Any suggestions for areas around Bristol?

buzzyzoe

My boyfriend and I are looking to move to Bristol and the surrounding areas from East London in the next year or so – we’re late twenties/early thirties. I’ve loved reading forums to see where people recommend, so I was wondering if anyone had any new/more up to date suggestions for us 😊 

Our top 5 criteria: 

- Top budget of £650,000, although £500,000 would be ideal if possible

- Villagey feel, the prettier the better! 

- Commute ideally under 1 hour drive or 1 hour 15 on public transport (needs to have a public transport option) 

- Large garden

- Detached ideally or semi detached, with large garden

We really want somewhere with a nice community feel – we did a bit of a driving tour and I loved the feel of Yatton, Congresbury, Saltford, Bradford On Avon etc. 

I can’t drive so will be limited somewhat by the public transport options. My boyfriend plans to drive in and will most likely be working somewhere central. I work in TV so do short term (6 months or so) contracts, which makes it a bit more difficult as I’ve got no idea where I’ll be working, but from my research, it seems likely I’ll be around the Clifton area. 

We both enjoy gardening and a big garden is probably top on my wishlist. There seem to be quite a few community gardens around the area, we would like to get involved with something like that. Happy to do some work on the house to get what we want – a barn conversion or farmhouse style property would be my dream but I  know they are few and far between. I also love wild swimming (again there seem to be quite a few options for this dotted around) so proximity to somewhere to wild swim would be a dream. 

Finally, we would like to be somewhere where people are open minded and accepting, both of newcomers to the area and in a political sense in terms of different races and cultural backgrounds, LGBTQ people etc.  

We’ve got (quite a long!) shortlist but any suggestions would be very much appreciated! TIA

Bonniepurple

I live in Cam, just outside Dursley.  Very nice community- people look out for each other - but not too claustrophobic.  There’s both trains and buses direct to Bristol from here.  It’s not a chocolate box village, but there’s far fewer restrictions too.  Locally, there’s Slimbridge (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust HQ) and Stroud which is nicknamed the centre of all weirdness.  

I love where we live.

buzzyzoe

Bonniepurple said:

I live in Cam, just outside Dursley.  Very nice community- people look out for each other - but not too claustrophobic.  There’s both trains and buses direct to Bristol from here.  It’s not a chocolate box village, but there’s far fewer restrictions too.  Locally, there’s Slimbridge (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust HQ) and Stroud which is nicknamed the centre of all weirdness.  

I love where we live.

Ah that's great to hear, thank you! It's on my list of easily commutable train stations so good to hear that it has a nice community feel too  

yllop1101

For places pretty close to Bristol (15-25 mins drive) with a villagey type feel I would look at Long Ashton, Barrow Gurney and Dundry. Clevedon Town is also lovely (Google street view 'Hill Road' to see the lovely end of town!).

For places a bit further out, Marshfield, Castle Combe and Chipping Sodbury are pretty traditional villages between Bristol and Bath. Chippenham is a nice market town where you will get more for your money, with a train station that will get you to Bristol in under half an hour and London in just over an hour.

I live in Bristol centre and love the city. A place like Southville is central but has a more villagey feel with a little local high street, but you won't be getting a semi detached there for your money, more like a 3 bed with no parking!

Hope my post helps, happy house hunting! 

buzzyzoe

yllop1101 said:

For places pretty close to Bristol (15-25 mins drive) with a villagey type feel I would look at Long Ashton, Barrow Gurney and Dundry. Clevedon Town is also lovely (Google street view 'Hill Road' to see the lovely end of town!).

For places a bit further out, Marshfield, Castle Combe and Chipping Sodbury are pretty traditional villages between Bristol and Bath. Chippenham is a nice market town where you will get more for your money, with a train station that will get you to Bristol in under half an hour and London in just over an hour.

I live in Bristol centre and love the city. A place like Southville is central but has a more villagey feel with a little local high street, but you won't be getting a semi detached there for your money, more like a 3 bed with no parking!

Hope my post helps, happy house hunting! 

Thanks so much We went to look at Barrow Gurney and Dundry and really liked them both. 

Chippenham could be a good option as it's easy to get back to London which might be useful. Thanks so much again, some new places for me to think about  

grumiofoundation

buzzyzoe said:

yllop1101 said:

For places pretty close to Bristol (15-25 mins drive) with a villagey type feel I would look at Long Ashton, Barrow Gurney and Dundry. Clevedon Town is also lovely (Google street view 'Hill Road' to see the lovely end of town!).

