Moving to Cambridgeshire?

Narj

Narj

Narj

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Joined
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I'm looking at possibly moving to Cambridgeshire given that some of my family have made the jump and really like it up there. I'd end up commuting back into London but I'm quite happy to do this for a while with a view to an end-game of finding employment more locally.

The plan is to move and end up with no mortgage with some change. The commute would be expensive but still a lot less than my current mortgage payments.

I'm looking at St Neot's right now and have spent a fair bit of time looking around. Like anywhere there are a few not so great parts but even those are still decent compared to where I'm at now. :D

Anyone fancy filling me in on the commuter experience there? Is there anywhere else I should look at? Ideally I want to be within walking distance of a mainline station and just want better QoL with more open, green space but without sacrificing too many amenities.

Cheers! :)
 
I'm not far from St Neots. The commute would be a pain, A1 is terribad at the moment. Train would be more bearable.

St Neots isn't great, it's bottom-end Cambridgeshire, barely even in Cambridgeshire to be honest. Ely is alright, and I would put Huntingdon above St Neots. The villages are where it's at if you can't afford Cambridge.
 
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What do you do for a living? Everyone I know who works in tech has moved to villages like Waterbeach because it’s the right side of Cambridge for the business/science parks.
 
Well I was thinking of spending a week up in the area in a Premier Inn or something and doing the commute into work to figure out how it is. :)

I mentioned St Neot's because that's where my family have moved to. I've read varying comments about the place but I honestly thought the town was quite nice, especially by the bridge and church. There seems to be quite a nice community feel. Having lived in SE London/NW Kent all my life, maybe I'm much more easily pleased than many!

Most of Love's Farm area seems OK if very quiet. I think I'd prefer older housing stock with character, though. There are a few other things I read about that put me off it too.

Godmanchester was mentioned to me but I worry it'll be a bit too quiet. I'm late 30's and single with no commitments so like being able to head out for food/beer. Also are the trains from Huntingdon more frequent than St Neot's services or something?

I thought that Huntingdon might be just outside the commute time threshold and pricing for me but I'll go and have a wander around and check it out. I hadn't considered it and can't remember what it was that put me off.
 
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Tunney said:
What do you do for a living? Everyone I know who works in tech has moved to villages like Waterbeach because it’s the right side of Cambridge for the business/science parks.
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Networks. There seems to be work in Cambridge and also some of the other bigger towns - it'd be nice to eventually ditch London completely...
 
I have lived in St.Neots for last 3 years moved up there from Hitchin. I drive down the A1 to Hatfield each day for work which takes about 50 mins if traffic but this depends on Stevenage traffic I do leave @6.30. I live the other side the train station the other side than loves farm. I wouldn't live in loves farm because houses to bunched in cars parked everywhere etc same new build development issues.

We originally moved to St Neots as we planned to have a family (now have 2 boys) and loved the water and open green spaces, also has a brand new Cineworld, loads of places to eat and generally a nice atmosphere. Location is great 30 mins to Milton Keynes, 16 mins to Beford and about 20 mins to Cambridgeshire.

Any questions just ask.

Lol @Rossi why does it matter if St Neots is at the bottom of Cambridgeshire doesn't make it any less part of cambs!!
 
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I honestly thought the town was quite nice, especially by the bridge and church. There seems to be quite a nice community feel.
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Lived in St Neots for about 7 years and commuted down to London for Work for the past 3 and you have encapsulated St Neots perfectly here - lovely little town, plenty of open park land, decent amount of shops, great places to eat, entertain and only 15 minutes from Cambridge

Ignore the people who are saying "Huntingdon"... Seriously... Absolute **** hole - These people must have honestly opened google maps and pointed out a town that isn't St Neots for the sake of it

Commute is bearable.. you will always get a seat with a little effort on your platform placement! Monthly season ticket to Kings Cross is £500 exactly
 
LFL said:
Lived in St Neots for about 7 years and commuted down to London for Work for the past 3 and you have encapsulated St Neots perfectly here - lovely little town, plenty of open park land, decent amount of shops, great places to eat, entertain and only 15 minutes from Cambridge

Ignore the people who are saying "Huntingdon"... Seriously... Absolute **** hole - These people must have honestly opened google maps and pointed out a town that isn't St Neots for the sake of it

Commute is bearable.. you will always get a seat with a little effort on your platform placement! Monthly season ticket to Kings Cross is £500 exactly
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Cheers for the reply - are there any areas to avoid? There's quite a lot of conflicting, not to mention outdated stuff on the web posted by various people. I could probably cycle to the station at a push but would rather be able to walk. No way am I driving to a station, wherever I end up.

Also am I right in saying that the season ticket will cover Moorgate as well? That would get me out of having to get tube on my season ticket as I can walk from there.

