I think it was The Wurzels who coined the joke about the pub raffle. 1st prize a weeks holiday in Severn Beach, 2nd prize 2 weeks holiday in Severn Beach.
Don't know Bristol well enough to really comment, esp on the traffic, but get a map book out and I'd say anything up to Gloucester is possible in an hour dependent on traffic.

Well, I can't afford Bath…£900 for a 565 sqft apartment FFS!

I'll have a look at north Bristol, Maybe the Stoke kind of areas?

Also looking at some places in Leigh Woods – is that a nice area?

Finally – anyone got an opinion of Chipping Sodbury? It sounds like a curse of some sort, but looks all right.

Leigh Woods is lovely…but is it not crazy pricey no?

Stoke areas are ok but very out of the way if you want a bit of life. St Andrews and Bishopston are both handy. Are you looking at a one bed for yourself or are you sharing?

I'll be with my wife, so need a 2 bed, but can split the rent.

Bristol's a fantastic place to live – I moved here by choice 7 years ago from London (having previously been a student here) and love it. Basically it has the plusses of a big city without most of the minuses. Plus it's a great place to be a cyclist. Incidentally, the theft thing isn't great but isn't the major issue it's made to sound like and it's not as bad as London, say.

A few people have mentioned traffic. I think the key thing you need to understand is that it's very dependent on where you are. North Bristol (Filton) can be awful – the M4 and M5 are close and Airbus and other big companies are located up there meaning that unsuprisingly there are a lot of cars driving around there. Lots of my friends live in South Bristol (Southville, Bedminster, Totterdown) and work in the Filton area but cycle and find it fine.

Also looking at some places in Leigh Woods – is that a nice area?

If you can't afford Bath, Leigh Woods will be out of your price range as well I would have thought.

As for the Stokes,

Bradley Stoke is a OK, I lived there for years, however as you would expect from a massive housing estate it is starting to experience issues, e.g. Groups of youths smashing the place up and vandalising cars.

Stoke Gifford would be your best bet and it's right on the doorstep of Filton, has some nice green areas and a Sainsburys on the doorstep, which is nice.

Stoke Park is nice as well so I've heard, but I've no personal experience.

A few people have mentioned traffic. I think the key thing you need to understand is that it's very dependent on where you are. North Bristol (Filton) can be awful –

They've made some changes to the road layout recently, which has really helped, the only really bad traffic is generally on a rainy dark winter's nights, the whole place just comes to a standstill.

If you want Bath or surrounding, try Winkworths estate agents, 01225 829009 and ask for Simon Bush, he runs the letting side and rides mountain bikes regulary, so he'll understand about a mountain bikers needs.
Tell him Taylor sent you.

flatfish – Member
If you want Bath or surrounding, try Winkworths estate agents, 01225 829009 and ask for Simon, he runs the letting side and rides mountain bikes regulary, so he'll understand about a mountain bikers needs.
Tell him Taylor sent you.

Cheers mate, I'll keep it in mind.

I live in Dursley and you could make it to Filton in 30 mins but at rush hour it's more like 45 mins. Good riding, nice place to live and cheaper than most places in Bristol. Also there is a train from Durlsey/Cam to Filton Abbey wood and Parkway that could prove useful depending on where in Filton you will be working.

I've lived in Bradley stoke for the last 10 years, it's pretty soulless and I keep meaning to move but it's just too convenient for work (Aztec West). As midnighthour said there's a lot of rental properties around and OK facilities in terms of doctors/supermarket (as long as you like Tesco…)/schools. Commute to Filton by bike would probably be 5-10 mins.

If you like a good night life, going to clubs and restaurants etc. then I'd look a lot closer to Bristol itself (it's like £25 in a taxi from Bradley Stoke into Bristol centre).

£25 for a taxi!

I'm an adopted Yorkshireman, I cannae be paying £25 now can I?!

So to gain an idea….how long is it to walk/ride/drive from say Clifton to Filton?

For a start Clifton is going to be pricey to rent.

