Employment opportunities depend what your line of work is, Chippers isn’t far from Swindon so more chance there.
Melksham & Trowbridge always strike me as being a bit small, probably larger than Frome though.

There’s lots of smaller companies scattered around the various trading estates in Chippenham, the one really big employer, Westinghouse, has been split into smaller companies, and there’s currently talk of redundancies in some areas due to lack of railway investment. It really depends so much on what it is you do and/or want to do. There’s a very successful company behind where I work that develops special techniques for inhaling various drugs. The company I work for, Woods Response, has been incredibly busy because we deal entirely with national charities doing their lotteries and raffles, RNLI, RNIB, RNID, Motability, Guide Dogs, are some of the people we work for. We have people who travel in from Swindon, Stroud, Tetbury, Cirencester, Bristol and Frome. It’s a five minute ride/fifteen minute walk for me. Waitrose are opening a store soon as well. Calne actually isn’t a bad little town, it’s much nicer in the centre since Harris’s Bacon factory went, and the Quemerford side of the town is really nice. Bremhill is a lovely little village between Calne and Chippenham.

Fascinating thread – I had no idea so many STWers lived in the area. SW Wilts is great and Frome has more Listed buildings than any other comparable size town in UK. Apparently. Personally i hope to live around Hindon – Tisbury – Donhead – Mere as and when i can finally escape the smoke and get back home to where all my family live.

Edric,

Captain B’stard I thought Frome Wheelers were the local club who are BCC

no idea who the frome wheelers are? BCC are the Black Cannon Collective (google it) amongst many other things, organisers of the cobble wobble

You don’t get festival tickets here in Shepton free so you have no chance in Frome

bummer – you definetley get free tickets in frome, they even lay on free buses to get you there, don’t how that one works out, Shepton is after all closer???

free tickets in frome

Maybe something to do with Cheese & Grain social/musical networking between organisers? I understood that the C & G were well respected in the music scene – JAI.

Funny, I went to Frome for an overnight escape this year, and it was a massive disappointment. Yes the little stream is nice though. I did like the hill of shops, and I met Oldfart and his lovely Mrs for lunch, which made up for everything 🙂

CG CountZero’s most important point is about the transport links, the further south you move the more limited the commute/job opportunities.
Chippenham / Swindon (clearly Bath is great but £££££) give you access to a wide range of work locations whilst if you choose somewhere like Frome which has many merits comuting to somewhere like Bristol would be ill advised.

C&G is a fairly big player in these parts. I didn’t think the GLasto tickets were free, I thought it was just the Sunday ones where you have to live within a certain distance.

Thank you everyone for so much local info, it’s been incredibly helpful. 🙂

Count – I absolutely take your valid point concerning equidistant of through roads and Chippenham sounds promising. However, it’s looking too expensive but Calne is a lot cheaper. Why? Is it grim? Near to Cherhill white Horse. 8)

Anna – am amazed you didn’t like Frome! Thought it would have been your kind of place. Did you not see the bakery?

Keep all the info coming. 😀

Thought it would have been your kind of place. Did you not see the bakery?

Ouch! 😉

Oh gosh. 😳 You know I didn’t mean it like that! Such interesting little shops, all very individual.

Just out of interest CG what do you do for a living? I’d love to be able to choose a part of the country to live in and then worry about a job later. If I had that luxury it would be somewhere north of Birmingham.

Edit: Calne- anonymous and totally characterless

uponthedowns – am currently unemployed and having to move to a cheaper area to raise capital, as well as finding employment. Believe me, you wouldn’t want to be in my position.

Been there and sympathise. Can’t believe I’m suggesting this but how about Old Town in Swindon? Best part of Swindon but property and cost of living still probably cheaper than where you are currently. Loads of riding on the downland just other side of the M4 without having to get in the car, good transport links. No idea about employment situation in Swindon but its got to be more promising than Calne. Good bike shop in Old Town (Red Planet). Yes there are some scary people in Swindon but lots of friendly people too and Swindonians tend to be less up themselves than the rest of Wiltshire. Actually the more I think about it the more sense it makes.

