budaern

My wife and I will be relocated to Southeast England in the Spring of 2010 and my company is located in Marlow. I am looking for nice areas close to shopping malls, cinemas, restaurants, etc. However, we would like the option of living in a nice neighborhood where she can stroll the baby and we can still find some sort of public transportation into London's city center. I was thinking about Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire, but I am not too sure.


All your help and advice will be appreciated

Thank you in advance!

K14

Hi

That's a lovely part of the UK to move to. There's some lovely villages nr Marlow (including Marlow) I know Cookhams very nice. The villages around there i.e. Marlow and Cookham are small. But there are bigger towns you can drive to. If you want a bigger town you might want to look at Maidenhead. I personally would avoid Slough, there are much nicer towns you can live in near there. That area is close to the M40 and M4 so you can drive into London or the train line runs (I think into Paddington).

You've got a baby so you might want to check out the schools around and that might help you decide. We had some friends who were in Windsor but weren't happy with any of the secondary schools so they've moved to Maidenhead. I think may be on the move again but I know their house in Maidenhead was lovely.

This is going to sound a bit odd but if you're buying a house I wouldn't buy one too near a river in that area. As in a river at the end of your garden. Not sure if it's sorted out now but there have been flooding problems. I know there was in Cookham which is along the river from Marlow.

Here's a link for the rail service which runs from Marlow and Cookham..

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Default.aspx

Hope that helps a bit.

budaern

Thank you very much for your insight. It gives us a place to start!

livinginreality

We used to live in Wokingham (OH's job was there)in Berkshire and that was a great place to live!Good facilities,safe,clean,nice people,and the secondary school was really really good also.Good luck!

katu

Marlow is a lovely small town with good transport links to the M40 and M4. There are many lovely villages surrounding it. Maidenhead is generally nice, has OK shopping and cinemas, although it has some dodgy areas. High Wycombe is less nice but does have cinemas, malls and sports centres. Do not move to Slough/ Colnbrook area.

There is also the Henley area nearby, again lovely place to live but more expensive than Marlow. Reading is not too far away and again has excellent shopping but dodgy areas. Again all villages are beautiful.

If you have children....Marlow is in Buckinghamshire which has the grammar school system for 11-18years old. Spaces are given if your child passes the 11+ exam. Henley is in Oxfordshire which does not have the grammar system which can be an advantage, swings and roundabouts really.

Feel free to PM me, I know the area very well :-)

katu.

katu

Just looked at your original post again....for good transport links to London by train look at; Henley, Shiplake, Wargrave, Twyford, Maidenhead, Reading, Windsor. Trains every hour at the very least.

Do you know www.rightmove.co.uk ? Well worth an hour or so browsing -)

katu.