Belles30

Hi,
Does anyone know Sudbury?Any Info would be good.My research has been online and it looks a lovely old market town .
My main concern is it safe and friendly at night.Are people welcoming to new comers?
Look forward to your feedback.
Regards.

scrubbedexpat097

We lived in a very small village outside Sudbury before we moved to Texas 24 years ago.

Sudbury was just a nice small market town then, not so sure now. Check out the local newspaper The Suffolk Free Press, it may give you an idea of how it is now. There are lots of lovely small villages in that area but one place to avoid would be Great Cornard, not got a very good reputation at all.


Hope that helps a bit

Belles30

Thanks Sugarmooma,

Will check out the newspaper and thanks for telling me about Great Cornard.I have been looking at the surrounding villages as well.
Kind Regards

scrubbedexpat097

Long Melford is about 4 miles out of Sudbury and is a nice area. You have to remember that Sudbury is just in Suffolk so lots of the surrounding areas are either in Suffolk or Essex. We lived in Borley, which is Essex and the small villages close by are Bulmer and Foxearth. When I say village I mean they have nothing except a few houses, a pub and maybe a village hall! But as Sudbury is so close with shops, doctors, etc it really doesn't matter. Also on the Essex side there is easy access to Halstead that is a nice size town with most amenities.

Englishmum

Oooh - you just reminded me of Kentwell Hall when you mentioned Long Melford. It's a beautiful part of the world. I love all the old black and white Tudor cottages in the area.

We lived in the Epping Forest area of Essex and one day my daughter went on a class trip to Kentwell Hall and raved about it so much that we went along on an Easter family trip....where her little brother pushed her into the moat lol! They do wonderful replications of Tudor life and it's lovely in the Springtime with all the lambs and daffodils. It's definitely worth visiting:

http://www.kentwell.co.uk/

http://www.kentwell.co.uk/node/2824

http://www.kentwell.co.uk/Re-Creatio...Weekend/Easter

scrubbedexpat097

We actually took part in one of their open days years and years ago! It was great fun.

Dashie

We moved from Suffolk 7 years ago - not heard of the Suffolk Free Press, maybe that's just for the Sudbury area? You can also look for the East Anglian and the Evening Star, both of those are definitely current general papers for the area. There's also the Eastern Daily Press, but we never liked that one much. The BBC news is on Look East, if you have Expat Shield or the like.

scrubbedexpat097

http://www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk/


Mind you reading the headlines would probably put anyone off moving there!

Dashie

Thanks! We were always Ipswich/Felixstowe area, so they probably didn't sell it so much there

Belles30

Thanks all for your replies,just looked up Kentwell what a beautiful place,will be on my must see list.
My OH comes from South Essex, I lived in London but I am an Aussie, we are moving back at the end of the year.Our son will be finished Year 12 then,he is having a gap year and will apply for University,hubbie will commute to London in the hope he will get a job.
I hopefully will be going to look at houses in May/June so have been researching areas in Essex/Cambridgeshire/Suffolk.Trying to narrow down,probably a village that is close to a town.I like Coggeshall,Sudbury,Hadleigh and the villages surrounding.
I looked up the free press and will check out the other ones mentioned.
Once again very much like hearing different people's experiences and advice,thanking you.
Regards.

dewdrop

we were newcomers to the uk...and rented in stowmarket, we wanted to buy a property, and even went to sudbury to have a look around, as a new persons views, it was nice, but wasnt sure it was for us..even though we looked a two houses there..we then looked at different locations around, and therefore didn't choose sudbury. We did enjoy Roys Store, which we first discovered Roys of Wrexham from Norfolk. good luck.

Belles30

Hi Dewdrop,
May I ask where you ended up choosing to live,and why did you feel Sudbury wasn't quite right for you?
Hope you don't mind me asking.
Cheers

Englishmum

If your husband plans to commute to London, perhaps another couple of places to check out are these towns:

Thaxted in Essex

http://www.thaxted.co.uk/

http://www.thaxted.co.uk/gallery

http://www.thaxted.co.uk/content/how-reach-thaxted

(The headteacher at our children's school lived in Thaxted. We also knew a family who were out in Singapore at the same time as us who returned to the UK and bought a very old cottage in Thaxted and the husband commuted to London, I knew he parked at a mainline station, can't remember which one it was though! - we went for lunch with them in a very lovely old pub there, the 'Eight Bells' in another country town, Saffron Walden:

http://www.8bells-pub.co.uk/

http://www.visitessex.com/saffron-walden/

Saffron Walden isn't as pretty as Thaxted, but it is close to the M11 London-Cambridge motorway.

My S-i-L lives in a hamlet near Great Dunmow, Essex (she worked at nearby Stansted airport) but Dunmow doesn't have the lovely old Tudor style buildings, but is worth considering as it has easy access to the M11.

Dashie

Hubby used to work in Hadleigh - it's lovely there

dewdrop

hiya belle,
we actually like St, Neots. alittle bit further away but having 3 children wanted a bit more than what sudbury had to offer us, and really like the feel of this small market town better. With that being said, house prices were crazy up there, Hubby couldn't find a good job in Suffolk, and we did try. We ended up moving to where people holiday...The English Riveria, in Devon. I love it here, and there is so much to see and do for us and the children...I think living by the seaside was a great choice for our family. So we live South West Devon. And i have family in Essex and Hertfordshire, but it was a decision we had to make. hubby has found a great job down here, so don't listen to people that say the south has NO jobs!!! there is, hubby is proof of that.
where are you living now? we came from Toronto ontario. good luck in your search there are so many lovely areas in the uk...sounds like uk is your oyster....
ok, i won't ramble on..lol