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

I grew up in Solihull (junction 5 of m42)

If you like rural, look at the area between Worcester and Kidderminster.

Which school hogshead? (I was at Tudor Grange)

Pershore is indeed lovely. Other areas worth looking at imho are:-

Alvechurch
Balsall Common
Earlswood
Some villages around Stratford - Henley in Arden, Snitterfield etc,

Knowle/Dorridge are nice but probably too expensive

Hagley has a great school and is a good largeish village.

Check out Belbroughton, Clent, Chaddesley Corbett if you want a village.

I would aviod Stratford, lovely but expensive due to tourist trade and parking a nightmare.

Both Warwick and leamington are nice with good secondary schools both private and state.

Good transport links aswell

Lots of good villages around - but be careful of noise from m40 in some villages north of Warwick - Rowington sometimes and around there can have car noise at 8am on a Sunday morning

MarionCole - i went to Greswold for primary and Lode Heath for secondary

I your looking at Evesham - think carefully about which schools and secondary school as evesham has good and bad and it will all come down to where you live

I'm probably considerably older than you too!

Not sure how long it would take to get to Wythall.

MarionCole - possibly not! Tudor Grange always beat us at netball grrh!! My mum went to Sharmans Cross Girls school - sadly bulldozed many years ago and is houses now i think

hogshead and vmarioncole - how old are you? - i did greswold and tudor grange

would second clent, belbroughton and the like.

Hagley, Clent, Belbroughton, Romsley all have good Primaries, and link to a good secondary school.

aston cantlow is beautiful

bearly is nice aswell

Another vote here for the Belbroughton, Clent, Chaddesley area. Wythall itself is nice though if your dh fancied a tiny commute! Definitely Worcestershire over warwks though, much better value for money imho. Avoid Redditch. Barnt Green is also nice. The best thing about the whole county is that it's close to Bham, but very overlooked compared to Warwickshire which makes it a bit cheaper!! There is some beautiful countryside to the west of the county in the Martley/knightwick/Clifton area.

I agree Wythall itself is pretty nice.

Generally, if you look at a map the villages to the south, east and west are all pretty good (avoiding Redditch centre). Steer well clear of going north of Wythall - the likes of Maypole and Druids Heath are best avoided

Worcestershire (to the west) is generally a bit cheaper than Warwickshire (to the east) but if you going over the other side of the M5 (Belbroughton etc) then the commute will be considerably longer in rush hour (but still sub 1 hour)

It really is a lovely part of the country on the whole

Perhaps search on rightmove or similar for houses within 20 mile radius of Wythall, discount those to the north and then come back with specific houses you like the look of and we can let you know what the areas are like

Map link didn't work - just pop Wythall in there to get an idea

twooter I'm nearly 38, did my GCSEs at Tudor Grange in 1988.

twooter and MarionCole - i left Lode Heath in 1995

Hi susie I was born just down the road from Wythall (Hollywood) so know it quite well but not too sure on the schools.

Its really close to M42 so anywhere along that corridor would be good. I'm officially a Brummie but I would stay out of Birmingham itself unless you want to be in a big city where the schools are patchy - especially if you are not used to city living IFSWIM.

I would agree Bromsgrove to be quite a good bet (brought up there) but would avoid Redditch (I notice no-one has recommended it - wonder why?). Wootton Wawen is nice but may be pricey, or you could join me in Droitwich {smile]

I left Alderbrook in Solihull in 1989, sorry to steel your thread, can't add anything useful, bye and good luck.

Did you go on to SSFC Flutterbye?