Calne isn’t a bad little town at all. I’d rather live there than Trowbridge or Melksham, although TBH Melksham isn’t really that bad. Like anywhere, there are nice parts and rather run down parts. Even a nice little town like Corsham has areas that you’d want to avoid, like Pottley. Calne has one of the top public girl’s schools, St Mary’s, which Jade Jagger went to, before she was expelled for bunking off to meet her boyfriend. I used to work in Calne, on the Portemarsh estate, and used to visit the school because we did print for them. Lots of very posh totty. Emilia Fox’s cousin went there, they’ve got a terrific theatre, so lots of stage people send their kids there. As I said, the Quemerford end is very nice, that’s on the A4 heading towards Cherhill and the White Horse, which you and I have been on top of. There’s the surrounding villages as well, like Kington Langley, Kington St Michael, Bremhill, etc. Melksham has just started a big developement involving a new marina at Semington on the Kennet and Avon where the Wilts and Berks Canal joins it, as they’re planning on bringing the W & B back through the town centre towards Chippenham, where there’s been a huge amount of dredging work carried out over the last few months between Reybridge and Pewsham Locks. I’m just looking at properties in the Gazette and Herald: there’s a 2 bed with 2 reception rooms in Devizes for £139,950, a 2 bed four storey Period cottage in Devizes for £125000, a 2 bed ground floor maisonette also in Devizes for £125000, a town cottage, 2 bed in central Chippenham for £137k, a 2 double bed terraced house in Chippenham for £135k, a staggered terraced 2 bed with allocated parking in West Chippenham, (my side), for £132,950, a gorgeous 17c Grade II listed cottage in Chippenham for £185k, but that’s probably a little above your budget, ;~)
There’s reasonably priced properties in and around Chippenham if you look, and the surrounding towns all have something to offer, Calne is within easy reach of the Downs across to Avebury, over Cherhill towards Devizes, for example. I’ve just found some more: a modern 2 bed terrace with parking in Pewsham, Chippenham for £124,950, a town centre terrace cottage 2 bed in Chippenham for £137k, another 2 bed modern terrace in Pewsham for £134,950, a single bed terrace in Pewsham for £114k, and a 2 double bed terrace with parking in Pewsham for £134,500.

I happened to be researching this very subject when this thread came up on the front page of Google. I am looking to relocate from the Isle of Wight back to civilisation and the (affordable) areas around Bath are one place under consideration.

Another option is moving back up to Scotland, where I’m from, but the missus isn’t so keen. And, truth be told, the thought of all that pishing rain vs the long, reliable summers I’ve become used to dahn sarf doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm.

I work from home but my missus’job with the local authority here is being credit-crunched. So the thinking is that that end of the M4 is kind of in the middle of everywhere, fairly prosperous and likely to be more ripe with job opportunities than it is here.

Have been considering the likes of Calne and Chippenham, but can anyone with a bit of knowledge fill me in on Saltford, Twerton, Batheaston and other Bath ‘burbs? I cycled through Saltford doing the West Country Way and thought it seemed all right, apart from having a busy road rattling through it. But what’s the real story? Only so much you can tell about a place from Google Street View.

And what happened to Cinnamon_Girl in the end? Where did she end up?

Saltford, somewhere you drive through on the way to/from Bath/Bristol.
Twerton – rough end of Bath (depending on who you speak to and whether you hail from this area or not) – property is cheaper for a reason.
Batheaston – rather nice (avoiding Elmhurst estate natch), good side of Bath for access to countryside and motorway, quick jaunt into Bath along the canal or road if you like dodging traffic. Property more expensive – for a reason…!

Calne is ok, have a friend living there who wouldn’t have chosen it if it was pants.

StefMcDef – I don’t think it’s all bad in Scotland as there’s quite an Edinburgh community on here! Isn’t it just the West Coast that gets all the rain/four seasons in one day?

I’m hoping to move to mid-Wiltshire, won’t say where cos I don’t want to frighten the natives! 😉

From my experience of looking in the Frome/Warminster/Trowbridge/Melksham/Devizes/Calne areas, there was plenty of property for sale. Much of it had been on the market for some time but, funnily enough, vendors hadn’t thought of reducing their asking price!

I didn’t consider the Bath area cos it was out of my price range.

I’m hoping to move to mid-Wiltshire, won’t say where cos I don’t want to frighten the natives!

From my experience of looking in the Frome/Warminster/Trowbridge/Melksham/Devizes/Calne areas, there was plenty of property for sale.

Everyone I know who thought about moving to Melksham has either decided against it or wishes they hadn’t moved there. Can’t put my finger on it but there’s something about the place.

c_g, remind me what the price range and requirements are?

davesmate – I guess everyone picks up on different feelings from different areas. Paradise does not exist. 🙁

Urbanhiker – silly question there! 😉 Bike storage is always the priority. 😀