Dorset-what areas for a family?

clarew

We are looking to relocate from london, should get approx £350 for our place, and we would like a 4bed detached house for our family. Could potentially go up to £400max, DH may have to commute to london for a bit for work so nearish a train station would help.

So far have been looking at beaminster, wareham, dorchester and gillingham (seems v.built up). Any helpful comments as to these areas from the locals please?

pawpurrs

I would have a look at Swanage, lovely part of the world.

chocaholic2009

My husband grew up in Wareham, and my inlaws are still there. Lovely place, but gets gridlocked in the summer with the tourists. If you can put up with that, the commute is good and he loved growing up near the hills and beaches, but with places like Bournemouth & Poole within easy reach.

poppysocks1

I grew up in Dorchester and went to the local schools. Its a nice market town, with train links to Poole, Bournemouth and London etc and also trains to Cardiff and that side of the country. Nice beaches nearby, lots of things for families to do. Wareham seems nice, not sure how much there is to do if you live there though but a beautiful area of the country. There is a train link to London through Wareham.

Have you looked on rightmove to compare costs for houses etc. Have you visited and stayed in any of the places to get a feel for them? May be worth doing.

Also look on the local council websites/tourist info websites for info
http://www.dorsetforyou.com/

3LITTLESTARS

Don't know that much about Gillingham and Beaminster, but Wareham, Swanage and Dorchester are nice quaint little towns, but very little happening. Also, how do I put this nicely..........you need to have lived there for at least 5 generations to be considered "eligible" to call yourself a local!!! Poole is much nicer......

poppysocks1

Poole would be far more convenient for getting to London, and, having grown up in Dorchester but had family in Poole/Bournemouth there is def far more to do in those areas - but I think house prices are more expensive in those areas. You need to look on rightmove.

Elsewhere

I live near Swanage - lovely spot, but can be a disaster if you have a growing family. My kids hated it as teenagers - public transport is hopeless in the evenings and nearly all the entertainment is in Bournemouth/Poole. My daughter was really, really happy when she spent a couple of years in Middlesbrough at Uni - she could walk or bus everywhere easily and cheaply and there were plenty of clubs, takeaways... shops!

The schools are in upheaval at the moment too - they're planning to go from a 3-tier back to a 2-tier system (Purbeck area, which includes Wareham).

The train service isn't bad from Wareham to London.

I grew up in Bournemouth - that was fine. Easy access to the beach, good public transport, shops, entertainment, good range of schools etc... However, I think it's got a little rougher than when I lived there (moved here in 1984), and there are some very bad areas, for instance parts of Boscombe (drug addicts), Canford Heath (gangs of youths)

clarew

Thanks everyone, yep we have holidayed for several years in dorset, but holidaying and living there is different. Have been checking out right move over the last year seriously, but its nice to get opinions of locals!
Poole-reminds me bit too much of london, built up etc but take the point about the transport link. (hence why we looked at gillingham-train to waterloo).

Think as you say, with the kids we need to be nearish a decent size town so the kids can do stuff and i don't panic (as am londoner!) but not in the thick of it all so to speak. Hence why i keep coming back to beaminster or wareham, near enough to big towns (bridport/poole etc) but still with country elements to them.......ahh, decisions,decisions, and then there's the small issue of selling our house......!

LandyAndy

We are on the Hampshire/Dorset/Wiltshire border on the edge of the New Forest.

Bournemouth and Salisbury are a bus ride (albeit a longish one to Bournemouth) away and only 20-25 mins by car.

There is a great stables that MrsLA uses.

You should get a nice 4bed detached for your budget.

keith969

My parents have lived in Dorchester for over 20 years, and my brother and his family for nearly as long. It's a pleasant enough place, with countryside and the sea in easy reach, and for the sort of money you're talking about you should be able to get a good 4 bed house easily. Not a vast amount going on, but more than Beaminster or Wareham...

Where my mum lives I can get no mobile phone signal at all, always worth checking that sort of thing when looking for places in the sticks!

Kyrae

How about Sherborne? On the Dorset/Somerset border, small nice old town with a train station with direct trains to London, and larger towns nearby like Yeovil with lots of schools, college, and even a university centre!