Living In/Near Crawley

loonygooner

I have been offered a job in Crawley and am hoping that someone may be able to help with a few of those need to know facts?
1. What are the good/bad points of living in Crawley?
2. What are the schools like? I have a 12 year old and 2 x 1 year olds, any advice?
3. Good areas, Maidenbower etc?
4. Should I look at commuting, what is Horsham or surrounding are alike?
I am really looking to see whether it would be a good move for me and my family from the lovely Dorchester area to the lively Sussex area.
All help greatly appreciated.
:T

car25

Hi, I used to live in Crawley, although was single and childless then, I'll try to answer your points from a family point of view.

With regard to the job situation if the company is based on the industrial estate be aware that the roads on this estate get jam packed around rush hour so commute may take longer than expected, although there is now a Fastway Bus system in place with its own bus lane in some places so this could, depending where you lived, be a possibility.

1. Good points everything on your doorstep and within easy reach of plenty of places for days out. Bad points (in my opinion) large town so lots of people. Horses for courses really, depends what kind of living you like. I personally wouldn't venture out on my own at night in Crawley, but I guess as you have a family this is probably something you wouldn't be doing anyway.

2. Schools - check out Ofsted reports and visit them, I do have a relative in a first school in Crawley and he is doing fairly well and enjoys it.

3. I won't say good or bad areas because I wouldn't like to offend anyone and can't say from experience because I haven't lived in them all, however the popular areas seem to be the more expensive areas, ie Maidenbower, Pound Hill, and the least popular areas seem to be the cheaper areas like Broadfield and Bewbush. I think Crawley is a place that you either love or hate. I would definately suggest renting a property while you get a feel for the areas before buying.

4. I personally don't enjoy very large town living, although I don't want my children to be isolated when they are older either. I currently live in the Haywards Heath area and love it, schools seem to be fine and the Ofsted reports are fairly good. There are plenty of groups for the little ones, swimming, music, mother & toddler etc.

I would say come down here and stay in the areas you are looking at for a few days, have a look round, pick up the local "Family Grapevine" magazines (Crawley & Horsham, Mid Sussex) etc to get a feel of what goes on. Maybe buy a couple of local papers to get a feel for the place.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

mpsavuk

Parts of Bewbush & Broadfield are definitely "ASBO land" so be careful.Lots of "Social housing" mixed in with Owner occupiers.

Have look at an area called Crawley Down as well.

andywilson460

Horsham is very nice - and if you fancy it move a little further away to Arundel, it has great schools nearby - is 30 mins by train and is stunning. - Definetly check out houses on the Arun Valley line - its reliable and a visually stunning commute - do it to London everyday.

loonygooner

Thanks Andy,
We had thought of Arundel as it seems lovely but had dismissed it because of the commuting, not so much distance but thought it would be very busy and take a long time. I hadn't really looked at the train but will do now.
Horsham was recommended by a work colleague so will definately look around as he says it has its good and its bad side, so like every else really and I just need to find the good.
Great help guys and I can see a plan coming together:j

andywilson460 wrote:

Horsham is very nice - and if you fancy it move a little further away to Arundel, it has great schools nearby - is 30 mins by train and is stunning. - Definetly check out houses on the Arun Valley line - its reliable and a visually stunning commute - do it to London everyday.

dfarry

Hi there,

I work in Manor Royal and a few months ago were faced with the same situation as you, though things have worked out a little different....

Which company will you work for... I can't say mine openly here but it is very large (PM me if you can't say here either.... it may be the same one)

I have two children aged 5 and 7 so I was unsure if Crawley would be a good place to live, I asked around at work and got lots of advice. We narrowed the search down to:-

Worth (the nicest and most expensive)
Maidenbower (large estate, nice school but densely populated also some concerns about flooding - but the problem seems to have been resolved now)
Pound Hill (slightly cheaper housing, a bit older but generally larger houses slightly closer to Gatwick so you may hear aircraft)

I then stumbled across this forum for Maidenbower residents.... and the members were really helpful http://www.maidenbower.org.uk/forum/home.php

So with Maidenbower in mind we decided to look around the area and check houses.

I didn't mind the area, but my partner wasn't keen, the estate is quite spralling really and many of the roads feel squashed together in my opinion. Incidently I currently live in Greater London so I am used to a "warts and all" living evironment and community. The school looked nice and Ofsted reports seemed comparable with our childrens current school, there is also a website for the school and the staff I initially spoke with seemed very helpful.

The problem for us is that we just couldn't find a 4 bed detached that was large enough in our price range. Houses in Maidenbower are expensive for example look at this one http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-7810816.rsp
We in the end bought one (should complete next Fri.) exactly the same as this with a conservatory for £20K less (more on that in a moment).
Most 4 beds in Maidenbower are around £320K+

The town itself is fine really, very similar to where I live now I think so it probably has it's share of social and economic problems. The shopping centre seems very good with everything you could possibly need and yes the roads get very busy indeed.

