Oxfordshire and surroundings

leiden64

Depends alot on your family situation. Bicester is cheaper than oxford, but knowing someone who worked as a social worker (young offenders) in the area, there is alot of youth crime and offending, so perhaps not one to choose if you have (or plan to have) teenagers or a nice car! Ditto some of the estates around Oxford. However alot of the estates in the Bicester area do cater really well for young kids and families and there are lots of local amenities (shops, parks etc). Most of the outlying places from Oxford have similar pros and cons - Witney, Didcot, Kidlington - etc. If you want to avoid the 'output' from Didcot power station, then Didcot is probably the best place to be - it dumps all it's stuff our way instead - Didcot even has it's own unique weather system as a result! Buckingham is probably good for commuting, has lovely large parks, close to Milton Keynes for shopping, theatre, night life. BUT it's relatively expensive and quite 'toy townish' (box houses, nice lawns, people washing cars on Sunday - not that there's anything wrong with this, just depends what you like ).
Personally I love the Oxford area, though it took me a while to adjust from being a student there to bringing up a young family in the area. It has everything we could possibly want - night life (Cowley Road), libraries, parks (playgrounds are a bit rubbish though), open space, shopping (in Cowley, not Oxford), a good 'green'/alternative community and a broad ethnic mix etc - BUT it is expensive and I know lots of people who have moved just a bit further north to get better value for money on property and afford a better quality of life. The primary state schools around here are average, unless you can get in a catholic school (and those are very pushy academically) and secondary schools are mostly a frightening prospect. There's a good home educating community, though, if you ever need it!

msmicawber

Abingdon used to be lovely, but lately for some reason the whole town centre appears to be dying off with empty shops and a gloomy look about it. I don't know whether it's because of out of town shops, or Didcot having a new shopping centre, but it seems rather shabby and dead now, which is a shame.

Keeping_Positive

Banbury is a nice town with new developments and a much improved shopping mall. Good train,bus and road links to Oxford. Definitely worth looking at. There are of course not so nice areas as with any town.

neilp

Wendy, thanks for your note. Banbury is probably at the top of my shortlist at the moment. I would really appreciate any thoughts from you (and others) about good and bad areas. Ideally I would like to be close to the station, which would probably either mean living in the town centre or Grimsbury. What do people think about these and/or other options.

I really appreciate people's posts!

Pez2

I grew up in Bicester and still go back their a lot. It's a fairly typical South Eastern dormitory town. Not a lot to do there except shop at Bicester village or drink in the many pubs, but on the other hand it's very well placed for commuting. There's a frequent (albeit expensive IMO) bus service into Oxford, a good, well-run train service that runs to London Marylebone and Birmingham, and a coach service that goes to Milton Keynes and on to Cambridge (although I think the service stops quite early in the evening so no good for nights out). Also it's just off the M40, so useful if you drive.

The town itself is roughly split between the 60s and 70s built areas in the east and west of the town which contain a lot of the council housing and can be a bit on the rough side, and more modern suburban areas in the north of the town (Southwold and Bure Park) and in Langford village to the south of the town. A good rule of thumb is that if the house was bulit before WWII or from the 80s onwards then its probably in a good area.

If there's anything else you want to know then feel free to ask.

Keeping_Positive

Grimsbury (the new builds - less than 20 years old) is a good area but the prices are increased with the closeness of the M40 and Railway station. The old area isnt terrible (grew up in old grimsbury and watched the new bit being built!) but there are some rougher areas. I havent lived there for a while and its down to certain streets. I would have to ask people specifically in needed.

For another road route to Oxford the other side of town, Easington, Bodicote, Cherwell Heights or even Adderbury anywhere near the Oxford Road is another route to Oxford that my OH prefers to the M40. Its a direct route to Kidlington.

Depending on which part of Cherwell Heights you are in its not too far to walk to the station or even drive but again CH is a fairly desirable area in Banbury.

"Bad areas" Dont wish to tar the whole estates as they arent all bad but probably the worst would be Bretch Hill, Hardwick and Ruscote but these are on the wrong side of Banbury for Oxford anyway.

neilp

Thanks Wendy, that is very useful! Thanks also for all the other comments and suggestions. They have given me much to think about, which is really valuable!

Keeping_Positive

Youre welcome. Feel free to PM me in future if you do consider a house in Banbury.

neilp

Thanks, Wendy - I'm sure I'll do that!

flossy_splodge

Just to add my twp penn'orth... I think Banbury is a dead and alive hole. I live a little to the North and would only go to banbury to get out the other side! It's really dismal in my opinion. There are a number of outlying villages that seem a lot nicer but if you're stuck for public transport if it were me I'd look at Bicester rather than Banbury. Sorry to be a wet blanket. Good luck:o