For places a bit further out, Marshfield, Castle Combe and Chipping Sodbury are pretty traditional villages between Bristol and Bath. Chippenham is a nice market town where you will get more for your money, with a train station that will get you to Bristol in under half an hour and London in just over an hour.

I live in Bristol centre and love the city. A place like Southville is central but has a more villagey feel with a little local high street, but you won't be getting a semi detached there for your money, more like a 3 bed with no parking!

Hope my post helps, happy house hunting! 

Thanks so much We went to look at Barrow Gurney and Dundry and really liked them both. 

Chippenham could be a good option as it's easy to get back to London which might be useful. Thanks so much again, some new places for me to think about  

I used to commute Chippenham to Bristol and was relatively painless (as painless as any commute by train can be...). And pretty easy access to London.

Chippenham is quite nice, as above can probably get more for your money than elsewhere. Easy access to cotswolds for nice walks. 

If you want a more rurally feel (list gets closer to bristol with roughly decreasing size and probably increasing house prices!) there is a direct train to bristol from Trowbridge (~1 hr) -> Bradford-on-Avon (~50 mins) -> Avoncliff (~45 mins) -> Freshford (~40 mins) and they all look like nice places (having walked though along canal). (Edit: see bradford-on-avon mentioned in OP). 

Keynsham is another place with easy train access to bristol along the avon between bristol/bath.

Another option is over the border in Wales, severn tunnel junction and newport offer direct services to Bristol. For newport would have to live bit out from the station to get a more 'villagy' feel. 

springmagpie

The areas around Nailsea and Backwell are pretty. Also some of the smaller villages around Portishead are nice. 
There is a train station at Backwell which is a 20 min journey into the centre of Bristol. 

Davesnave

The Chew Valley around Chew Magna is pretty and has a good community spirit, but public transport and prices may not please you much!

buzzyzoe

grumiofoundation said:

buzzyzoe said:

yllop1101 said:

For places pretty close to Bristol (15-25 mins drive) with a villagey type feel I would look at Long Ashton, Barrow Gurney and Dundry. Clevedon Town is also lovely (Google street view 'Hill Road' to see the lovely end of town!).

For places a bit further out, Marshfield, Castle Combe and Chipping Sodbury are pretty traditional villages between Bristol and Bath. Chippenham is a nice market town where you will get more for your money, with a train station that will get you to Bristol in under half an hour and London in just over an hour.

I live in Bristol centre and love the city. A place like Southville is central but has a more villagey feel with a little local high street, but you won't be getting a semi detached there for your money, more like a 3 bed with no parking!

Hope my post helps, happy house hunting! 

Thanks so much We went to look at Barrow Gurney and Dundry and really liked them both. 

Chippenham could be a good option as it's easy to get back to London which might be useful. Thanks so much again, some new places for me to think about  

I used to commute Chippenham to Bristol and was relatively painless (as painless as any commute by train can be...). And pretty easy access to London.

Chippenham is quite nice, as above can probably get more for your money than elsewhere. Easy access to cotswolds for nice walks. 

If you want a more rurally feel (list gets closer to bristol with roughly decreasing size and probably increasing house prices!) there is a direct train to bristol from Trowbridge (~1 hr) -> Bradford-on-Avon (~50 mins) -> Avoncliff (~45 mins) -> Freshford (~40 mins) and they all look like nice places (having walked though along canal). (Edit: see bradford-on-avon mentioned in OP). 

Keynsham is another place with easy train access to bristol along the avon between bristol/bath.

Another option is over the border in Wales, severn tunnel junction and newport offer direct services to Bristol. For newport would have to live bit out from the station to get a more 'villagy' feel. 

Thanks, that's good to hear about the commute! It's difficult to test out the commutes at the mo for obvious reasons! Nice walks would be another great bonus  

We loved Avoncliff - the canal was so beautiful but I think you (understandably) get a bit less for your money there, but maybe it would be worth it to be in such lovely surroundings.

Keynsham is super convenient so that's definitely an option too. 

We've been looking at Chepstow but I will have another look into the Severn Tunnel Junction area and a closer look at Newport Thanks again!

buzzyzoe

springmagpie said:

The areas around Nailsea and Backwell are pretty. Also some of the smaller villages around Portishead are nice. 
There is a train station at Backwell which is a 20 min journey into the centre of Bristol. 

Thank you! The commute from Nailsea and Backwell is great. I'd love to spend a bit more time there as it seems like a nice area with lots of good amenities. 

buzzyzoe

Davesnave said:

The Chew Valley around Chew Magna is pretty and has a good community spirit, but public transport and prices may not please you much!

Thank you. Chew Magna is so gorgeous! Definitely could be an option, although I think prices are certainly on the higher end (understandably so!)