Hi,

Have been looking at moving towards the West Country and likely work options are going to mean at least one of us will need to get to Bristol to work. We are likely to be moving from the south east, but don’t know surrounding areas that well.

We would ideally like to be in a village, but want the impossible:

Short train commute to Bristol
If possible local nurseries
Good schools
Close to trails (my selfish criteria, but happy to go to Welsh trails)
Good pub

Any recommendations very welcome.

Nailsea?

My Uncle lives there, and my grandparents lived there for many years before that. Probably more of a town than a village these days, but seems to have decent facilities, including a new school only a couple of years old.

Look around the Nailsea area.
Train takes about 10 minutes to temple meads or sustrans route all the way into town.
Couple of good nurseries around.

Yatton is quite a pleasant little village.

It has the sustrans that takes you to Cheddar on to the Mendips.

Another vote for Nailsea/Backwell. Sustrans route to city, train station, right side of the city for Ashton Court/Leigh Woods or Mendips, 10 mins from the M5, good schools/nurseries, reasonable choice of pubs of varying taste/style. Small town rarther than village, so does have selection of shops, post office, couple of supermarkets, but still small enough you walk in to ‘town’ on a saturday morning and bump in to people you know (once you have a circle of friends, which young children in nursery/school helps facilitate). I’m happy here 🙂

Corston, Newton St Loe, Kelston, all between Bath and Bristol, with easy access to the Sustrans Bath-Bristol Cycle Path.

I lived in Clevedon for a few years, lovely place. Wish I could go back there. No train station but loads of really good cheeky woodland singletrack trails 3 mins ride from the doorstep and a good bunch of local riders to guide you round them 🙂

Thank you all for the tips. I will have a look online.

I need to spend a day driving round the area and we may well rent before buying.

What do you find so attractive about villages?
The right suburb could be your answer. Some parts of Bristol are quite villagey in feel in spite of being very urban. You meet the same people, get known in the local shope, take kids to the local school. Places to investigate include W-o-T and Southville / Ashton.

Thanks. Don’t have anything particular against the burbs, but do like being out in the wilds. Mostly because I have some unrealistic vision of country living and think that it will give me an excuse to buy a wax jacket. In all honesty I just like a country pub and readily admit villages can be stifling in terms of privacy within a community.

By brother in law and family have just moved to W-O-T and it looks like a really nice area.

Being in the burbs is not out of the question, just don’t know many areas and ideally would like to be able to get to local riding without always taking the car. I live in a small town where I can be on the bridle ways in circa 3 minutes, so I am very spoilt.

I will probably be commuting by car outside of Bristol, so M5/4 access needs to be ok too.

M4/m5 access, it’s hard to beat portishead, pill, Easton in gordano, portbury or anywhere in the gordano valley…

I live in Bristol but we’re looking at exactly the same.

I know south of Bristol so I’m limiting my comments to that area though no doubt there are other nice areas.

Nailsea, Backwell, Yatton, Chew valley area, are all good. they are reasonably expensive but that’s because there are good secondary schools, specifically backwell and chew valley.

portishead is pretty shocking for schools at the moment…

Count zero’s suggestions are good, you may also want to have a look at compton Dando, burnett, woollard, Chewton keynsham, stanton prior, Farmborough.

Hi Gribble
I’m biased, but there are plenty of folk who live in Wotton-under-Edge who work in Bristol, which is about 30-40 mins on a good day. Primary schools are good, secondary school is good and there are some fantastic trails and riding on the Cotswold escapment.
My email is in my profile if you want to know more

For access to M4/M5 Coalpit Heath, Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne might all fit the bill. Not as far out as Wotton-Under-Edge (and a bit less remote) but might tick the majority of boxes for you. Good pubs, schools and not too big a population (although not a small village).

I live in that area so happy to tell you more if required.

Whereabouts in Bristol will you be working? For me, this would have a huge bearing on which side of the city I live on.

Wallop +1 this is a v good question…. Bristol is supposed to be the 2nd worst city in the uk for traffic…..

+ parking might become more challenging went the mayor extends the residents parking to cover most of the core of the city

Its worth considering rail, cycle commute or p&r for your journey…..

