Horsham Forum - A Community Forum for Horsham and Southwater Residents and Businesses / Horsham Chat / Horsham Chat / What is Horsham like to live in - please help / Latest Posts

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Leaders — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:53:01 GMT

Hi,

I'm replying to your question on both a business and personal level. I have lived in the Horsham area for almost 6 years and love it! It's a town with a lot of character, is clean and tidy and extremely well managed. As a member of the Horsham Traders Guild I see the amount of effort that is put into the general runnning of the town centre and the initiatives put in place to ensure that Horsham is indeed, as per the Channel 4 documentary, at least the 2nd best place in the UK to live! As a Horsham resident you really are spoilt for choice in terms of facilities. With leisure centres in both Horsham and Broadbridge Heath, a theatre/cinema, 2 mainline stations, good schools, great shopping, including DIY stores and several supermarkets, easy access to the coast and Gatwick Airport just 15 minutes drive away. Wherever you are in Horsham you are always within a short distance of beautiful open countryside with a Nature Reserve, woodland walks and the North and South Downs to enjoy.

As Branch Manager of Leaders The Rental Agents in Horsham, I have seen pretty much all the areas of the town. There are lots of nice modern developments within easy reach of commuter links, schools and other local amenities. In some of the residential roads closer to the town centre there are older style/period properties if that is what you prefer.

My recommendation to you would be to rent for six months while you get aquainted with the area before you make the decision to buy. I would be more than happy to discuss this option with you. Feel free to contact me on 01403 217585. Kathy

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:39:49 GMT

We moved to Horsham in December 1995, haven't looked back!

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

JLC — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 19:09:50 GMT

[quote][b]Paul D (21/04/2007)[/b][hr]I moved from Penge SE20, back in 1999, just as house prices started to ‘take off.[/quote]

Small world!

I originate from South Norwood, SE25 and worked in Penge for a number years! We moved to Southwater in 2003 from Selsdon - best thing we've ever done, but we still have family and friends living in and around SE20, SE25 and Croydon.

:cool::cool:

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:33:41 GMT

What a shameless plug - and when you have found your takeaway you can browse Hidden Horsham whilst you await the delivery :D

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

its your menu — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:07:54 GMT

Horsham is a great family town , it is also idealy situated for going up town ( london ) or brighton . once you move in you might like to try our take away or home delivery restuarants we have loads in horsham and you can find them listed - with thier full menus on my website

www.itsyourmenu.com

hope you enjoy horsham as much as myself and my family

tony

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Jali — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:06:22 GMT

Hello Ian

I moved back to Horsham a couple of years ago from Brighton as my daughter was approaching secondary school and the choice in Brighton was not great, Im glad we did as she now goes to a great secondary school here and is able to go out with her friends without me worrying too much like i would have in Brighton - in fact i would have had to chaperone her everywhere down there. Its great for kids with regards to schools and freedom but if im honest a little quiet for us parents but we have Brighton, Guildford and London all within an hours reach plus Horsham has some nice pubs and restaurants.

Hope this helps - Mandy

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Fri, 04 May 2007 20:43:25 GMT

Hi Ian, have decided to join us yet?

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Paul D — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:10:18 GMT

Hi Ian,

I see you’ve had a lot of response to your posting. I moved from Penge SE20, back in 1999, just as house prices started to ‘take off.’ My wife comes from Southwater; we decided to move to Horsham or near it. Because I made a lot of friends down here. We felt we spend more time here than in London. To be honest, my wife thought London to be a dump, with crime taking over everything. We had our car broken into three times and an attempted burglary. When the Police started putting up appeal notices for assistance to various murders and robberies we said enough was enough. I actually come from London; I still have family and friends there. But we decided we want to start a family and there was no way you can bring kids up there. We now have a 4 year old and 1 ½ year old boys. Horsham has a lot young families and good facilities for them; the playground in Horsham Park is brilliant.

We live in Broadbridge Heath, which is very close to Horsham town. We struggled to find a decent size house with a good garden. A lot of houses in Horsham are built in the 70’s, which can be small. But paying a little extra you can get very good Victorian house. I’m not sure what the difference in price is now, but in 1999 it was £10,000.

Horsham has some very good independent shops, which is rare in this chain-store age. The people are very friendly and relaxed. They have a regular live performance in the bandstand of the Carfax every Saturday. I hope you find what you’re looking for, you cannot go wrong with Horsham.

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

IanHislam — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:46:23 GMT

Thank you for all these comments, to be honest I had ruled out Southwater due to commuter issues (i need to be able to make a train station on foot), but maybe i will investigate further.

