Working away from home at the moment in Basingstoke. Going to give the job a few months before I know its right for me, then think about moving the family.

I was going to start looking around the area at possible places to bring the family to.

I am used to a rural life (Dumfries and Galloway), so looking for an area with places to ride the bike, walk the dog, good schools for the kids, decent town centre but not a city.

I don’t know the area but I am looking at areas west and south of Basingstoke so possibilities could be Winchester (pricey), Salisbury, Newbury and all the villages in between. Nothing towards London since prices rise exponentially that way and coming from Scotland house prices budget factors large in my decisions.

Cheers

S

If you can go a bit east of Newbury then there’s the Hungerford area which is really nice, and gives you easy access to Marlborough and the chalk downland around there. There’s miles of byways and such around there, and further east gets you to Avebury. I used to drive from Chippenham to Basingstoke a couple of times a week to visit a g/f who was a trainee nurse there, and the drive up to Newbury was always fun as the A4’s nice and wide and not too much traffic, as most goes on the M4. It gets a bit narrow and twisty from Newbury through Kingsclere to Basing tho’.
Lovely area, lots of really pretty villages and towns, Ramsbury in particular is a very nice little town, so there’s plenty of places to look. Try to stay close to the A4, the smaller roads are quite narrow and windy; fun to drive, unless you’re in a hurry with a tractor leading a small flock of cars at 20mph in front of you. Overtaking can be a little frustrating.
Hope that helps a bit.

Most of/nice Salisbury’s not that cheap, don’t know how it compares to Winchester tho. Some cheaper estates. There was a thread on here a while ago with quite a lot of info on where to live in Wilts which may help, tho towns discussed on that might be more N/W Wilts than you want.

If you are commuting by car then Salisbury is too far. By train it would be fine. Winchester similar if a little easier drive.
How near do you need to be to a town centre? Only towns within easy reach are Andover (cheaper than Blazingsmoke), Alton, Whitchurch (more of a big village).
If you can handle being 5 miles or so out of town (and can afford it) then loads of lovely villages to choose from. As a native of the Bourne Valley, you cant go wrong with there (apart from all the new money, luvvie posh nobs :evil:).

Edit – Newbury is driveable, but not for me thanks. Hungerford’s quite nice but a bit of a trek. Kingsclere – close but not a lot there. Overton would be ok, similar to Whitchurch (some shops but not really a town centre as such).

Hartley Witney is a nice place a few friends there and has a nice village feel to it.
or if out your price range Fleet is close and has some nice parts too and has more
of a small town feel

Yeah, Hartley Wintney is nice (although on the more expensive London side of town).

Whats the budget – house needs? It ain’t a cheap area.

Im fine with a 30 min drive and would go up to a one hour drive if it gets a nice area with a decent price to boot so that opens up a few possibilities

Don’t know if Bracknell is cheeper

What is Alton or Farnham like, I notice Frensham pond sailing club is close by and the kids like their Dinghy sailing…

Farnham has some very nice areas, some great biking to be found there too.

Bracknell wont be cheaper (and its Bracknell!!).
Farnham’s nice, as is Alton, but will be expensive.
If you need 3 bedrooms, then you’ll need about £200k to get somewhere quiet/not on an estate (a LOT more than that in certain towns/villages mentioned).

rusty trowel – Member
Bracknell wont be cheaper (and its Bracknell!!).

LOL Wrong !!!!!

Bracknell !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also never seen things that cheap unless you looking at Aldershot

Try this link Aldershot property

All much the same with slightly better and slightly worse bits.

There is a boxed area created by the M3, A34, M4 and A33. Look on RightMove or similar to find houses in the right price range within that area. That should highlight the places to look at.

Just moved to Marlborough, decent high street, pubs (that are still open) & eating places.

Live on the edge of the Savernake Forest and the Ridgeway is a couple of miles away, so riding is OK. There is a MTB club in Swindon too (not been out with them yet though)

Some nice villages around here too.

GF travels to Bracknell for work, takes her around 45-min so guessing Basingstoke would be around the same.

I grew up in Whitchurch (we moved down from Aberdeen when I was 4)…it’s a good town (village sized) for growing up, I have lots of fond memories of the place.

There are good schools in Whitchurch – Whitchurch C of E Primary School, and Testbourne Secondary School…I went to both and I turned out ok….possibly. After school there are colleges in Andover (7 miles), Basingstoke (12 miles) and Winchester (12 miles). Whitchurch sits on the B3400 between Andover and Whitchurch so it’s an easy commute.

Whitchurch has some nice pubs and a good community feel…now I’m living in London I miss having a local that I can walk into and know everyone, and the barman already knows what beer I drink. The village has all the amenities, banks, shops, post office, take aways, small supermarkets etc. Andover and Basingstoke have big supermarkets when you need to buy loads of stuff.

There are regular fetes etc, and there’s beer runs, and fun runs…all that kind of stuff.