It likely that the nr of spaces for bikes on fgw trains will reduce when the new rolling stock is introduced over the next few years

Nailsea, Chew Magna, Backwell etc couldn’t have less of a village feel about them tbh. Too small to be interesting sized towns. Too big to be a friendly village.

But good schools tbf. And that sways a lot of folk into thinking they’re ok places to live.

Chew Magna was one big millionaires’ traffic jam when I cycled through it yesterday 😆

Definitely get somewhere with good train access into town.

Have a flat near the Uni and a house out past the airport. After rush hour it’s a leisurely 30 minute into the Uni area, during rush hour it’s horrible.

Check out the areas along the railway line towards weston – ie backwell and nailsea (share a station), yatton (also just to the north towards clevedon and congresbury/cleeve/wrington if you don’t mind using the car/bike to get to the train).

One advantage of the area to the SW of Bristol is you can escape to the coast very quickly and you have the M5 within 10 minutes. It is a good 20/25 minutes round to the top of Bristol on the M5 though if trying to head out of the area on the motorways.

Ig I had to head back up to Bristol I would look to the Stoke Bishop/WoT areas. Some fantastic old houses in Henleaze by Blaise but sadly it’s a bit rough 🙁 and back around the city is not going to happen for us as we need the space we have now.

We did the same move three years ago. Ended up in Chewton Mendip. 1 hour on the bike into Bristol, 17 miles on the back lanes. If you are looking to move to the sticks, you need to steer clear of the Nailsea area and head further south and east, close to Wells and Priddy. Chew Valley area is not my cup of tea either as it is fake village / commuter spot. Good luck!

Hands up for the Chew Valley, stay away from the main honey pot villages if you want value. Lovely countryside, straight into the Mendips although better for the road bike than the villages further west (blagdon etc). Great schools, we chose Bishop Sutton

Commute into Bristol will get you fit too!

Ps: not sure what a fake village is?

Fake for me means not authentic. In this context it means a snobby bourgeois commenter village with little social or cultural diversity.

All those damn bourgeoisie comments eh! 😉

Regarding travel into Bristol, just to clarify it is likely only one of us will be doing this with any regularity. Train would almost certainly be the preferred method, so as long as there was a station available, and the train went into Temple Meads, that would be one problem partly sorted. Obviously the shorter the train journey, the better. Part of our current predicament is that child care will likely not be compatible with a 1 hr 40 commute into London for my other half. Unfortunately my work does not mean I can always plan to assist with a child care pick up/ drop off, as I am often leaving/arriving too early/late, or staying away.

I would likely be heading further afield, likely on the M4.

I have heard traffic is an absolute nightmare round Bristol, so was thinking it would be best to only attempt commuting by car if you we’re going against the flow, I.e. away from Bristol. Trains unfortunately would be rammed, but my wife has commuted ( as have I ) into London for a few years and after a while you just accept the trains will be packed if you get one much after 7am.

If you’re heading onto the M4, then you need to be either on an M5 junction or North of Bristol. Do not attempt to drive through in a regular basis, you’ll end up wanting to shoot yourself!

A lot of the ‘fake’ (wtf!) villages South west of Bristol are very, very nice. Granted, people tend not to sleep with their sisters (who are also their mums) on regular basis like in some more secluded areas, but they are nice. Im a little confused as to where these traditional villages that everyone still works within the parish boundaries are, everyone I’ve ever been in has a mixture of lived there all their life and newcomers..

Sounds like Bath might be a better option. Fast trains to London and Temple Meads(11 minutes), quick trip up the A46 to the M4.

IMHO you’re thinking like a commuter, assuming the only ways to travel are car or train. If you lived in a suburb your wife could cycle or bus into the centre (traffic is bad, but buses have bus lanes and cycling isn’t hard).
Some incomers I know are very happy in Southville, 15 mins walk from Temple Meads, 10 mins to Ashton Court for the trails, 15mins drive to the M5.
Older terraces, acceptable gardens, sense of belonging.
WoT has Blaise Estate on its doorstep, leafy surrounds, and was a village, once.

Fake for me means not authentic. In this context
it means a snobby bourgeois commenter village
with little social or cultural diversity.

That sounds like a very snobby middle class comment to me 😉

undoubtedly that does exist of course but to write off whole areas with those comments just doesn’t reflect the real situation ime.