For those in the know regarding Horsham town centre, i have noticed a few properties very well priced just east of the town centre (Bethune Road, Eversfield Road, etc). If anyone can tell me about this area of town I would be very grateful.

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

DotNetWebs — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 07:43:49 GMT

Hi JLC

Thank you for registering and sharing your thoughts on living in Southwater. Welcome to the forums.

I am also very happy living in Southwater. I can understand that some people might feel a little uneasy by the groups of youths that sometimes gather in the village centre but I personally have never felt threatened or intimidated by them. As you say, the situation in Southwater is FAR less of a problem than in many other towns. I think this does highlight the fact that there is not much to do in Southwater for teenagers.

Regards

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

JLC — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 08:05:30 GMT

Hi Ian

Coincidentally, we moved from Croydon nearly four years ago to Southwater and it was the best thing we've ever done and we've never looked back :) I have two boys, now 14 and 11 and they love it. It's only a 5 minute drive into Horsham from the village. We didn't want to live directly in another town and Southwater seemed to suit all our needs.

We're half an hour from the coast, the Country Park is fantastic, whatever the weather and then there's the Downs Link for bike riding or walking :cool: The local shopping centre has just been redeveloped and is a more pleasant experience. If you're into sports you've got the local football teams (children and adults) or the cricket team. Sporting facilities are available at the Village Centre, Christ's Hospital or The Pavilions in Horsham. You have a choice of two village schools, either Castlewood (where my lads were) or Southwater.

Commuting couldn't be easier from either Christ's Hospital or Horsham stations. My husband still works in Croydon, but we have friends who work in London and it's usually problem-free travelling.

In our experience, the village is relatively safe, although I have to be honest and say there is an issue with youths hanging about in the evenings around the local shops or the Village Centre (more so when the lighter nights are here). However, it's the usual case of no facilities to keep 13-17 year olds amused. The local papers (and some of the older, local residents) portray this as a serious problem, but believe me it's nothing compared to Croydon.

By the way, I had to go back to Croydon last week and couldn't believe how much it had changed - not in a good way either. It's tatty, dirty and the majority of people were intimidating. You're definitely doing the right thing by moving out, so good luck!

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:26:17 GMT

You need to park and see the town on foot as the planners intended. You could come in by train and walk the short distance to town. You can take in some of the oldest and newest buildings en route. The ring road is just for keeping traffic out of the town centre. It carved its way through some heritage but that was before we got here. If you look for the aerial photos on Hidden Horsham you can see the work in progress in 1974

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

DotNetWebs — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:39:15 GMT

Hi Ian

For maps have you had a look at visithorsham.co.uk which many members of this forum have contributed to:

Virtual Horsham Map (give this one a few seconds to load the first time you view it)

Horsham Town Centre Map

Regards

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

IanHislam — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:02:53 GMT

Thank you. We drove through very briefly, but we must have missed most of the town. Seems to be one main road that takes you past the shopping and the industrial park and then up to the station, very hard to see anything else, we need a map!

Was not impressed by Littlehaven, seemed to be one big council estate?

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:58:06 GMT

And Ian, you should know that none of the 'repliers' are estate agents or builders or local councillors with a vested interest.

As I write I can hear the church bells ringing out - they practice every Tuesday evening.

You should visit one weekend or evening to see the town....

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Dancemix — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:36:36 GMT

Ian, I moved from Redhill to Horsham about 21 years ago, and I have not regretted a single moment. It's a great place to bring up a young family with lots to keep all amused and healthy. I would encourage you to do the same, you will not regret it.:)

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:47:37 GMT

There will always be an element of 'bad behaviour' and the papers love to report it. How about getting copies of the West Sussex County Times for the next few weeks? In general I think you will be hard pressed to find a better town!

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

IanHislam — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 12:00:06 GMT

Thank you, I read about the youths who crashed a car near Littlehaven station, is this indicative of Littlehaven or a very isolated incident?

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:41:31 GMT

Billingshurst is a good little village with a community spirit of its own, as DNW says, see the forum. Its Weald School has good reputation. Littlehaven is a corner of Horsham, as is Roffey. With Horsham you have a choice of two routes into London, not so with Littlehaven Halt.

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

DotNetWebs — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:57:22 GMT

Hi Ian

Billingshurst have their own forum and may be in a better position to answer your question:

http://www.billingshurst-community.org.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

Regards

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

IanHislam — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:34:25 GMT

Thanks again folks. What about the surrounding areas? Billingshurst? Faygate? Littlehaven?

