Poole, Dorset

sammie1884

Hi Everyone,
I am sorry if this is in the wrong place, if it is please can someone advise me of where I need to move it to?

My Parents are moving from Kent to Poole and are looking inparticular at Canford Heath. Please can anyone who knows the area give me honest opinion on the Area. ie: is it a good area to live or if not where is best? I went down with them to look at houses last week and thought it seemed like a really nice place but we just want to make sure it is as nice as it seems before they put an offer in!

Any advise would be greatly appreciated
Thank you
xx

heavensbug

Hi Sammie,

Its a long time since I lived in Poole but grew up in the area (18 yrs) so I will give you what I know. I still have family and good friends in the area so do hear things.

Canford heath was always a nice area to live when I was there but was dependant on what part. More recently I did hear that they had moved some of the less pleasant familys from an area of poole to Canford Heath. So it would be worth checking which part.

It depends on what your parents budget is and what kind of amenities they want to be near.

Countryside or town?
Major supermarkets or smaller places in small village/town.

I grew up in the Merley area and my parents still live there which is about 4 miles from Canford Heath. To my knowledge the following areas are still nice, Merley, wimborne, broadstone, corfe mullen, bear cross, parkstone, upton.

All somewhere within about 6 miles of Poole with good access routes although bus routes are a little more scarce. But then Poole has never been good for bus routes.

Again dependant on what they are looking for and budget you could look maybe towards the purbecks, bournemouth etc. Some of the smaller villages life corfe castle are beautiful but they are just that very small villages. Swanage, wareham again are very nice but a bit futher a field to the main hubs of Bournemouth and Poole.

Christchurch, mudeford, lyndhurst are the other side of Bournemouth but on the out skirts of the new forest and some lovely areas as well.

Give us a bit more of an idea what they are looking for and I am sure we can find some lovely areas if Canford Heath is not what they are looking for.

If anyone has any views on what I have put above please feel free to comment. Like I say I moved out a long time ago but do visit a number of times a year to see friends and family and some info may be a little out of date.

hethmar

Hmm, well I did what I always do and had a google. You may want to have a google yourself and have a look here:

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4658222.Rossmore_and_Canford_Heath_residents_intimidated_and_abused_by_youngsters/

heavensbug

Thats similar to the sort of thing I heard.

Some of the turlin moor families and west howe families have been moved there. But like I say it depends on which part as Canford Heath can stretch from Derby's corner to Tower Park and then down to Oakdale.

It depends which part you are looking at but do check out the other areas I have put up.

hethmar

Swanage is a lovely little town - well it was when I last visited it a few years back - we stayed at Worth Matravers.

sammie1884

Thank you so much for all your replies. Any advice is very much appreciated because we dont want them moving to an area that they think is lovely then get there and its not!

They really want to be quite close to the sea (although whilst typing this I have been on phone to mum and she said if areas slightly more inland are better maybe they should start considering those?) and also my mum would ideally would transfer her job to a local hospital so in easy reach of one of them is on the list to.
I think the area of Canford Heath they were looking at was near Tower Park (I think it was inbetween that and the Asda?) But from that article that now sounds like a bad area!
I think parkstone and upton was on there list to, i will check that.I know that they LOVE swanage but it is to far away. They have also ruled out Bournemouth because they do not like the shopping area!
What they are really looking for is a house in a nice area where they can walk to the paper shop/s etc and either walk or have a short drive to the sea.

heavensbug

Hi Sammie,

Get them to check out Wimborne.

Its a lovely little down with walking distance to most things. Lovely old minster and a couple of hospitals around that area.

Poole is only about 6 miles away with the big general just there. Beach is easy distance. I used to finish work at 11 at night and be sat on the beacg 25 minutes later enjoying the cool air during the summer.

Sandbanks is about 10 miles. Poole Quay about 6-7 miles. Hamworthy beach about 12 miles.

Bournemouth about 15 miles and christchurch probably about 20 miles.

New forest is close by and it is literally minutes to the country side some great places for walks etc.

If I could get the work I would be back there in a heartbeat.

I would definatly avoid that part of Canford Heath. A lot of kick out from Tower Park and the area does sound to have gone down hill.

sammie1884

heavensbug wrote: »

Hi Sammie,

Get them to check out Wimborne.

Its a lovely little down with walking distance to most things. Lovely old minster and a couple of hospitals around that area.

Poole is only about 6 miles away with the big general just there. Beach is easy distance. I used to finish work at 11 at night and be sat on the beacg 25 minutes later enjoying the cool air during the summer.

Sandbanks is about 10 miles. Poole Quay about 6-7 miles. Hamworthy beach about 12 miles.

Bournemouth about 15 miles and christchurch probably about 20 miles.

New forest is close by and it is literally minutes to the country side some great places for walks etc.

If I could get the work I would be back there in a heartbeat.

I would definatly avoid that part of Canford Heath. A lot of kick out from Tower Park and the area does sound to have gone down hill.

Thank you, I will get them to check it out, it sounds just what they are looking for. They are going back down in 2 weeks time so this is great help because they can now concentrate on areas that come recommended.

paulwf

Poole is a good town to live in - there aren't too many chavs and most of the main shops and supermarkets are there with Bournemouth and Southampton not that far away for even more choice. There's plenty of good walks and places to visit around the area and if you get fed up with the coast you can be in the New Forest in 40 minutes. If they haven't already got National Trust membership that could be a good present.

Wimbourne and Swanage and the like are really nice towns but you'll have to do a bit more traveling, I prefer slightly larger towns myself but each to their own


I lived in Canford Heath when I was growing up and it was fine then but I guess times have changed! My parents live in Oakdale and that seems to still be a nice quiet area so maybe look there. There are regular buses from Oakdale to Poole or you can easily walk into town then there is the bus station or railway station to get to other towns if that's a consideration.

With Parkstone the locals differentiate between Upper Parkstone and Lower Parkstone. I lived in Upper Parkstone and that was seen as the poorer and rougher relation to Lower Parkstone. Just like a lot of areas what can be considered a good or bad neighbourhood can change in a few streets.

Just like heavensbug I moved out a while ago but still go back regularly. Definitely look at Oakdale properties before making a decision.

sammie1884

Thank you Paul, I will certainly get them to look at Oakdale, so by the sounds of it that is in easy access of the town if they wanted to walk rather than take the car? Is it near any beaches?
So with parkstone, having lived there do you think there is any probs with upper parkstone? I would just be interested to hear what you think because I know it can be the same in this area, people can slate an area just because they think there road is better!

paulwf

sammie1884 wrote: »

Thank you Paul, I will certainly get them to look at Oakdale, so by the sounds of it that is in easy access of the town if they wanted to walk rather than take the car? Is it near any beaches?

It's about a 20-25 minute brisk walk to town, perhaps just over half an hour if you walk at average speed. The bus service is every 10 mins or so. Close without being too close IYKWIM.

Poole has the Quay and along from that is a coastal grassland area called Baiter and nearby Poole Park is lovely. The beaches are more in the Sandbanks or Bournemouth area. TBH if you live there you'll probably appreciate the quay and park more than the beaches as you can enjoy them at any time of the year.

So with parkstone, having lived there do you think there is any probs with upper parkstone? I would just be interested to hear what you think because I know it can be the same in this area, people can slate an area just because they think there road is better!

Lower Parkstone is much posher and closer to town with high house prices to match. Upper Parkstone has Ashley Rd running along the length of it and the area is fine but I wouldn't live too far "north of the Ashley Road" as the locals put it or you'll end up in Rossmore which isn't a great area.