Any ideas how the X5 to Cambridge is in rush hour? Just trying to figure out what commute would be like if I were to get work outside of London. :)
 
Loves farm doesn't have the best reputation for various reasons... avoid Duck Lane and surrounding roads... Eaton Ford and parts of Eaton Socon are nice

Longsands and surrounding area nearest the station is probably the best bet for a commuter if its not Loves Farm (Housing is nice albeit at the most expensive end of the spectrum)

Yeah your ticket will cover Moorgate, not sure on the X5 to Cambridge but a drive even during Rush Hour to Cambridge is ok

Feel free to trust if you want any more specific detail
 
LFL said:
Loves farm doesn't have the best reputation for various reasons... avoid Duck Lane and surrounding roads... Eaton Ford and parts of Eaton Socon are nice

Longsands and surrounding area nearest the station is probably the best bet for a commuter if its not Loves Farm (Housing is nice albeit at the most expensive end of the spectrum)

Yeah your ticket will cover Moorgate, not sure on the X5 to Cambridge but a drive even during Rush Hour to Cambridge is ok

Feel free to trust if you want any more specific detail
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Cheers buddy, will do if I think of more! I have to look around Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon yet but am not sure whether I can put up with being that far from the Station.

I have family on Loves farm and it seems to vary depending on which part you're on. I've spent enough time visiting family there to suss it out but compared to what I'm used to, even the less desirable parts of the area are fine to me. :D Also heard they'd had issues with vermin because of the way the sewerage was done. But yeah I did eye up Longsands and Priory Park areas.

I need to explore the roads to the north of the town to suss those out as well.

Thanks again! :)
 
Recently moved back to this area and St Neots is hugely improved in recent years to what it was. Particularly like the Thai and the cinema is a nice bonus. Not sure it would be a great place to go courting though, I'm late 30s and have moved back here with the wife, don't think I would have done so solo.

I commute in from Sandy which is just about bearable given I do a day or (ideally) two a week at home. Moorgate is certainly covered on the overground only ticket and this was my plan when we moved as I can walk from there. About 50% of the time though I go to kings cross and pay the extra for the tube as the scrum at Finsbury Park is generally worse at peak times.

If you want true Cambridge and London convenience then I would consider Saffron Walden and surrounds (Duxford is cambs and was more convenient for both the City and Cambridge when we were there) but you have family around St Neots so that may not work. Also housing is a notch or two pricier there.

Always available for a pint and / or country walk if you want to see some of the rural bits.

P.S. do note they're planning to build 10000 homes between St Neots and Sandy plus the Oxford Cambridge rail line will come through either at sandy or nearer St Neots so all worth bearing in mind.
 
taB said:
P.S. do note they're planning to build 10000 homes between St Neots and Sandy plus the Oxford Cambridge rail line will come through either at sandy or nearer St Neots so all worth bearing in mind.
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Looks like that's a proposal with quite a few dependencies so not solid at the moment? I notice on the proposal documentation there are a few different options so that may not happen?

What's the general feeling about it if it happens? I can see it possibly making a commute busier and more of a pain on the way back.

Again, thanks for response, I'm probably going to pop up for a walk around the Longsands and Eaton Ford areas this weekend. :)
 
I live in Cambourne. I use St Neots to commute into Kings Cross so I can fill you in there. Get one of the quick trains and you're looking at 42 mins station to station, it's also not bad delays wise. Trains are busy but most days you should get a seat.

I've lived in Cambridgeshire on and off all my life, Huntingdon is a nice enough town in parts (lived there from a young age up until moving to Cambourne 3 years ago) and meets your need for a station in walking distance, would add 15 minutes to your commute though and there's nothing particularly special about it, on top of that it's a bit low rent compared to St Neots which is a truer market town (though as other posters have mentioned Loves Farm has a bit of a rep). Anywhere else (Cambridge and Peterborough aside) you're looking at a journey to get to a train station. As I said I live in Cambourne which is a nice area for young families but you'd bee looking at about 20 minutes of driving to get to St Neots station.

You could look North/East in the County. Ely is nice though expensive and some of the villages in South Cambs are lovely but with the added access issues mentioned previously. Fenland is a bit rural and isolated but house prices are significantly cheaper out that way.

Cambridge North station has just completed and I think there's talk of Northstowe being added to the line at some point so that's worth looking at.
 
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Narj said:
Looks like that's a proposal with quite a few dependencies so not solid at the moment? I notice on the proposal documentation there are a few different options so that may not happen?

What's the general feeling about it if it happens? I can see it possibly making a commute busier and more of a pain on the way back.

Again, thanks for response, I'm probably going to pop up for a walk around the Longsands and Eaton Ford areas this weekend. :)
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The land north of Sandy has been on the 5 year dev plan since the beginning. They've already dug trenches in the fields north of Sandy, expect the planning to appear soon. The railway has put Sandy as the favourite, for obvious reasons, I can't see why this wouldn't happen. The other choice was Hitchin.

On one hand, it's going to be a pain through development, but long-game should be quids in due to the amenities.

Also talk of an A1 bypass around Sandy.
 
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