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

DotNetWebs — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:30:48 GMT

As M says the trolleys etc. aren't really a problem.

Regarding House prices the BBC website has a page monitoring House Price Trends:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/counties/html/county101.stm

I would guess the slight (2%) fall this quarter is the recent interest rates starting to bite. That 2% fall is the average for West Sussex but Horsham rose 9.3% over the last year which is slightly higher than the county average.

Crawley incidentally was UP 6.3% this quarter so is closing the gap on Horsham.

Regards

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:32:49 GMT

A budget of 300K should see you with a good property. Will you need to park outside? There can be daytime restrictions if you don't have a drive or garage.

There are a few cycleways around for recreation and commuting if you like that!

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:30:40 GMT

The trolleys are not so much of a problem. Phone Sainsburys and they pick them up immediately - and the anti-theft brakes are coming soon.

Being a commuter town you will pay a premium for living nearer to the station. The station is pretty central and you have Littlehaven and Christ's Hospital stations too.

The shops include most of the high street regulars and a few independants and it is all pedestrianised or speed restricted.

In terms of adult socialising there is a wealth to chose from and a theatre with three cinema screens

My son's comments: I have lived in Horsham all my life. When I was 4 I went to a primary school which is brilliant and off to Tanbridge in September - also a brilliant school. I live in a very friendly neighbourhood with friends nearby. Good facilities near to the house such as two parks, basketball / football court and a grass field. We have a 10 minute walk into town and the Cricketfields are good for sledging when it snows

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

IanHislam — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:39:56 GMT

Thank you for the responses so far. Our budget is about 300k. Are there better areas than others? Also I ideally need to be walking distance to a train station that gets me to clapham junction. Fussy I know!

I read about the trolleys and di think 'here we go again', though unless your budget is 600k I guess everywhere has its problems.

I also read that property prices are actually falling, which is a tad worrying, can anyone expand on that? One assumes that Horsham would not be so high on the C4 list if there was a financial risk.

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

taxman — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:46:42 GMT

Ian

My wife and I moved to Horsham in 2002 having checked out various options in East And West Sussex. Horsham was head and shoulders above all the other locations we looked at. Good travel links to the M23/M25 and the coast. Close to Gatwick airport and good train connections to London. Schools (as far as I know) all perform well and the town is a lovely town to stroll around any time of year. I have not encountered any anti social behaviour since moving here and would have no hesitation in recommending Horsham as a place to bring up a family.

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:35:01 GMT

Hello Ian, welcome to Horsham. We moved here 11 years ago and we love it - to the extent that I run a web site about it, see link below.

Our son was born here and is about to go to a secondary school now. Most areas are good, depends on your budget. Even the 'poorer' areas have been brought up by new housing. We have a few trolley removed from Sainsburys left about the town but that will be stopped soon with one of these new regional braking systems. There will always be youths about but we don't have any trouble. A very good skate / BMX park keeps them occupied. Three good schools - Tanbridge is mixed, Forest is boys and Millais is girls. Also a specialist school for disabled children - Queen Elizabeth II. Lots of primary schools all with good reputations.

Move here, you won't regret it!

RE: What is Horsham like to live in - please help

DotNetWebs — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:33:31 GMT

Hi Ian

Thank you for registering and welcome to the forums. I actually live in Southwater but I spend most my business and leisure time in Horsham.

I personally think Horsham is a great place to live. If I had any criticism at all it would be that it is a little bit too quiet. I feel very comfortable walking around Horsham Town centre late at night.

I have to go now I will post a bit more later if you don't get any other replies in between

Regards

What is Horsham like to live in - please help

IanHislam — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:24:23 GMT

Me, my wife and our 2 year old son are soon to make the most important move of our lives, and it is very scary looking at places we know very little about. Horsham is near the very top of my list, as I can get to work easily (London), and the area appeared very high in a recent Channel Four list.

My ideal area (sadly money isn't endless) is somewhere with as little anti-social behaviour as possible, pleasant people, a family place, and most importantly good schools for my boy.

We currently live in Croydon and I am sick and tired of having to walk past yobs, gangs and general anti-social behaviour every single day.

If there are any other families reading this or who also moved to Horsham for similar reasons, please do respond to this, I would be ever so grateful.

Is Horsham a lovely, tranquil place to live? Are youngsters aged 5-25 generally well behaved? Is crime high or low? Are schools good?

Really hoping for some feedback here. No-one I know knows the are and Google is useless!