In the end we decided to rule out Maidenbower, at the moment I am commuting 90 miles a day (on motorbike) which is too far and the M25/M23 are really congested.... Manor Royal also get very busy with traffic at peak times (but not like London).

We then looked further afield... we wanted a nice house, in a nice area, affordable and within easy reach of both Crawley and London.

We looked at Horsham but there didn't seem to be many houses on the market that we liked and prices were high again. Horley and Smallfield are too close to Gatwick

Next stop, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, then further out Crowborough, Uckfield and Heathfield.

In the end the place we settled on (mentioned above) is in Uckfield which is 20 miles from Crawley and 15 miles from Brighton and Eastbourne. It is still a fair commute but half what I am doing now.

The town seems very nice, it is semi rural where the house is and there is a nice primary school just two minutes away, also the houses are cheaper than Crawley and most of the surrounding places.

I hope that helps.

Debt_Free_Chick

dfarry wrote:

Next stop, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, then further out Crowborough, Uckfield and Heathfield.

In the end the place we settled on (mentioned above) is in Uckfield which is 20 miles from Crawley and 15 miles from Brighton and Eastbourne. It is still a fair commute but half what I am doing now.

It depends on what you want, loonygooner, but if you get 15-20 miles outside of Crawley, then you have a choice of market towns, villages, rural and relatively isolated There are many places are very comparable to Dorchester and some don't have the inflated property prices of Dorset

When you start to look, you MUST visit your chosen areas several times and at different times of the day to gauge any disturbance from flights in/out of Gatwick - if that's important to you.

I'm in East Sussex, but my partner's parents are in Horsham. Personally, the aircraft noise would drive me potty, but that's because I've never lived anywhere near an airport (we are currently at least 2 hours by car from Gatwick, Heathrow & Stansted).

Going down (South) the A23, there's a very interesting triangle that takes in Storrington to the West, Mannings Heath to the North and Plumpton to the East. Some of the commuting is far easier from some places - Plumpton probably being the trickiest. But there are some beautiful places in that area, so cast your net far & wide!

And don't forget to try out your potential commute, during "rush" hour before you commit.

Regards

Debt_Free_Chick

dfarry wrote:

In the end the place we settled on (mentioned above) is in Uckfield

I can understand why

Lunch at the Griffin in Fletching is fantastic - if you can get a table and a parking space :eek:

So much of real rural Sussex right on your doorstep

astonsmummy

I live in broadfield in crawley, and it's not as bad as everyone makes out but if i had the choice i would live in poundhill, or three bridges. although most of crawley is densley built up. And there are roundabouts everywhere!
It is a good town i think, with lots to do - especially for kids, horley and horsham are nice, the good thing is there are lots of little villages and towns around crawley that you wouldnt necessarily hae to live in crawley itself.
Good luck xx

Debt_Free_Chick

astonsmummy wrote:

I live in broadfield in crawley, and it's not as bad as everyone makes out

Oh dear, these threads often seem to make out as if we're slagging somewhere off

If I've been guilty of that, then I'm truly sorry

The OP currently lives in Dorchester and my concern would be aircraft noise. Now then.... if you've always lived within an aircraft "sound" area, then you wouldn't notice. But I think that Dorchester has no airport for about 50 miles, so I'm guessing that might be an issue for the OP.

Many people would hate where I live. My friend who lives in Finchley can only bear to be here for no more than 24 hours. Her list of "complaints" are .... no shops, theatres, cinemas, bars, restaurants. The church clock chimes the hour, 24/7 - the swifts are noisy in the summer. So are the house martins (birds, not band ) The tractors start too early, my Springer needs too much exercise and the smell of the cess pit when the wind is blowing the wrong way is ....erm.... minging The AGA is a law unto itself and who can cope with monitoring the level of oil in the tank? Why isn't the village pub open all day and why is everyone over the age of 70?

We all have our preferences and I hope no-one here is being snobby about Crawley or anywhere else

Regards

astonsmummy

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Oh dear, these threads often seem to make out as if we're slagging somewhere off

If I've been guilty of that, then I'm truly sorry

The OP currently lives in Dorchester and my concern would be aircraft noise. Now then.... if you've always lived within an aircraft "sound" area, then you wouldn't notice. But I think that Dorchester has no airport for about 50 miles, so I'm guessing that might be an issue for the OP.

We all have our preferences and I hope no-one here is being snobby about Crawley or anywhere else

Regards

Dont apologiese, i used to think the same before i moved here and i wasnt suggesting anyone was slagging it off, i was just making a point xx
As for aircraft, it's not that loud - but then maybe thats because i'm used to it - have only lived in crawley for just over a year, also there was a main trainline at the bottom of our garden when i was growing up so i'm probably a bit def from that lol