Moving to Sandwich?

[auntiebertie]

We are thinking of a move to the country and wondered if any ABers live in Sandwich/Deal and could advise what it is like?

[auntiebertie]

I hasten to add we have visited all these towns but a day trip is not the same as living there (with an occasional commute to London)

[bigbadmarty]

its bread with filling inside
Subway have some good deals

[Baldric]

Used to live in Sandwich, Market town, few good pubs and eateries, not to much in the way of trouble, turns into a Village at night, everyone knows everyone. Not a lot of work in the area.
Deal, antiquated Seaside town, nice Pier, reasonable shops.
Both have Mainline stations, London 2hrs+, no High speed trains yet, unless there's a golf tournament. I like them both, only live a few miles away now.

[bigbadmarty]

auntie , sorry for the flippant response but I thought someone was going to clog up the site with lots of placename info requests :)

[auntiebertie]

Thank you Baldric. For work what would the commute to Dover be like in the morning? Marty - no just the 4 towns on our short list.!!

[Baldric]

Sandwich to Dover 12.5mls. Nearly all dual c-way, did it for years, anything from 15 - 25 mins, Deal to Dover, 10mls max, but a lot busier, especially between 0730-0900 can be quite a queue sometimes at top of Jubilee Way.

[Baldric]

Meant to add, Sandwich to Deal road and Deal to Dover road not dual c-way and not that good.

[boxtops]

Ditto to Baldric's comment, I'm local too - the Dover-Deal-Sandwich road (the old road) gets very clogged in the rush hours. The Sandwich bypass is the better option but it depends where in Dover you are going to be working. There is a train station at Dover, Deal and Sandwich, but if you need to get to London or Ashford, you sometimes have to change at Dover - but Dover does have the high speed link, just over an hour to get to St Pancras, once an hour through the day. Buses are good. Depends where you are working, but much of Dover is residents' parking on the roads, or pay and display.

[boxtops]

PS I like Deal, if it wasn't a bit isolated and further out than Dover - Sandwich tends to be a bit touristy, IMO, but it'll be quieter now, perhaps, when Pfizer pulls out. When I say touristy I mean - tiny town, windy streets, river, lots of history.

[auntiebertie]

Thank you Baldric and Boxtops - just the sort of info we were after! Worried that some places can turn a bit 'rough' at night. I liked Deal but wasn't too sure about some of the tackier shops/amusement arcade type places along the front. It definitely seemed a town of 2 halves.
Sandwich was pretty but concerned about parking unless we went for one of those new places across the river. Certainly seemed to have a wide selection of pubs! You say Pfizer is pulling out - will that cause a lot of unemployment in the area? It seemed they were putting in a new road infrastructure around Ramsgate - is that for any reason do you know?

[Baldric]

The new dual c-ways now link up from the Thanet way down to the Sandwich bypass and will be into Ramsgate soon, great improvment.

[hsdeal]

Deal is a great place to live and now has excellent commuter links with peak highspeed trains (74mins to Stratford), please view my blog: http://hsdeal.blogspot.com