40 min commute from there. Thanks for the wikipedia tip - didn't realise you could get details of places on here. Will be very useful!

Bournville or Harborne are both nice areas of South Birmingham. I don't know about South of Birmingham though, sorry.

They are both a couple of miles out of the centre.

There are some lovely villages around Stratford but they are pricey. It's cheaper on the other side of the M40 but that might be a bit too far for you.

Leamington Spa is lovely but again, might be a bit too far.

Depends on your budget I suppose.

Pershore, Worcestershire is around 40mins frm Birmingham its a lovely little market town. schools are good, especially Holy Redeemer RC primary school - google it I think it could be best in county. lots of kids clubs and a lovely theatre called Number 8. I dont know if Pershore is too far to travel, but its well worth looking at. Hope this helps and good luck with the move.

Warwick, leamington and kenilworth are great and worth the commute imo.

I'd recommend worcs proper. You could choose from Bromsgrove, Droitwich - both pleasant and convenient for M5 but a bit souless (esp Bromsgrove). Worcester itself is (mostly) lovely. Lots of great villages in and around the area if that's what you like. And lots of lovely, friendly mnetters! (I'm near Kidderminster BTW)

knowle, or dorridge?

Pershore is lovely , and if you don't mind an RC school, then Holy Redeemer is outstanding. If you don't want RC, then the other first/middle schools aren't so good.

There are loads of facilities for a small town (pool, community cinema/theatre, youth clubs, good GPs), and the area is fab. House prices are very reasonable too

how far does your dh want to commute? do you prefer small vilage or small town? there are gorgeous villages out there, and some great state schools

Susie... will agree with CMOT about the other schools, but there are some really good local village schools such as Fladbury,Elmley and Cropthorne which are all apprx 4 miles out of Pershore and are all very good - small village schools lots of community!. Bredon hill middle school is very good and also Pershore High Sch and Prince Henry's in Evesham.

DH says up to 1 hour max but I think that would be too far (traffic jams, rush hour etc would make it so much more) so around 30 mins would be ideal. Not sure to be honest re town or village. As long as it has good schools and clubs etc for kids locally I don't mind driving for other (me!)stuff (shopping, outings etc). Budget for house should be £250-£300k (as long as we sell current house of course!)

Going down for my first visit in a couple of weeks to drive around so these suggestions will give me a great starting point. I am amazed at the number of replies already - thank you so much. I'm sure I will have 101 more questions as the months go on!

worcester's nice

What I like about Worcs is that you have a lot of choice of places to go and shop, things to do etc, and it's easy to get around. You have the choice of Worcester (which is lovely, but we didn't want to live in a city), Cheltenham, Gloucester, or into Birmingham. It's an easy drive to Cardiff or Bristol too

so is Worcester a city ? (sorry if thats a daft question!)

Yes - a small city, but it has a cathedral and university

DH is going to Evesham tomorrow for a look around - any opinions of there ?

Umm. We chose not to live there. Tell him to come to Pershore instead, and I'll buy him a coffee and show him around

Another vote for Worcestershire from this corner. Prices are far more reasonable than north Warwickshire and it's lovely.

can you expand on why ? It's really difficult !!
Pershore is ok for his work (well according to AA route planner!) so away to look at houses there now!