Relocating with children

daisydukes79

We moved to gloucester from Scotland 18 months ago and love it. We live in hucclecote which is a really nice bit with good schools, bus links (10 mins on bus from city centre, about 25 mins from Cheltenham on bus too). Hucclecote,brockworth, longlevens, quedgeley, abbeymead and abbeydale are all nice areas in the city and there are lots of lovely villages in the surrounding area. Only 50 mins drive to Birmingham ad Cardiff and about 45 to bristol. So not too bad for commuting to the big cities if necessary. Quite a few banks/financial places near by. Lloyd's offices are a 5 min walk from our house.

Tons of place to go and things for kids to do and tons of dog walking places.

Ps hucclecote wasn't affected by the flooding. More the areas near the city centre as they are on the river. The places I've listed are more on the outskirts of town but it's not a huge city so still easy to reach.

Carer

Interesting to read the differing opinions of Gloucester!

I live 20ish mins away and am in Gloucester a lot, but I wouldn't live there if you paid me. I realise people see things differently but in my humble opinion it's truly horrible in comparison to Hereford, Worcester or Cheltenham.
The town centre seems run down and grotty and it seems to have more than it's fair share of "undesirables" hanging around. Friend of mine got mugged at a cashpoint in broad daylight in the city centre a couple of years ago.
It's the only one of the local towns/cities where I don't feel safe walking around alone.
I have friends who live there who are desperate to get out as they hate it so much.

Savvy_Sue

I don't know the details, but be aware that they're about to start a big new road / bypass scheme somewhere in the area, there's a notorious hill with a bend at the top which ends up with lots of tailbacks and it's a kind of hard to avoid route. I'm sorry not to be more specific but hope someone will know what I mean!

Point is you probably wouldn't want to be too close to that until it's finished.

Carer

It's the A417 Air Balloon roundabout at Birdlip, just south east of Gloucester, notorious traffic blackspot.
They've talked round it for years though so who knows if it'll ever get done.
But definitely an area to avoid having to travel through regularly.

hazyjo

Sorry to hijack, anyone know what Cinderford's like?

Jx

alias*alibi

hazyjo wrote: »

Sorry to hijack, anyone know what Cinderford's like?

Jx

I work with two foresters who would say Cinderford is like Gloucester; rough!

Berry Hill; May Hill, Lydney are nicer areas.

alias*alibi

bigmomma051204 wrote: »

I live just outside Tewkesbury (Gloucestershire) - If you can afford the villages, then go for them! I wouldn't live in Gloucester (city) if you paid me big bucks! Its an awful place! Tewksbury is okay, although its a small town - check out the flood risk on any house you look at but just to clarify from the previous poster, there are LOTS of areas which don't flood :cool: Northway in Tewks isn't great although I don't think its as bad as it used to be..... Depends on your budget?

Cheltenham is a lovely town, if you are wanting town rather than rural - but again, rurality is what Gloucestershire does best! Bishops Cleeve is like a mini town outside of Cheltenham so good if you want a "new build" type of area with shops etc on tap, that may be the way to go... Similarly, Walton Cardiff estate in Tewks is like that

I live in a village called Bredon and its lovely here Literally on the Gloucs/Worcs border AND 5/10mins from the m50 and m5 (though you would NEVER know it!) On the doorstep of Bredon Hill - we are like the gateway to the Cotswolds Haha, I am like an estate agent! :rotfl:

Erm I didn't say LOTS I said surrounding areas of Gloucester such as Longford/Sandhurst and also Tewkesbury which was virtually cut off for the 2nd time in less than 7 years..

hazyjo

alias*alibi wrote: »

I work with two foresters who would say Cinderford is like Gloucester; rough!

Berry Hill; May Hill, Lydney are nicer areas.

Thanks (Although would've preferred to hear otherwise - won't tell the BF. We think we've tracked his kids down to living there (long story).)

Jx

Spendless

We have friends who moved back to the UK from abroad, in the summer hols before their kids were due to start in yr7 and yr9. They weren't initially offered places at their catchment area school (catchment is a higher criteria here than siblings) and instead were given spaces in a school in special measures, because it was the one with spaces. Though an appeal got them in to the other school it was October half term before it was sorted.

I have a child in yr9, he's chosen his options and chatting to another mse member with a child of the same age, we discovered that their schools offered completely different choices, outside of compulsory subjects. That's less of an issue if your child is wanting to do very traditional subjects such as History or Geography, which all schools are likely to offer, more problematic if they wish to do subjects like Engineering or Psychology. Even with languages, my son's school only offers French and Spanish, the school my Niece and Nephew attend which is less than 10 mins drive away offers German.

I'd suggest you take into account what your child is wishing to study and which schools can offer those subjects as well as availability of places.

Kabazzzz

Thanks for the replies everyone. Very informative, I'll definitely research areas which flood regularly... well at all!


I had kind of narrowed it down to Longlevens and the surrounding areas and have an appointment to see one of the grammar school's and surrounding areas in the next few weeks.


My DD has already chosen her options here also however, the subjects that she really wanted to do didn't have enough students choosing them and so they have been dropped by the school and she has been told which other subjects she must take in their place - needless to say, she is deeply unhappy with her current "choices".


The school that both children are currently in was a hairs breadth away from being put into special measures recently.


My best friend lived in Cheltenham for 12 years and has vowed never to go back. I suppose opinions can be quite subjective, however I intend on doing as much research as I possibly can.