After 9 great years in Bristol we’re looking to move to be closer to parents. My parents live in North Norfolk but transport and jobs make it impossible to move there and besides I don’t want to be too close just not a 5 hours drive away so I’m thinking somewhere within a 2hr drive would be OK.
Yesterday we had a quick look at Stamford, Oakham and Market Harborough, does anyone have any experience of these towns or anywhere nearby? At the moment it’s just the 2 of us but we hope to start a family soon that’s a consideration too.
Oh and before anyone says it I am quite aware that the mountain biking will be carp after living in Bristol.

download North by Northamptonshire, it will tell you all you need to know 😉

i live in stamford. its not the cheapest place in the area to buy a house, but the amenties are pretty good and its a nice quiet town most of the time. I dont have kids, but some of the local schools are quite good…. apparantly
its not an mtb mecca but there are trails , just not many hills.
anything specific that you want to know let me know and I will try and help

Matt

We live in South Kilworth, which is quite close to the end of the A14, not far from Market Harborough. Email in profile if you’d like to discuss.
Very easy to get to Norfolk, and obviously we like it!
Very vibrant mountain biking community, if slightly short of actual mountains!

its not an mtb mecca but there are trails , just not many hills.

I was actually suprised that there were quite a few hills, especially going toward Harbourough from Oakham. OK they are not the hills I have access to South Wales but better than expected.
The parts of Stamford we saw were all nice with some very expensive looking stone houses. We picked up a Harbourough newspaper and and it had loads of 4 bedroom houses for under £200k, you wouldn’t get that around Bristol (except for a couple of sink estates).
We just investigating possibilities at the moment but thanks for the offers – I may drop you an email when we know more.

I’m reasonably local. Out of those, I’d choose Stamford assuming ability to fund similar housing options in all 3 places.

However, there are some really nice villages between the 3 and, depending on your tastes/travel options, you might get a nicer environment going that route.

If you want small town living, Stamford is very nice. It’s also close to the A1/A14 and East Coast main line (Peterborough) so getting around the country isn’t a chore.

It’s hard to articulate why, but having spent planty of time in all 3, it’s just a bit more civilised/in keeping with my personal tastes.

Not sure that’s very helpful….

On first impression I agreed Stamford looked by far the nicest (Rightmove also tells me its the most expensive), I don’t really want to live a village as I like walking to the local shops not getting in a car for everything and a train station is useful for work. There are a few more town to look at in the area though.

I grew up in Market Harborough, my brother is still the manager of the LBS
Nice little town, good connections to get around and a reasonable amount of riding on rolling hills. Decent house prices, but nothing like the bargain they were 15 years ago. I’ve just had a quick look on rightmove, and the circa £200k, 4 bed houses are not in bad areas at all. There’s a few rough bits (read streets), but nothing bad on a large city scale. Schools are good (although I no longer know which ones are the better). The centre has new shops / cafes / pubs, which is good as it was in a a dire state when I left in ’98.
Happy to answer any other specific questions, so feel free to ask.
Oh, and for phil56, I really grew up on Husbands Bosworth Gliding club airfield – not far from you at all!

Grew up in Lutterworth (so on the M1); perhaps a bit far West for you but feel free to ask if you have any queries. (Not lived there for 15 years mind but parent still in the area).

I would say plan on getting a road bike. I do still miss the quiet lanes in the area (Market Harborough, Kilworth and up to Melton…) which can be lovely early in the morning.

The roads round here are nice for riding on, certainly more interesting than the muddy uninspiring bridleways! If you ride for the adrenaline rush and doing jumps etc then I would consider a bmx, we have some great skateparks in this area including adrenaline alley in corby 🙂

Peterborough is mostly grim. The further East of the A1, well, you know yourself – flatter and less to do other than root vegetable admiring. Stamford has good features but we found it to be a small town with a small town mentality – unless you were properly loaded. Driving East-West around that area is poor, so look at the places you go. The riding isn’t Bristol but getting better all the time (Fineshades Woods etc) and the house prices are, on the whole, much cheaper.

I know Peterborough is a bit of a dump, growing up in Hunstanton Peterborough was the closest city along with Norwich, we nearly always went to Norwich.
We’ve got friends in Ely which is only an hour from my parents but despite being a nice town it’s just so flat around there which I find depressing for some reason, I suppose Thetford isn’t far away for MTB though.