Cambridgeshire

Jeewhizz

Me and the missus are planning on moving that way sometime mid '07. We're gonna head up and take a look round the area sometime in Jan - thinking about huntingdon / st. neots.

Does anyone round here live / lived there? Any tips? Areas to avoid?

Cheers,

Jee

mattg2379

Hi. I have lived in Cambridgeshire all of my life, so any towns you need to know about, let me know and I'll give you the low down on them if I can.

I work in Cambridge centre, and have lived in St Ives most of my life, only recently moving to live in Godmanchester (near Huntingdon)

I'd be pleased to help you wherever I can.

Jeewhizz

Cheers Matt,

We are moving there after living all our lives in Croydon/Surrey area since being born. We're actually gonna be going up to huntingdon on saturday to take a look round the area.

Apart from huntingdon/st.neots, are there any other areas in the south of the county that are nice places to live? Being near a train station isn't 100% necessary (no need for commuting), but we'd like to live somewhere that's green

We don't want to go too far north in the county (march etc) either...

Alan_M_2

I've lived around Purley and Surrey all my life and if I had a choice I'd go in that direction too, but my business is here and benefits greatly from being here.

You're making the right choice, you'll get a better standard of living around there.

Hereward

You could try looking at the Ely area as it has good transport links with Cambridge, London. The surrounding area is very picturesque, and although Ely is a city, it isn't very built up and therefore rather green.

Alternatively, you could look around the Cambourne area, but I'm not as familiar with it as Ely. BTW, I don't blame you for not wanting to move the heart of the Fens as it can be quite bleak, especially if you are use to a large built up area.

betterbargains4u

Hi
We live in Peterborough, which is in the Northern part of Cambridgeshire, but I used to work in Huntingdon. There isn't much to do in Huntingdon and some areas can be pretty rough. St Neots or St Ives is nicer.
Peterborough has good rail links and some very lovely surrounding areas.
Not a bad part of the county at all. Any reason why you do not want to go further North than March?

mattg2379

Hi JeeWhizz

Ok, the lowdown on what I think...

Huntingdon/Godmanchester - very nice place to live (Godmanchester especially...)
GMC looks like a small 'old person' village, with old style houses mixed in with new estates, but a lot of young couples and professionals live there. It's beautiful with the largest meadow in the UK (apparently) and rivers aplenty. 10 minute walk into Huntingdon town centre, 15 minute walk to the train station with direct link to Peterborough/Kings Cross.

Huntingdon - used to be a really bad 'chav' town, but is getting better. Always had lots of professionals living there using it to commute to the City.
Town centre is re-inventing itself. Modern shops (for the Fens...) Costa, Subway, some really great bars and restaurants....

One area to be wary of is known as the Oxmoor. Typically rough area. Many new propertys being developed there, but still not an ideal place to live.

Benefits - direct immediate access to A14 AND A1, so you can travel pretty much anywhere straight away - 15-20 mins direct to Cambridge via A14.


Ely - only been there a few times, but friends at work live there. Not too much to do, but nice houses, and easy commute into London and Cambridge.

I hope this helps a little. I concentrated on Hunt/Godmo seeing as you'll be looking there this weekend. If you need any more help, I'll be more than happy to help you out.

Cheers.

Jeewhizz

Cheers guys - you have been most helpful. I will check out GMC as well

We don't want to move much further north as we will then be a bit too far from family than we'd like. My dad's just recovering from cancer, and so i don't want to be too far away.

I don't want to be right in the sticks - i.e. I don't want to have to buy a 4x4 to be able to get out on the road in winter I also am fedup with living in a concrete jungle, so green areas aplenty are on teh list! I'm sure we'll find somewhere....!

Cheers!

Hereward

If you stick to the towns, then the transport links are fairly good in the north of the county (March has a train station and is close to the A47 to link to the A1 at Peterborough; Wisbech is on the A47; Chatteris has a good road links to Ely/Cambridge and Huntingdon) and you will avoid being stuck out in the middle of nowhere. The major routes are all kept to a reasonable standard and there are plenty of green spaces within a few minutes of the towns in the Fenland area; however, the landscape can appear rather non-existent as it is so flat.

Ely and the Huntingdon areas have similar transport links and a few more amenities than Fenland, but property prices are lower in Fenland.

scrummy_mummy_2

Having grown up in Ramsey (15 minutes north of Huntingdon) I wish I was coming! I live in Bracknell (and you thought Huntingdon was chavvy?!!)
Given an option I would move too...actually, can I come???
If I was moving home (as it still is to me!) I would look to move to:
Ramsey (bit little and 'down market') but look for a house on Biggin Lane or Hollow Lane..I used to dream of living here as a child and would still do if my husband leaves me/dies/is abducted by aliens.
ANY of the little villages on the outskirts of Huntingdon are LOVELY...Abbots Ripton, Wistow, Bluntisham etc are lovely too. You can get to the A1 in 15 to 20 minutes from any of them on the back roads....you will never need a 4X4 either as most of East Anglia is below sea level so it very rarely snows...fog is often a problem though!
SERIOUSLY Look at the villages, the non locals avoid them because they like Stukeley Meadows and ticky tacky boxes (like the south east) but they are lovely and travelling to/from them isn't an issue.
AVOID the Oxmoor like the black death or areas surrounding it...it just makes it a shorted distance the scum have to travel to nick your stuff...always been rough, always will be.
I would also be wary of Houghton/Wyton and places near the river in St Ives (although lovely) they are all on flood plains and have become increasingly more at risk over the 30 years I lived in the area. Buy a chocolate box in Houghton at your peril!!!
My sister is an Estate Agent in St Ives....Bennet Sanders, and knows the area as well as I do having lived there for 30 years too. Go see her (ask for Monique) and she will help.

Good luck...give my love to Huntingdon

XX

village_life

me and my now wife lived in St Ives between 2004 and 2005.

It is AMAZING - there is not much more I can say than that.... We lived 10 minutes walk from the town which has everything you need - including several brilliant pubs and a couple of night clubs....

IN particular though we used to love sitting by the river on a saturday afternoon, or sitting at one of the pubs overlooking the river on a summers evening

i wanna go back