Where in Cambridgeshire?

[matt]

Hi,

I seem to recall noticing "Location Cambridge" against a few people's name, therefore, thought I'd take a bit of a liberty...

I'm trying to identify nice small towns or villages in the Cambridgshire area - the sorts of places where you'd be happy for your Mum to grow old.

To cut a long story short, my mother is getting on a bit and needs to make the move from her house in Lincolnshire which is also her business premises to a much smaller house. She is most likely to out-live my stepfather who is the driver, therefore, needs somewhere with local amenities.

I want to search some of the on-line property sites to see what she'll need to spend in order to make the move.

I'd welcome suggestions of places to check out.

Many thanks

Matt

 

[cambournepete]

Until you said local amenities I would have recommended Cambourne, where I live. Being near Cambridge it's expensive, but there's more than one set of sheltered flats for "older" people.

The amenities are slowly coming on stream, but it can seem to take ages sometimes. Anyway, there's a doctors, library, Morrisons, schools, community centre, active church and soon to be a vet and dentist, with further shops built and just awaiting fitting out and occupation.

My wife and I love it here.

Pete

 

[andrewm]

Matt,

That is a bit of a difficult question because Cambridgeshire is so big and I doubt if anyone here really knows all of it.

You say small town so I presume that you are ruling out Cambridge itself which if she is moving from Lincolnshire is probably a good thing because property there is quite expensive. Peterborough is a lot cheaper but still quite big city so you might want to avoid that as well.

My personal recommendation would be to take a look at St Ives. It is a reasonable sized historic market town, which probably has most of the facilities that you Mum, will want. It has a library, a Post Office (although I think that is now in one of the shops), doctors and dentist a good range of pubs and several decent eating places, a range of independent food shops, butcher, baker and a Waitrose for everything else. Oh, and a twice weekly market. Then there is a half decent bus service to Cambridge for anything else that she needs. I urge you to check it out first though because it is quite a few years since I lived there.

Both St Neots and Huntingdon are larger than St Ives and benefit from having main line rail connections. St Ives used to have a railway but it closed years ago. Although the track is still present the county council is hell bent on converting it into a mis-guided bus.

Nearer to Cambridge both Bar Hill and Cambourne are new villages that have some facilities, at least both have large supermarkets. I am sure that Pete will be along in a moment to say more about Cambourne. [edit: he beat me to it]

I don’t really know any of the towns out towards the Fens but Ely would probably be a good choice, again large enough to have the facilities and with a rail connection to Cambridge and Peterborough. Although be warned that Cambridge station is not exactly in the middle of the city. Wisbech might also worth a look. I know nothing about it except that it is significantly cheaper than anything within easy commuting distance of Cambridge and a lot nearer to Lincolnshire if your mother wants to visit friends.

Hope this is of some help. I am sure others will be along with their views soon.

Andrew

 

[Alf]

a mis-guided bus.

Presumably the driver doesn't know the area... (sorry, Andrew, just couldn't help myself ).

Cheers, Alf

 

[andrewm]

Presumably the driver doesn't know the area...

Not sure the council does either. They are planning on it running in a dedicated channel in open countryside but as soon as it hits the city it runs on (highly congested) roads like everyone else. Net advantage - Nil :twisted:

I'll stop now lest this be considered political :wink: