Considering moving to Maidstone - any info on the area would be great :)

onriebaby

I have just checked on the Enviromental Ageny's site and this property is well away from their 'extent of extreme flood' prediction outline - thats good - that I couldnt deal with.

milliebear00001

onriebaby wrote: »

Yeap, Im going on Saturday and will go again in the week to look at primary schhols. Im not worried about the 11 plus (she says) as I have already started tutoring my 6 year old son for it and definately will ensure that a proper tutor is hired by nxt year (when he starts year 4) - that said, he is pretty bright anyway. Either way, London or Kent, I have my heart set on a Grammar school. Also have seen a few other high schools in the area that have got 1's and 2's from Ofsted that may be worth a look if the worst does happen and one of my children dont pass the 11plus.

Like you said, I dont have much choice - been on house swap sites now for 4 years and havent had a single person respond from the better areas.

Problem is I dont have anything to really offer except good transport links and have been hoping for a bigger place. I have a small 2 bed flat (no garden) and this person (as they work in London and commute each day) has a 3 bed house with a garden that they are willing to swap. Not sure if anything like that will ever come up for me again. Only thing I have going for me is that I am willing to move this summer. They have already seen my property and are ready to move on this.

Sounds good. You could do worse than Maidstone. Good luck with it all.

onriebaby

Thank you

celyn90

When the medway floods it doesn't tend to hit the houses in the centre; the outlying villages tend to cop it more.

I grew up there, it's a fairly normal boring small town, nothing special, feels a bit run down and a lot of traffic runs through it. Middle gets a bit lary at night, but I'd still walk through the centre of it at midnight. Bored kids and lots of bars mainly.

I have relatives that live a couple of roads away from there, they have no problems. The roads are quite narrow and parking can be a PITA, but other than that, it's pretty non-descript and fairly quiet. I wouldn't have a problem moving there. It's worth looking at If you want to fall for the area, go down to the river to the archbishops palace; it's really pretty

The town centre is very close to there, the blank area next to the station on goggle maps (marked as kent county council) is the prison. The station is very close (that's the one that goes directly into London too). cel x

Edited to add - there are a lot of good schools in the area; check them all rather than assume the grammar schools are the best.

onriebaby

celyn90 wrote: »

When the medway floods it doesn't tend to hit the houses in the centre; the outlying villages tend to cop it more.

I grew up there, it's a fairly normal boring small town, nothing special, feels a bit run down and a lot of traffic runs through it. Middle gets a bit lary at night, but I'd still walk through the centre of it at midnight. Bored kids and lots of bars mainly.

I have relatives that live a couple of roads away from there, they have no problems. The roads are quite narrow and parking can be a PITA, but other than that, it's pretty non-descript and fairly quiet. I wouldn't have a problem moving there. It's worth looking at If you want to fall for the area, go down to the river to the archbishops palace; it's really pretty

The town centre is very close to there, the blank area next to the station on goggle maps (marked as kent county council) is the prison. The station is very close (that's the one that goes directly into London too). cel x

Edited to add - there are a lot of good schools in the area; check them all rather than assume the grammar schools are the best.

Thank you so much - this is so helpful

nomoneytoday

milliebear00001 wrote: »

good motorway/train links (although trains notoriously unreliable when I lived there - some time ago now). Close-ish to London is the best thing about it!

The train service was the main reason I moved out from Bearsted.
Check Tonbridge, Sevenoaks or Medway for a decent train service IMHO

happy_2008

I live 40 mins from maidstone and never found a issue with this. My old company also had an office in Maidstone which i would frequently use with no issues. However, like many other places there are good and bad areas. One of my friends was put in hospital from an unprovoked attacked one day after he finished work.

But in general its ok but traffic is a pain in the !!!.