The Commuter Guide - Local information on house prices, property value and commuter access

HEADCORN is very popular with commuters, not least for its large station car park. It has an excellent shopping centre, which includes a Sainsbury’s Local, butchers, bakers, a hardware store, haberdashery, factory outlet shop and a post office, bank and restaurants. Other assets include a primary school, a monthly farmers’ market, village green, a flower farm and vineyard, an aerodrome and the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum. Well-heeled commuters pay over £450,000 for a detached house and good-sized garden on a smart modern development. Medieval timber-frame cottages are silent reminders of the past. A timber-framed farmhouse or barn conversion with swimming pool might cost £925,000 to over £1.9m. Within the village itself, a period four-bedroom house will fetch around £495,000. A three-bedroom detached house right in the centre will cost £250,000.

Smarden, three miles to the east, is a beautiful well-kept village with listed cottages grouped around a 14th–15th-century church. There is a primary school, a post office, a butcher and an art gallery. The mobile library calls once a week. The village teems with activities including a cricket club and gardening club. It tends to be popular with families. Large, family-sized period properties with perhaps two acres will cost from £600,000 upwards. A Grade Two listed three-bedroom cottage will cost £280,000; a two-up-two-down semi, £175,000.

Biddenden, three miles south of Headcorn, is favoured because of its proximity to Tenterden, a stylish Wealden town that has become something of a local antiques centre. It has a newsagent, butcher, pub and hairdresser. This is where you find Kent’s oldest commercial vineyard and can buy locally made ciders, wines and apple juices. An 18-hole international golf course, Chart Hills, designed by Nick Faldo, is nearby. A three-bedroom end-of-terrace house could cost £190,000; a four-bedroom detached house with paddock, £550,000 or more.