Holt vs Aylsham: prices, schools and the Norwich commute

Side by side

Prices: close at the median, apart at the top

HM Land Registry recorded 85 standard sales in Holt and 118 in Aylsham in the 12 months to June 2026. The medians are £15,000 apart. About half of Holt’s sales were detached houses, and a few large ones on the older streets, £1,850,000 on Church Street and £1,165,000 on New Street, pull its mean up to £390,000 against Aylsham’s £341,000.

A detached house cost about £65,000 more in Holt, but terraced houses sold for about the same in both towns, and semis and flats were dearer in Aylsham.

Both towns have Georgian centres. Holt’s is the more uniform, because a fire on 1 May 1708 destroyed most of the medieval town in three hours and it was rebuilt in the style of the day. Aylsham’s period houses are not all expensive: four on Hungate Street, just off the Market Place, sold for between £310,000 and £355,000 in the same year. Holt is still adding new houses too, with 14 new-build sales on John Allison Avenue and Dragonfly Way registered since January 2025, and Aylsham has 550 more homes allocated in the Greater Norwich Local Plan on top of the Bure Meadows and Woodgate Farm estates.

Schools

Families paying school fees have the simplest decision. Gresham’s, founded in 1555, takes children from nursery to 18 on the edge of Holt, and living in the town lets a family use it as a day school. Its Michaelmas 2026 fees, including the VAT that has applied since January 2025, are £12,255 a term for a senior day pupil and £17,560 for a senior boarder.

The state route differs more than the ratings suggest. Aylsham High School is in the town, and Ofsted confirmed it as Good on 30 January 2024, but it stops at 16 and it is full, with 1,138 pupils on roll against a capacity of 1,025. Its infant, junior and primary schools, John of Gaunt, Bure Valley and St Michael’s, are all rated Good. Holt children go to Holt Community Primary School, confirmed as Good in July 2024, and then travel to Sheringham High School, which was rated Good in every area in June 2023 and has its own sixth form. So Holt means a bus at 11, and Aylsham means a move at 16, to Reepham High School and College or a Norwich college.

Getting around

Neither town has a station on the national network, so both depend on the road, and Aylsham is much the better placed for Norwich. It is about 25 minutes down the A140 off-peak, closer to 35 on school-run mornings. Sanders runs its 44, 44A, X40, X41 and X44 buses about twice an hour through the day; the first leaves Aylsham at 06:35 and reaches Castle Meadow at 07:09, and the last back from Norwich bus station leaves at 22:40.

Holt is 45 to 50 minutes from Norwich by road, and the direct bus, the Sanders 45 and 45A through Briston, runs only a few times a day: the 06:55 from the Market Place reaches Castle Meadow at 08:09, and the last bus home leaves Norwich at 17:35. The nearest mainline station is Sheringham, on the Bittern Line, about 15 minutes away by car. The Poppy Line heritage railway runs 5.5 miles from Sheringham to a station about a mile outside Holt. Aylsham’s heritage line, the 15-inch-gauge Bure Valley Railway, runs 9 miles to Wroxham with the Bure Valley Path alongside it for walkers and cyclists. Neither runs a commuter service.

The high streets

Holt’s centre is built around Bakers & Larners, the family department store that has traded on the Market Place since 1770 and now covers 41,000 sq ft, with a food hall, wine department and garden centre. Around it are delis, galleries and clothes shops, most of them independent. For the weekly shop there is a Budgens on Kerridge Way; the nearest large supermarkets are the Tesco in Sheringham and the Morrisons in Fakenham. Holt Country Park, a hundred acres of woodland run by the district council, is on the southern edge, and the Holt Festival has become Holt Art Projects, with events through the year from 2026.

Aylsham’s centre is where people do their errands. There is a Tesco superstore and a Budgens with the Post Office on Norwich Road, a Co-op on the Market Place, two butchers and a branch of The Book Hive. The general market trades on Mondays and Fridays, and has done in some form since at least the 13th century; Henry VIII granted the town a charter in 1519. There is no longer an ironmonger, since the old Clarke’s shop became guest rooms, so for tools the counter is Screwfix. Aylsham joined Cittaslow, the network of slow towns, in 2004, the second in Britain after Ludlow, which has since left. Blickling Hall is about a mile and a half out, and the Black Boys Hotel on the Market Place was a coaching inn.

Aylsham has two GP practices in the town, the Market Surgery at 26 Norwich Road and the Reepham and Aylsham Medical Practice at 60 Hungate Street. Holt Medical Practice is based at Kelling Hospital in High Kelling, outside the town, with branch surgeries in Blakeney and Melton Constable. Cromer Hospital, 20 to 25 minutes from Holt, has a minor injuries unit open 8am to 7.45pm every day. For A&E, both towns use the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, about 30 minutes from Aylsham and 50 from Holt.

Council tax and broadband

Aylsham’s Band D bill of £2,550.76 for 2026-27 is the highest of Broadland’s 64 parishes, £72.63 a year more than Holt’s £2,478.13. Broadband runs the other way. Thinkbroadband’s September 2026 figures show 84.39% of premises in Broadland can get full fibre, against 64.07% in North Norfolk. Neither is a town-level figure, so check the exact address on Ofcom’s broadband checker.

Plan the move

Which to choose

Choose Aylsham if anyone in the house works in Norwich, if your children will go to state schools, or if you want a supermarket and a GP you can walk to. It is the more practical town, and for most buyers it costs no more. Choose Holt if you are paying for Gresham’s, or if you are retired or work from home and will use the coast, which is about ten minutes north, most weeks. Downsizers with no school to think about should look hard at how often they will drive to Norwich; from Holt, the bus will not bring them home after an evening in the city.

How we produced this guide

Sale prices are from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, standard sales in each town for the 12 months to June 2026, the same figures used in our Holt and Aylsham guides. Population is from the 2021 Census. School details are from Ofsted reports and the Department for Education’s register, and Gresham’s fees from the school’s fees page. Council tax is from North Norfolk District Council and Broadland District Council for 2026-27. Bus times are from the timetables on bustimes.org, checked in September 2026. Drive times are typical times on the main roads. Broadband figures are from thinkbroadband. See our methodology page for source links.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Holt more expensive than Aylsham?

At the median it is only a little dearer: £335,000 against £320,000 in the 12 months to June 2026. The difference is in the larger houses, where Holt’s detached median was £435,000 against £370,000 in Aylsham.

Is Aylsham High a good school?

Ofsted confirmed it as Good on 30 January 2024. It takes pupils from 11 to 16, has no sixth form and is over its capacity. Holt’s state secondary is Sheringham High School, rated Good in June 2023, which does have a sixth form.

Can you commute to Norwich from either town?

From Aylsham, yes: about 25 minutes by car on the A140, or a Sanders bus about twice an hour. From Holt it is 45 to 50 minutes by road and the direct bus runs only a few times a day. Neither town has a mainline station.

Could you live in Aylsham and send children to Gresham’s?

Yes, if you are willing to drive; Holt is about 20 minutes away. You lose the walk to school that living in Holt gives you, but you gain the shorter run to Norwich.

Which high street is better?

Aylsham’s for the weekly routine, with a Tesco, a Co-op, two butchers and a market on Mondays and Fridays. Holt’s for browsing, with Bakers & Larners and a run of independent shops, but its only supermarket in town is a Budgens.