You've got to way up what you want really, convienience for daily grind or convienience for social life and put up with a mare of a commute???

If biking is a key thing for you look at Wales, rent maybe cheaper that may off set the bridge/travel cost plus if your on medication for anything prescriptions are free so that alone can save a packet!!

Chepstow/Usk/Abergavenny/Newport/Cardiff/Valleys area all do able under an hour so tons to look at with rural/city options too with mega biking on the doorstep 😉

He's a Northerner – there's no way he'll accept paying £5.50 a day on the bridge toll 🙂

walk – maybe 1hr 30mins, cycle – 20-25mins, drive – normally about 15-20mins, but no idea during rush hour!

You're not getting the hint about travel across the Bristol area. There are over 40,000 people employed by just 7 companies around that stretch of the ring road. There are far more than that, but I know about the 40,000 with the big 7 employers in this area. Bristol had (has?) some of the worst congestion outside London – the northern area of the ring road combined with the stretches of the M4/M5 either side of their intersection probably the worst of all – with Filton in the middle. Clifton is only just lower than Leigh Woods for affordability. It would be, however, within cycle commute distance – about a 30 min ride.
I would not be making a planned move to a job in N Bristol and planning to commute by car. I've been working just down the road from Filton for a year so I've seen a complete cycle now.

Also around in addition to TooTalls very valid comments is the Mall at Cribbs – traffic hell all autumn, but mostly thats at weekends. However they are building another big housing estate between it and Filton. There are more houses being built by UWE Frencahy at the moment and hundereds more planned when they build on the UWE student car parks (ear marked by the council to start in the next couple of years) and now they have just annonced a park and ride site to go near Parkway Station, so lots of commuters will travel there, instead of using other routes to go further into town.

The pic of Wales from Severn Beach is nice but totally misses the vast underside of the 2nd severn crossing and its approach roads. Are the clouds discharge from Avonmouth? :-p

ive a friend who cycles the 10 miles to the station at cam/dursley then train to filton. he loves it. brother in law is in the raf and has just moved to bradley stoke, cant see the attraction myself. my mother lived in cottam/redland when i was a kid, i loved it there.

forget about those fancy pants areas such as leigh woods – i second the chap who recommends severn beach – a totally overlooked jewel with rapid mass transit connections to temple meads and all points north from there – a dream of a commute up to filton – or how about southmead – pretty handy for filton – and you should be able to get a head of steam up on your commute through there as you're chased by the local youth….

or how about southmead

A great big shitty council estate

leigh woods

There's some lovely (read: expensive) houses, for sure. But IMO one of the best things about biking in Bristol is rolling back over the bridge, at dusk – and then bombing green lights all the way down into town, for a pint.

Ah, I miss it so much.

Severn Beach is close to the Severn Bridge but so is New Passage,

Everyone takes the classic low tide, black and white picture, make it grainy in PS and says it's crap. But oddly everyone still keeps coming ????

@PeteG55

That song was Aloah Severn Beach…………… play to the end and the last comment is true 😉

We lived in Abbot Leigh/ Pill on an ex farm for a while. Cheap rent, a fantastic house, fairly rural and a lively 6 mile ride along the Avon path to work. Or via Leigh Woods some days. Also easy for the M5 and South Wales.Run by a farming company and far better than any of the places we lived in town. Might have one available – there were five places there.

If I were moving to a new city to work, I'd live as close as possible to the new job. Why give yourself a 40 minute rat run twice a day? Madness.

I moved to Bristol in February I live in bedminster/ windmill hill, it's pretty sweet really close to town good pubs etc and close to good riding places, rent is reasonable I even managed to get a place with a big decked garden and room to park the car be it one bedroom and it's south facing so get lots of sun! Traffic in around town is pretty manic sometimes I attempted to drive to work which is 2 miles away one day and it took me half a hour to get there, I've never driven to work since. If I remember from my limited knowledge then Filton is up near patchway I can get to patchway in 40 mins cycle on the bmx so would be fair bit quicker on a real bicycle!

