Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello,
We are looking to move to NH. Need to be less then an hour drive to Manchester Airport. We would like 5+ acres and have 2 elementary age children so good schools important. It would be nice to be within a short distance to ski area as we all do ski. It does seem like a town with a quaint town/main st is hard to come by in NH especially close to Manchester. I am an artist and would love a art influenced town close by (30 minutes maybe).
My daughter is into gymnastics/ballet and son mtn biking/hockey/soccer. Skiing for all of us of course.
There is a home in Epsom that has caught my eye so curious about that area. Suppose Concord would be where we go to for activities.
Also Hopkinton looks interesting.
A concern I have is looking through the city data for Epsom and the number of rapes was quite high for 2010. Anyone know what was going on with that?
I live just next town north of epsom. Basically it has two key roads - RT 28 (north and south) and RT 4 (east west from concord to the sea coast). All the rest of town is sort of side roads coming off those roads.
easy 10 - 15 miles to big mall with walmart, sears, home depot, etc. on 28 east. So location wise, nice place to be. New Library building. Don't know about the schools..... or the crime rate.
certainly a working class town without any main businesses, (lots of Wendy's, gas stations, etc. about on 28 and 4.
suncrook river runs through town. Not much assess. River jumped course a few years back, still all sorts of property and damage issues remaining. Lots of folks want the state to restore river back to old channel but will not happen, too expensive.
I used to live in Epsom years ago. I still have family and friends who live there. I really enjoyed living there when i did and never had any problems of any kind. The location is good as far as having straight shots out of town to Concord,Portsmouth,Manchester. There are some nice rural areas around there. The area on the Deerfield side of town is nice. Up towards Fort mtn is also a nice area. I personally don't know about the crime in the area as it's been a while since i lived there. There wasen't a lot of crime when i lived there and i don't hear my family of friends mention it now. I have family and friends that have had children that went through the Epsom schools and they are doing great. I actually looked at a nice little house down there yesterday. Overall i would say it is a nice area.
Last edited by Ken E; 12-30-2011 at 02:34 PM..
Reason: speling
Thank you Pauloman and Ken. I appreciate your feedback. We need to get into the schools and look. I do love that it is so rural yet so close to Concord.
Thanks again and Happy New Year to you and yours!
Hopkinton schools have a very good reputation, and since you mention skiing, Pat's Peak Ski Area is just up the highway in nearby Henniker. Hopkinton is so close to Concord (literally, just a couple of minutes to downtown) with plenty of art influences nearby. The League of NH Craftsmen has a beautiful new Gallery & Craft center right in downtown Concord (there are several galleries in many towns of NH, from Nashua to Littleton. Check nhcrafts.org for more info. Hopkinton's beautiful new library & Senior Center offer many activities, and while Hopkinton is close to Concord, it is decidedly rural in nature. Most propeties are well over 1 acre. It's also home to the Hopkinton State Fair too--97 years of Labor Day Weekend fun IMO, Hopkinton is definitely worth taking a look at.
regarding Valerie C's post above. We also looked at the Henniker area too before moving to pittsfield. Henniker is about the same distance west of concord that epsom is on the east side. All the malls/shopping in concord is on the east side of town...
West side of concord seems to get more snow than the east side. Henniker area is a bit more rural and 'outside of the loop' of bigger cities etc. but probably a more pretty, albeit isolated, area than epsom.
I am not familiar with that side of NH, but you may want to check out the towns of Bedford, Amherst, and Hollis which are south/southwest of Manchester. 20 - 30 minutes to the airport (easier now with the new ramp from the turnpike). The schools are well regarded. Each town has a nice center. We ski at Crotched Mountain in Francestown which is 30 minutes from our house. My daughter was on the high school ski team for 4 years and that was the home mountain.
My youngest daughter is on the high school gymnastics team. Check out "Gymnastics Village" (gymnasticsvillage.com). There is an excellent ballet school in Bedford, NH. A friend's daughter is in college for ballet and went there.
Hockey is big around here. From the youth leagues to high school to college (UNH). There is some good mountain biking locally at Mine Falls Park in Nashua and Bear Brook state park near Manchester. Even better up north in the White Mountains.
Bear Brook state park is just a hop, skip and a jump from Epsom. It's a very nice area with good fishing, camping and swimming. There are a couple of 4-H camps there.
Concord is a very nice small city and will have everything you are looking for in the OP. Epsom is a nice rural town. I don't know why the rape numbers are so high. You have to consider that the majority of rapists are never caught - so you really can't go by statistics. Also, check whether the lists cover all rapes or only the rapes of minors. Things may have changed, but at one time the only NH registered offenders were pedophiles. All of the states count the numbers differently.
For example - a rapist that has only raped people over the age of majority may not make the list. You could move into a town with a very low number of registered sex offenders, but that doesn't mean you are free and clear. It just means the guy wasn't required to be registered.
With that being said - NH is the lowest crime state in the nation. More than likely, you will never have one second of trouble.
Epsom is fine. I prefer the area near Northwood Lake and rural areas north of 4. The tax rate there has really gone up over the past few years. If you want a town with a lower tax rate Alton is about 30-35 minutes northeast of Concord.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
IMO, Hopkinton is definitely worth taking a look at.
