Cold Ash
Village · 2,451 residents
56Good
Good · better than 2 in 10 villages
Check Local Score out of 100 · 60 is typical for the country
Each arc is a topic, coloured by its score
What’s good
- Less recorded crime than is typical: 29 per 1,000 people a year against 100
Check before you view
- Health scores 13, below the typical 60
- Food & drink scores 20, below the typical 60
The essentials
Everyday life
The area
Around Cold Ash
Map outline: Official built-up area
Is Cold Ash a good place to live?
Cold Ash scores 56/100 overall, which the scorecard rates as good — 60 is typical for the country.
It stands out for safety (90).
It scores lowest on health (13) and food & drink (20).
Scores come from official data on safety, schools, transport, prices, health, food & drink and the local environment, for Cold Ash in South East, each measured against the national average.
Summary of Cold Ash
Detached houses behind hedges, gravel drives, the odd horsebox parked on a verge — Cold Ash reads as a village built around families who've done well and stayed. There's no high street to speak of in the data, no restaurants or pubs logged here, which itself tells you something: this is a place you live rather than a place you go out in. What it has instead is space, quiet, and a level of comfort you can feel before you see a single number.
That comfort shows up in the property picture. The market here is dominated by detached freehold houses — fifteen of the twenty-eight recent sales — with a median price around £637,500, well above both the national figure and the wider West Berkshire area it sits within (Cold Ash runs about two-thirds higher than the unitary authority's typical price). A semi here sells for roughly what a detached house goes for nationally. Combined with an income decile of 10 and an affordability grade that still comes out strong, the picture is consistent: this is a place where people have equity, not mortgage stress, and the "For Sale" board on a Cold Ash street is a statement about arrival, not aspiration. Schools follow the same pattern — Cold Ash St Mark's CE Primary sits in the village itself, and Downe House, the independent school, adds a private-education anchor that fits the general air of settled affluence. With a median age approaching 44, this reads less as a young-family commuter belt and more as a village of established households, some with grown children, some with none at home at all.