Overton (4 miles towards Basingstoke on the B3400) is similar…it’s a little smaller though and doesn’t have a secondary school although all kids from Overton and the surrounding areas get buses to/from Testbourne in Whitchurch.

There’s plenty of places to go out on the bike, the South Downs Way starts in Winchester, and in Whitchurch you could cycle 10 minutes in any direction and be in rolling farmland with plenty of tracks to enjoy.

Most of my mates who I grew up with have moved to either Basingstoke or Winchester so once the younguns grow up they don’t have to go far if they want to move to a bigger town. Plus the road networks are great…Whitchurch is a stones throw from the A34 (north/south) and the M3 (east/west), and has a direct train link into London Waterloo.

There are so many benefits of that area of England to be honest…I could go on for ages.

I know a few people who live closer to Reading (we got to know them as they went to Basingstoke College of Technology (BCOT)), there’s plenty of places to live in and around Tadley and it’s relatively easy to get to Basingstoke for work.

I live in Whitchurch & can vouch for it’s location! It’s a village with a Town Hall. Excellent rail connection to London & A34. Approx 12 miles to Basingstoke by road & just two stops by rail. Quite a few pubs as well! Lots of countryside close by with good biking opportunities.

I grew up in Whitchurch

Intrigued to know who you are? Went to Testbourne too.

Andover has a good friendly bike shop/ club which caters for mountain biking and road bike. Regularly get 15+ out on rides.

Some lovely villages up through the valley but prices are high.

I’m in Alton, been here about 6 years now, love it. I grew up in Fleet but its got too big and expensive for me. We have a small local woods thats easy to put a 20 mile loop together on the cheeky trails, lots of military land between Fleet and Aldershot and not far from the Surrey Hills. Alton is cheaper than Farnham and Fleet.

I live 5 miles west of salisbury. Should be around 45 mins to basingstoke, but thats not in rush hour. Bit too far imo. It is lovely round here though

I used to live in Andover, I’d go for Winchester if you’ve got the extra money.

I live in Fleet and it is not cheap. We were thinking of upsizing and the cost put us off. Easy to get to Basingstoke. Schools are highly rated although full at the moment. Alton is cheaper, although about the same size in terms on people. Avoid Aldershot and Cove.

The area to the North West of Andover (on the Hants/Wilts borders) is stunning, very rural and probably v. pricy 🙂 But worth a look.

McHamish – out of interest, how old are you? Another Testbourne reprobate here :wink:.
p.s. 2 yrs older than Mulletus up there ^

I’m 35…so it was a few years ago now…

e area to the North West of Andover (on the Hants/Wilts borders) is stunning, very rural and probably v. pricy But worth a look.

Round the Chutes? Lovely country. Not cheap, though.

You could look around Tidworth area. Straight on to the A303. Or, my pick – Grateley/Monxton sort of area. Great train station in Grateley, with lots of trains.

Too young for me to know then hamish, i left in 86 🙁

‘You could look around Tidworth area’ – yeah, you could, but i would definetely give it the swerve unless you’re in the military.

+1 for Grateley/Monxton/Quarley. My old dear is from Grateley and i spent ages wandering aroung the countryside with my Nan and Grandad there in the 70s.

I moved away in 97 when I went off to uni…never really came back as my Mum moved away while I was in my second year.

My old dear is from Grateley

Station or Village?

Round the Chutes? Lovely country. Not cheap, though.

Exactly there.

@Captain Flashheart – Village not station. I’ve done plenty of work around that way too, did my apprenticeship in Abbots Ann (another good option).

p.s. nice work agent flashheart, recommending Tidworth to the Scottish fella, that should have him heading back north pretty sharpish 😉

Tidworth does have some pretty good built DH stuff though. But I’d be riding to it, if you know what I mean 😉

I know Basingstoke is frowned upon but worth looking at Oakley which is to the extreme west of the town (before you get to Overton). An established village within riding distance of Watership Down.

Look to the SW of Basingstoke at the Candover Valley, really nice area but won’t be cheap. Also have you considered New Alresford? Just off the A31, nice town apart from town centre parking. I lived there for a while, lots of schools too. Only drawback was a round trip of 20 miles to a supermarket although there was a Tesco Express in the town.

Northern Test Valley is stunning, as mentioned above, but that will be expensive.

Alton and surrounding villages might be worth checking out, along the A31 corridor. There is some not bad riding too.

To be fair, Basingstoke is alright. No worse than any other town of that size. Town centre is pretty good now they’ve done it up, couple of big cinemas, ice rink, good and bad schools, 2 colleges, some nice parks for the kids.

Like most towns there are good and not so good parts to live, but if you cant afford somewhere pleasant in town you definetely wont be able to afford anything in the surrounding villages.

Not sure what its like at night these days as i haven’t been out there for ages, but the women must be pretty desperate, as 2 of them have married me 😉

Although i’d still rather live in Andover 🙂