Kent or Essex

Dimey

The fast Ashford trains to London St. Pancras only takes 38 mins. The slow trains take an hour. You'd want to commute on the more expensive fast trains. The first stop from Ashford International is Stratford International.

You'll be able to get a decent £250k house in Ashford but it's nowhere as nice a place to live as the West Kent places mentioned like Paddock Wood and Tonbridge.

Ashford and villages along the M20 are clogged up with the channel tunnel lorries parking with their litter & paraffin stoves. The town is in the midst of a plan to double its size by 2031.
(you can download the plan from this site -http://www.ashfordbestplaced.co.uk/ashford_-_the_future/document_library.aspx

There's lots of building work without sufficient supporting infrastructure eg. hard to get NHS Dentists and Doctors, long waits for hospital services, hard to get first choice schools, and in a few areas power cuts and water restrictions.
Police are overstretched - there are a fair few burglaries - they recently took 4 hrs to respond to me, a lone woman at a burglary scene and didn't respond at all when someone tried to force their way into my home. I'm just mentioning some downsides for a balanced picture.

There are some pretty pockets to Ashford and some lovely vllages nearby. Its generally a safe area compared to the parts of "Kent" closer to London. There are lovely seaside towns like Whitstable & Broadstairs for days out and its easy to hop over to France on the ferry for a long weekend. The Channel Tunnel rail link is pricey.

I'd say Ashford would be comparable with Chelmsford. Have you considered places like Bishops Stortford on the Essex Herts border or some of the nice villages outside Harlow in Essex?

My personal choice in Kent would be the Paddock Wood area, especially for bringing up children in a village setting.

ERICS_MUM

Flairy wrote: »

Thanks everyone,

I have seen some nice places in Colchester and Chelmsford that we quite like. It's hard to know where to look as I've never even been to Essex but a lot of people say its great for commuting.

I must admit though I have a bit of a soft spot for Kent as we lived there for a very short while years ago, didn't have to commute or anything though so not experienced that. From what we seen there we really liked it as it had so much greenery and nice places to go for walks etc which is quite important to us, we also loved going to the beaches etc so got some lovely memories of there. Just seemed a very relaxed happy way of life.

Having said that I don't want to be swayed by that too much, as I really don't want my husbands commute to be too hard! Think I will look on the Ashford line as that seems to be perfect for what we are looking for, and also explore the Essex a bit more.

I'm biased in favour of Chelmsford, I moved here from east London 20 years ago and have never regretted it for a second. Commuting into Stratford is easy and much less than an hour. Also the train goes on straight into London Liverpool St for London shopping/nights out.

There are excellent schools including grammar schools if that should interest you. Good city centre for shopping, eating out. Sports - cricket ground, rugby clubs, swimming pool, canoeing etc. Easy access to A12/M25 if needed. Nice surrounding countryside and a few miles to the coast.

daniel80

Some lovely villages around the Maidstone area.

marmitepotato

How about Rochester and the surrounding areas. Also Gravesend, Windmill Hill is very nice. Longfield is also a nice village with a main line station straight into Victoria.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/29968419?search_identifier=7b049b1fe9a5113b022da39379cc1592

Season ticket aprox £2800.

Mr_Moo_2

Just for your info, Ashford to Stratford Int is 30 mins. The only occasional problem you get is when the peak hour trains from Dover and Margate join up (or attempt to!) at Ashford and the coupling sometimes fails which delays things. But I've commuted up this route for well over a year and haven't been late enough to claim. Yet.

fancyjancy

Hi i have just put my 3 bed flat in leigh on sea up for rent check it out on rightmove ss9 2sw :j would love to help

fancyjancy

Its the £795 one although willing to negotiate

phoebe1989seb

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I've never lived in either, but from what I've seen and heard, Chelmsford is _significantly_ nicer than Colchester.

Me neither, but we did live quite close to Colchester between 2007 & 2011. We used Colchester as our main shopping location but neither of us were particularly smitten with it as a place and DH used to commute to Liverpool Street (usually from Marks Tey) for a while and hated the train journey with a vengeance. He would often drive to Shenfield and commute in on the train from there instead, which he much preferred. If it were me I'd opt for somewhere in Kent, but then we just didn't take to living in Essex

BornAtTheRightTime

If you are likely to drive to see family regularly, then think about which side of the Dartford crossing would be better for you.

Mid- to North-Essex, and Kent, both have lovely villages commutable to Stratford. If Essex I'd avoid anything south of the A127 (estuary accents and TOWIE). However move northwards towards or beyond the A12 and you've got some of the prettiest parts of England. Essex is definitely a county of contrasts.

Both Essex and Kent have the grammar school system which because they are heavily over-subscribed means many of the other surrounding senior schools are also very good - full of those 4-in-5 smart kids who didn't quite make it.

If Essex then most people agree Hatfield Peverel, which has nice housing within a few minutes' walk of the train station, is a great option. Further up the A12/train track is Witham which is not as nice but there are a few gorgeous (read: expensive) hamlets and villages nearby. Wickham Bishops is known as London-ville locally and has a highly-rated primary school.

And most importantly, John Lewis are moving into Chelmsford.

gazzabboi

Flairy wrote: »

Thanks everyone,

I have seen some nice places in Colchester and Chelmsford that we quite like. It's hard to know where to look as I've never even been to Essex but a lot of people say its great for commuting.

I must admit though I have a bit of a soft spot for Kent as we lived there for a very short while years ago, didn't have to commute or anything though so not experienced that. From what we seen there we really liked it as it had so much greenery and nice places to go for walks etc which is quite important to us, we also loved going to the beaches etc so got some lovely memories of there. Just seemed a very relaxed happy way of life.

Having said that I don't want to be swayed by that too much, as I really don't want my husbands commute to be too hard! Think I will look on the Ashford line as that seems to be perfect for what we are looking for, and also explore the Essex a bit more.

Get yourself a nice hotel one weekend and have a good look round. I think chelmsford is fairly similar to colchester, except houses are better value in colchester. Nice 4 bed detached newbuild under £250k.