The Cambridgeshire village of Great Stukeley, which is where the former Conservative Prime Minister John Major lives, is an excellent village to commute from, whether it be to the north, south, east or west. ‘It’s a semi-rural village and a first-class place to live for commuters, with really amazing communications,’ says Roger Stoneman of Peter Lane & Partners. ‘It takes three minutes to reach the A14, which gets you west and east, and five minutes to the A1.
The train station at Huntingdon is within walking distance or five minutes by car.’ The village has a mixture of period properties, a selection of pre-and post-Second World War houses, and the odd infill of new properties. ‘These houses, priced from £450,000 to £500,000, have created good interest from families wanting to move to the area.
Huntingdon is expanding all the time,’ says Mr Stoneman. Within the village, there’s a church, a small post office run from a private house, a pub called the Three Horseshoes, the rather smart Stukeleys Country Hotel and a village hall. ‘At the moment, the market is still very slow,’ says Mr Stoneman. ‘However, there are a number of very competitively priced properties available, and I believe, in our area at least, that prices have probably found a level and may not drop any more.’
A two-bedroom cottage costs about £180,000, a four-bedroom house could be bought for £300,000, and a period four/five-bedroom house ranges from £600,000 to just under £1 million.
Travelling time: 15 minutes’ walk or five minutes by car to Huntingdon station, from which the fast train takes 55 minutes to reach London King’s Cross
Schools: St Peter’s in Huntingdon and Hinchingbrooke in Hinching- brooke Park are good secondary schools; there’s a nice primary in Stukeley Meadows and a pre-prep in Little Stukeley; and Oundle is a public school near Peterborough
Shopping: In Huntingdon, there’s a Sainsbury’s, a Marks & Spencer, a local market and farmer’s market and a great butcher, Measures. For more extensive shopping, go to Cambridge or Peterborough
Eating and drinking: The Old Bridge Hotel in Huntingdon is a historic building with inter-national cuisine; and Stukeleys Country Hotel in Great Stukeley dates back to the 16th century and has homemade British food
Attractions: Huntingdon, where Oliver Cromwell was born, has the Cromwell Museum; Hamerton Zoo, near Sawtry; Kimbolton Castle; Houghton Mill, the last working watermill on the Great Ouse; and the Nene Valley Railway, home of Thomas the Tank Engine
Pros Its accessibility to Huntingdon and other major road links
Cons: Not many facilities the village shop is now a private house