For M4 corridor commuting I’d be probably be looking NW of Bristol, eg Winterborne, or maybe Bath as Wallop suggested.

SW of Bristol is a bit further round to M4, although not too bad if you’re early morning commuter. A mate in Nailsea works in Swindon, though he’s often at his desk before I’m out of bed.

Cycling into Bristol is an option for the wife. Not really considering driving as an option for her, although to be honest I had not considered the bus network at all. Only disadvantage to the wife cycling is that she will get fitter than me again, meaning every climb she gets to the top first…

I am usually a fairly early morning commuter, leaving home around 6 am to avoid the M25.

Appreciate all the tips and suggestions so far, I am looking online and will try and organise a day or two looking at areas t get a good feel of how the places look. We found where we live now after stopping for a coffee half way through a ride – much better feel of a place when not in the car and or in a rush. Unfortunately not so easy now we have a kid…

We considered moving out of Bristol, and looked at many of the surrounding villages. We then realised that we were far, far better off staying where we are. Having all the amenities of a big city, no stupid commuting and easy access to the countryside is win/ win as far as we’re concerned.

I’d recommend spending a lot of time looking at the schools particulary if you are looking at the Bristol catchment…

Bristol has some great schools ….. but many which are not so…
There’s intense competition for good primary school places and the authority has a shortfall of 3,000 spaces predicted over the next year (they have a massive building programme underway at the moment)…

lots of folks move out of Bristol because of the schools…. or use the independent sector…)

Not a leafy village but it may be worth looking at Saltford. Smack bang between Bristol and Bath, good bus service, talk of opening a railway station, right on the bristol to bath cycle path. Good primary school and closest secondary school is one of the most sought after in the area (wellsway).

quick trip up the A46 to the M4.

Quick? 😯
The problem with bath (and saltford) are the roads in and out. The 46 is a bus lane and gets very congested, but it’s nothing compared to the route in from Saltford. The A4 into bristol is the worst traffic hot spot in the city (certainly from the ring road into brislington).
I’m a N.Bristoler and it’s nice but there are no local trails worth speaking of and getting to ashton means going through the centre (although the cycle track is pretty quick) up park st and over into clifton. Access to the M4 is perfect from here though, there’s a lovely back road which avoids hambrook. Iron acton is very nice (small village, great pub, winterbourne academy catchment, bristol commutable by bike) N.Bristol wise; we’re looking at frampton cotterell, coalpit heath, winterbourne, pucklechurch. South bristol wise; westbury on trym, Pill, Wraxall? I don’t that side too well.

Being in the burbs is not out of the question, just don’t know many areas and ideally would like to be able to get to local riding without always taking the car. I live in a small town where I can be on the bridle ways in circa 3 minutes, so I am very spoilt.

As above I wouldn’t discount Bristol itself without checking it out in detail – it is, in essence a lot of small villages and one of its big draws is ease of access to the countryside on a bike.

There are some stunning spots in the Mendips etc, but IME some of the more commutable villages are a little bland and soulless with no real life of their own – basically dormitories for Bath and Bristol.

It’s a pretty “green” city anyway and you’d arguably get more of a village feel in some of the inner suburbs than you would in the commuter belt with the advantage of not having to contend with the vagaries of traffic and public transport.

I’ve lived in loads of areas close to the city centre – Southville, Totterdown, Montpelier, Easton and Cotham. All had really good community spirit and good local pubs. For biking, it’s hard to beat Southville – nice area, close to dockside, easy access on the bike into town and out to Ashton Court, Avon Cycleway & Leigh Woods. Also not too bad (for Bristol!) for getting out in the car to M5/M4 for weekends away.

I live in a village on Dartmoor now, so understand the need to be out in the wilds, but all I’m saying is check it out for yourself.

For biking, it’s hard to beat Southville

A BS3/Bedminster-inclusive amen to that.

I would look at North of Bristol at Winterbourne, Frampton Cotteral, Iron Acton, basically the villages surrounding the town of Yate. Location for motorways is pretty damn good and for public transport too!

And another BS3 Southville big-up. 10 min walk to centre, 15 mins to temple meads, 10 mins bike to AC/LW, North Street shops and supermarkets all within easy reach