I had the same dilemma when I got a job in Filton five years ago. I wanted to be close to work but couldn't stand the traffic and didn't want to live in Bristol city centre.

I now live in Dursley: 35 to 45 minutes by car or 35 by train (Cam & Dursley to Filton/Abbey Wood) but over the last four months I've been cycling in. At a 40 mile round trip it can be a bit of a slog with a head wind but it generally takes just over an hour each way and has done wonders for my fitness. There is also some great mountain and road biking locally.

I've lived in Bristol for 20 years now and moved down without knowing much about the city. It's a great city to live in with easy access to some great countryside.

The key is whether you want to live in the countryside, in suburbia or take advantage of the city itself. Its major problem, like most cities, is traffic congestion, and North Bristol is particularly bad due to lots of large employers and UWE being based there.

If the countryside there are lots of places in South Gloucestershire that would suit such as Olveston, Alveston, Wotton-under-Edge, or Dursley.

If you fancy suburbia Bradley Stoke, Stoke Gifford, Emersons Green, Downend, Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Winterbourne would be ideal.

If you want the city experience I would suggest somewhere which is easily commutable by bike. It might be worth renting for 6 months whilst you take stock of the city and its environs and make a more permanent choice of where to live – house prices should have dropped more in that time as well. There are loads of places to rent – both flats and houses which are ideal for a young couple.

My suggestions would be Bishopston, St Andrews and Horfield which are based around Gloucester Road (has one of the highest proportions of independent retailers, great coffee shops and some good pubs), or Cotham and Redland which are between Gloucester Road and Whiteladies Road (which is great for restaurants and theme bars if that's your thing). All are quite handy for access to the trails in Leigh Woods and Ashton Court via the Suspension Bridge (15-20 minutes). There are loads of young professionals and students in these areas as well as families so there's a nice mix in the community. You could try Clifton but all the places mentioned above are easily accessible to Clifton is you want to pose at the weekend. Lots (seems its the only growth industry in Bristol) of rental agencies are based in these areas.

If you want to be a bit more cosmopolitan there's Montpelier and St Werburghs. If you want a bit more sedate try Henleaze, Westbury on Trym or Westbury Park. All are within a 20 minute cycle to Filton.

Montpelier and St Werburghs

Yes rough as hell round the climbing centre it's lock the car door when you stop at junctions territory.Only slightly up the scale from Barton Hill,or Lawrence Weston

Kingswood down the hill from Wotton-Under-Edge not the shite hole in Bristol obviously you don't know the area.

I live in the 'good' Kingswood near Wotton-Under-Edge – excellent place to live. A few of my friends cycle in to Bristol – about an hour and 20 mins.
Good riding on the doorstep too.

Only problem with any area around Bristol is the motorway system – forget it in rush hours / weekends / bank hols. But I suppose that's the same with most cities.

If you really don't want to live in Bristol, Filton is quite near Parkway, which opens up a fair few non-driving commuting options. Pretty easy if you can get a bike on the train.

Eh? Motorways are fine at the weekend, except when everyone is either heading down to SW for bank hol weekends or Glastonbury which is just the M5

Noteeth: Every one of your posts oozes homesickness. When is the prodigal whatsit returning to the old county then? Sounds like an excuse for a massive STW SouthWest knees up. Can we afford to hire The Wurzels?

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread, it became our bible when we were looking for places to live.

We’ll be moving down there in a week or so.

Thanks again. Places to ride are next on the agenda!

Where did you pick in the end?

Hinton, 9 miles west of Filton and 7 miles north of Bath.

The house/car insurance quotes + the overwhelming student population ruled out the city centre for us and Bradley Stoke type area was…a litle soulless if I’m honest.

We did look all over though.

Winterbourne,
Wyke,
Almondsbury,
Thornbury,
Clifton,
Redland,
Hotwells,
Bishopton,
The stokes,
Iron Acton (almost)
Bath (almost)

Hinton was just quiet and lovely with clean air.