Spec me a nice area to live, near Crawley

Welshy · 25 Jun 2009 at 00:17

So, I've gone and got myself a job down in Crawley, starting in September (yay for me

).

The thing is, I live up in Bedfordshire and have no idea about the West Sussex/Surrey area. I've got a couple of months to find a nice place to live, so hoped that the few of you who live in that area may be able to provide me with your opinions - where's cheap/expensive, nice/rough, which roads tend to turn into carparks in rush hour, etc.

There are three things to bear in mind though.
1. Has to be within commutable distance to Crawley (for obvious reasons).
2. Ideally situated so that it won't take a day to travel back up to Bedford/Milton Keynes.
3. Ideally near to or within a town, as I'm pretty fed up with living out in a tiny village where I am now

The obvious and simplest choice would be to live in Crawley itself, but I've heard it's not that nice a town, or is it?

Welshy · 25 Jun 2009 at 00:54

Stretch said:
Tumbleweed

I can't say I'm expecting everybody to know the area, but thanks for your input :rolleyes:

jidh007: Horsham sounds like a possibility then, thanks for that. Is all of Crawley a dump then? Usually there's a good part somewhere in large towns!

Welshy · 25 Jun 2009 at 14:19

Morba said:
Pound hill, maidenbower and worth are all ok in crawley. Nightmare for rush hour though. Where will you be working?

I'll be working at Thales, in the industrial estate on Manor Royal.

So those places are the nice end of Crawley?

Welshy · 27 Jun 2009 at 12:26

Well, my plans have now changed somewhat. The misses is pretty much refusing to move much further than Woking, as it's nearer to home

So, this means an hours commute for me, weyhey!...

SO, what's the Woking/Guildford area like? Any nice villages/towns around there?...

Edit: Appreciating the input though guys, thanks

Welshy · 28 Jun 2009 at 14:55

Hate said:
Commuting from Woking to Gatwick by car will be VERY painful, seeing as you'll be going round the M25 and down the M23!

I know this, I have told her this, but she doesn't quite seem to grasp the concept. She just doesn't want to move too far from family and friends, even if it means I have to do an enormous and painful commute twice a day :rolleyes:

I'll carry on trying to persuade her, will hopefully get somewhere!

Welshy · 29 Jun 2009 at 01:15

Morba said:
Oh, Welshy, i used to do M23 and M25 from gatwick to staines daily (and return), its a horrible drive. Back roads do nothing to speed things up.

I was hoping backroads might be able to allow me to bypass the rush hour traffic on the motorways

Yeah I also understand what you mean by the distance thing, 20 minutes farther from home won't make much difference to her, but if it's 20 minutes extra on top of my commute then it will make a massive difference...

I'm looking at maybe Redhill/Reigate as a compromise - Gives me a 30 minute ish commute, and her an extra 15 minute drive home.

I'm sure I'll keep you all updated, wanting more local informations