Cambridgeshire

Pinklepurr

St Neots is an up and coming area and new housing is shortly going to be built close to the railway station (excellent rail links to Kings X). A few new coffee shops have opened too. It is a pleasant market town with good road links too. Cambourne (about 7 miles E of St Neots) is a new "village" development with its own supermarket, library, health centre, 2 schools. However, the building density has increased over the years, so if you want a detached house for example, you may be worth looking at some of the older houses built which will still be only about 7 years old rather than the brand new ones.

St Ives is a lovely town and it's beautiful by the river.

Lots of lovely pretty villages around here and Cambridge is a beautiful city with great shops and leisure facilities but very expensive. The only thing I have found difficult to adjust to since moving to this area is the flat landscape (was used to rolling hills) and it is also VERY windy!

tinkerbell1978

lived in cambridge city for years and they were the best years ever its a beautiful city!! i lived in the city by the river for most of my time and i lived in waterbeach a train ride away is a lovely little place! ohhh now i have seen this post i am really missing cambridge again

PoorDave

If you don't need rail transport, avoid the area between Cambridge and Royston (which is in Herts, south west of Cambridge). We looking there (moving from Bedfordshire) and everything is much more expensive, like-for-like, than the north and east sides of Cambridge. This because there you get rail and road links to Cambridge and London very nearby.

deadparrot

Nenen wrote:

The pubs and singing sounds good! :beer: Are there any cinemas in St Ives (just done several searches and can't find any reference to one)? Or theatres? One of the reasons for wanting to move nearer to Cambridge is that currently we have to travel almost 30 miles to get to a cinema or theatre.. even pubs with live music would be good really want to be more 'in the swing'! LOL
Regarding journey time... I know it's a bit difficult to be exact given the awful traffic condtions going into Cambridge, but can you give me any idea of a 'normal' journey time to get into Cambridge at 8 a.m. for example, or coming home around 5 p.m.?

No cinema or theatre in St Ives, but at weekends/evenings huntingdon/cambridge is only 10-15 mins away.

Peek time travel on a normal day will be 30 mins from St Ives to Cambridge, but the commute is so unpredictable you need a very understanding boss or you need to allow much longer so as to avoid being late every other day.

bobothebear

My sister has lived in St Neots for the past 8 years and some parts of it are very nice and others aren't so. I would more recommend Eaton Socan. Its a kind of suburb bit of St Neots which is off to one side of the town nearer the A1.
If you want a touch more remote then I would recommend any of the Villages close to St Neots. Places like Abbotsley,Waresley,Great Gransden and Gamlingay even Papworth are all very nice places to live and all 10- 15 minutes from St Neots and Huntingdon.

I worked in St Ives for about 2 years and I do like it there but i believe its more expensive than the other places mentioned.

Are they still planning on making that Tram system from Cambridge to St Ives that was mentioned a while ago?

baronbaldwin

Little Paxton - a suburb of St. Neots. 5 Min from train station, surrounded by parks and even a nature reserve, close to A1 and Cambridge is accessable through the A428 corridor just dont travel at peak times. The primary school is really good. One of the really good benefits of Huntingdon is Hinchingbrook School, I went there and some others in cambridgeshire and they didn't compare at all. Like the others say, keep well clear of oxmoor and the town centre. Brampton is nice, Godmanchester too.
Good Luck

Supervixen

Hereward wrote:

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.

Cambourne is v.expensive and very new...and transport links to Cambridge are terrible. You can drive but the A14 at that end is horrendous.

Ely is getting very expensive too. You can still get a reasonable 3 bed semi for under £200,000 but only just. Transport is better though - trains every 15 minutes or so to Cambridge, half hourly to Kings Cross and regularly to Stansted, Birmingham, Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough.

You could go for Soham? Cheaper but you need transport.

deadparrot

Supervixen wrote:

Cambourne is v.expensive and very new...and transport links to Cambridge are terrible. You can drive but the A14 at that end is horrendous.

Ely is getting very expensive too. You can still get a reasonable 3 bed semi for under £200,000 but only just. Transport is better though - trains every 15 minutes or so to Cambridge, half hourly to Kings Cross and regularly to Stansted, Birmingham, Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough.

You could go for Soham? Cheaper but you need transport.

Cambourne (on A428 not A14) is a little pricy when compared to say Bar Hill (on A14), but it is still nowhere near cambridge prices. As for the transport links, the A428 is being upgraded and should be open later 2007 after which the A428 Eastbound from Cambourne will be an all new dual-carriageway with the existing A428 kept for local access between villages without an A428 connection. IMHO Cambourne will have the best road link to North & West Cambridge of anywhere, which could make it first choice for many cambridge commuters ... which may well justify the slightly higher prices.

Supervixen

deadparrot wrote:

Cambourne is a little pricy when compared to say Bar Hill, but it is still nowhere near cambridge prices. As for the transport links, the A428 is being upgraded and should be open later 2007 after which the A428 Eastbound from Cambourne will be an all new dual-carriageway with the existing A428 kept for local access between villages without an A428 connection. IMHO Cambourne will have the best road link to Cambridge of anywhere, which could make it first choice for many cambridge commuters ... which may well justify the slightly higher prices.

True. I just remember that a work mate used to drive in from Cambourne to Cambridge, and it took her almost as long as it took me on public transport from Soham...and that *is* terrible, trust me.

We couldn't afford S.Cambs or Cambourne prices...

deadparrot

Supervixen wrote:

True. I just remember that a work mate used to drive in from Cambourne to Cambridge, and it took her almost as long as it took me on public transport from Soham...and that *is* terrible, trust me.

We couldn't afford S.Cambs or Cambourne prices...

Traffic now is terrible, that's for sure, can't wait for the new road to open. And cambourne does feel a bit "Truman Show" like at times, so not for everyone.