Moving to Malmesbury or Cirencester?

[Muddymiddle]

Our family (inc 2 primary age kids) are looking to relocate from busy mid Sussex to rural Wiltshire/Gloucestershire.

We’d love to be outskirts of a pretty village or small town, but I need London for work twice a month so Kemble looked ideal to be near-ish, for trains.

We visited Malmesbury yesterday, it was so charming, we loved the oldy-woldy architecture.

Haven’t visited Cirencester yet, but on the map it looks well located.

I’ve loved Cheltenham to visit in the past, but it’s less rural than I’d ideally like, But it would be nice to be within driving distance?

Would folks recommend Malmesbury/Cirencester for a young, outdoorsy, sporty family? (But with a mum that likes books and art?!)

House budget is around £700k, we’d love an old house with a good sized garden.

any advice welcomed, thank you! We have so much to figure out :)

The whole of Gloucestershire has a grammar system. Actually anyone can take the test, even from out of county. Some kids travel miles. But the actual grammar schools are in Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham, so the comps in those areas could feel like they suffer for it. However, there are many good comps too. I wouldn't worry too much.

Ok I see, that makes sense now, thank you

I live in Stroud and love it but I think it is a love hate thing! I love that you can be right in the centre of town and see all the commons surrounding you (because it's so hilly!) It's a creative, artsy town and very laid back and inclusive. We live 5 mins from the centre and 5 mins from beautiful Slad, I can't imagine living anywhere else I feel like we have the best of town and country living.
People have mentioned schools I'm not really a fan of grammer schools my sister went to Stroud High. I went to Archway and my son recently started there and it gets a but of a bad rep but weve found it to be a good school. I think if you want to do well you will. I used to wotk with young teens and many went to Archway and went on to be doctors.
I think if you want the Stroud vibes there are certain areas that are better than other. I would recommend Slad, Rodborough, Old Stroud, Woodchester. Nearby Nailsworth is nice too.

Just to say trains from Chippenham are really good at getting into London. Would you consider around there

thank you that's helpful. I hadn't considered it previously, mainly as i'd wanted to be near Cheltenham, but maybe Bath could be my nearest city instead if that were the case

Bath is super quick from Chippenham train station..

Malmesbury will change a lot as Dyson has made more than 1000 people redundant in the last 9 months. So houses might be cheaper as people desperate to move for new jobs. The school has done well in part due to all the clever nerdy engineers kids going there.

personally I’d choose Cirencester over Malmesbury.

Stroud does sound lovely.

I just looked up Slad on google maps and had to chuckle, as a naturist garden was the first thing that came up! (It's not currently our thing but who knows, might be one day 😆)

Goodness, that's a big change for the town, again i had no idea so that's super helpful to know

@Muddymiddlea good place to stay might be The Bear at Rodborough. You can visit Ciren and Tetbury easily from there and also Stroud & Cheltenham. And have a lovely walk on Rodborough common and go to Winston’s ice cream factory for some lovely local ice cream 😊

I live between Stroud and Cheltenham, DC at secondary in Stroud and work in Ciren (and go to London 1-2 times p.m) so know all the areas pretty well! Happy to answer any specific Q’s if you want to DM

Bear in mind that Cirencester does have a university which gives it a vibrant feel in my opinion.
The Barn Theatre often has interesting events, the new Michael Morpurgo production premieres next month for example.

The lakes at South Cerney in Cirencester are great if you are all into water sports. But I love Malmesbury too - gorgeous little town. Tricky!