A Few More Questions About Mildenhall

There are schools on base and off base. It is personal choice on which you pick. Our son was going to Busy Bees Montessori Nursery School (British) and going to Lakenheath Elementary School. Some of it depends on where you would end up living. The farther away from the bases you would need to use British school, closer the base schools (unless you want British). There are waiting list for both British and bases schools for some ages.
There is a gym at Lakenheath base that is new and nice. There are 2 gyms at Mildenhall, North gym is closer to where everything is (ie BXtra, Post office, theater) and a new gym on the other side of the base with all new equipment and a few raquetball courts, there are lighted tennis ball courts at Lakenheath and both bases have new out side tracks.
The only 110 outlets are in base housing off base housing you would have to use a transformer. You would be given a few of them if you came here as part of moving.
When we decided that we really did want to live on base it was several month (i don't remember exactly how many) but the housing office has a standard saying that it would take a year. It depends on the # of bed rooms that you would need, and they only assign for how many kids you have, so no extra bed rooms for offices or anything. There are several different floor plans for the housing on Mildenhall and each has a different sq footage. There are a few different floor plans for Lakenheath but they are a nice size. The best thing for looking for neighboring cities is to get a map and look at the housing websites that you were given before. Decide how long (time wise) you would or would not like to travel to and from base. (Littleport was only 13 miles from the base but it took 25 to 30 min to drive from the house to the base one way) Again it would have to be personal choice. Some places do not have a local park or playground and what there is is small, and the yard depends on the house, some have good yards and some don't.
As a side note you probably order most of your fabric, that would be good. The base BX is getting rid of most of its fabric and what there is you would have to use your imagination on what to use it for. There are some places that sell fabric (most in the larger cities) but you have to keep in mind that it is 2 dollars to every 1 pound and some fabrics start at 6 pounds (12 dollars) per meter (they measure fabric in meters and not yards).
I hope this wasn't too long and that it helped.

Hello,

Local areas near Mildenhall are:

Beck Row
West Row
Mildenhall Vllage
Worlington
Lakenheath Village
Barton Mills
Red Lodge
Fordham (a little furthur)
Ely (about 25 minutes)
Littleport ( about 20 minutes)
Downham Market (about 25-30 minutes)
Kings Lynn (about 25-30 minutes)

If you look on www.rightmove.co.uk you can put in Mildenhall and search radius 15 miles. You will be able to see any rentals that are in those local cities.

Base housing has 110 outlets and 220. Even the off base-base housing has 110/220 outlets. I do know for a fact, that at the moment there is a hold on base housing because there are new builds coming up and they are moving people from the old to the new. Now with you all being at an overseas location at the moment it may give you priority for housing. For all your electronics, you will receive transformers from FMO. These aren't the greatest looking things. They are big blue or black boxes. They aren't the quietest neither. But they do make do.

I do not know much about RAF Mildenhall, but all the leisure centers/sports centers have raquetball. I do know that RAF Lakenheath has tennis courts. Lighted, I don't know.

There are off preschools that your child can go to. When your child turns 3, she can go Monday thru Friday, either morning session or afternoon session. The CDC on base has the Enrichment Program for 3-4 year olds, but good luck getting into that. There is a Sure Start program on Lakenheath. Depending on your rank and any special needs they have a waiting list. It's kind of hard to get into that too. If there are no special needs or a single child.

This isn't an easy PCS. It can definitely be costly moving here. Most of it is re-imbursed, but the initial is costly.

Hope all the info helps. Good luck with the decision.

Hello. We were stationed at Mildenhall from 2004-2007. The pre-schools off-base are good but in british pounds which equals expensive. There are several Mom-Tots groups on Mildenhall and Lakenheath(5 miles away). They have housing all over the place. If you are on-base you will have 110 outlets but if you live in the surrounding community you will have to use transformers to convert the power. FMO will give you 3 and you can find anyone that is PCSing and get more transformers that way too. Also, the BX has some transformers too. The houses on and off base are reasonable size, but if you have big and bulky furniture you might want to sell if and get some smaller stuff. I hope that this helps. Just remember that you will be driving on the left side of the road there and you can ship one american car at the AFs expense and you also pay to ship another. Which if you have a good car it is cheeper that selling you car and buying one there. Also, gas is sold by the liter. P. McElroy

Hello,
I actually live on Mildenhall base and honestly we got our house in less than 24 hours of being put on the list. You see everyone wants the new Lakenheath housing so it's much easier to get housing in the other areas. THere are also both on and off base preschools and the British government allows you so many free hours of preschool, because you are a leave to remain resident. There is Busy Bees (which is WONDERFUL) and I think there's one in Lakenheath village as well. I know that at Busy Bees they have swim lessons, ballet and they have animals and everything there. All the base houses have both 110 and 220 outlets. They have a brand new gym here on Mildenhall and an almost new gym on Lakenheath. There are raquetball courts and tennis courts, but I'm not sure if the tennis courts are lighted. The houses on Mildenhall and Feltwell are very big, and are the nicest, aside from the new ones. The neighboring cities are Thetford, Brandon, Bury St, Edmunds, Lakenheath, and Mildenhall. They also have base housing that is off base. If that makes sense. As far as travel it is fairly cheap to fly to main land Europe, and they actually is quite a bit to do, if you make the effort to get out there and do it. It is definately an adventure. Let me know if you need any more info and I hope that I've been helpful.

Good Luck and God Bless.