Moving from Reading to South West UK

[CrazyCatLady1993]

Hi everyone

I live in Reading and I’m looking to move to Wiltshire with my husband & three little boys. Can I have some suggestions of towns we can have a little look around to see if it would fit for us…Ideally we’d like the below criteria:

• Semi rural but still within easy reach of a bigger town.
• Good primary schools & nursery’s
• Nice high street that isn’t too big
• Friendly neighbourhood
• We do prefer more of a village feel
• 3-4 bed houses up to 450k

For reference, I live in Arborfield Green and we LOVE it. The reason for moving is cheaper housing. We own a 2 bedroom flat at the moment and it’s too small now however we cannot afford a 3 bedroom house in this area. This is the only area in Reading we like as it doesn’t feel like Reading hence why we’d like to move Wiltshire (or anywhere that’s around 1 hour from Reading)

Thank you!

Have a look at Marlborough.

To be fair, Arborfield always felt like Barkham/ Wokingham to me. Never thought of it as Reading. Never minded most of Reading, did mind most of the rest of berks, surrey etc.

Look at Marlborough, Calne, Devizes.... I had family round there once upon a time, was a pretty part of the UK, for south England anyway.

Personally I say come further west and over the border into Wales, we have the best castles.

Devizes is lovely, although it's had a lot of building recently. Look at Salisbury and Trowbridge too. Frome is further west, in Somerset but might suit you.

Yes it doesn’t feel like Reading does it!
I’ll have a look at all those places, thank you.

my husband loves the idea of Wales, I’m a bit too scared to move that far away from my family 😂 Although I do have a friend who lives in Wales, I get worried about my parents being old and not being around them!

Thank you! We went to look around Salisbury today. We liked the town itself, was reasonably sized but also felt nice as the streets were quite pretty!
Will add the other suggestions to the list, thank you!

Bump?🙂💕

Salisbury is a lovely place to live. There are lots of nice villages close by if you wanted somewhere more rural but not too far from the town.

Salisbury is very expensive, a lot of people think Trowbridge is a shit hole, though personally I quite like it. There's a lot of pretty villages around Warminster- Crockerton, Sherrington, The Deverills, Wyle, although you'll need a car as public transport isn't that great. Westbury (between Warminster and Trowbridge) isn't that great according to a lot of people, but I've got a lot of friends who are quite happy living there. There's also a lot of villages around Longleat.

Thank you so much! I visited once but I don’t think I really was there for long enough to see what it would be like to actually live in, I went to the town centre and that is all 🤣 Would you suggest having a mooch around villages nearby?

Aww really? We were looking at house prices on Rightmove (after visiting the town centre of Salisbury) and we were pleasantly surprised. Average 3 bedroom house price where we live now is £500k+😩 Thank you for all of the other suggestions, I will take look!

Salisbury is not expensive compared to the South East though, you could get a nice house for your budget. I’d definitely suggest having a browse around some nearby villages if you’d like that sort of lifestyle. Also parts of the outskirts of the town are nice if you want to be close to both town and countryside.

Thank you! Where we are now is semi rural but becoming heavily built up. We want somewhere more rural but close enough to any nice little villages, however one thing I worry about is our kids being bored as teenagers if there is nothing to do! 🙈

Salisbury is more expensive than, say Warminster, Westbury or Trowbridge, but it depends on what sort of house you're looking for. On the other side of Salisbury there's Andover and Amesbury, some of my friends live there and they're quite happy there.

Hey there, we are relocating to Wiltshire in June but haven't decided on an area yet (we're moving from Portugal). Our list looks pretty much the exact same as yours! All the same requirements. Our kids are 10 and 12.
On paper, we're liking the idea of villages like Pewsey and Market Lavington.
We're after a village with a bit going on - pubs, cafes, primary and smaller secondary, co-op etc but within about 10-15mins drive to a town that has activities for the kids- public swimming pool, cinema, shops, sports activities and clubs etc.

Would love to know where you ended up and any advice you can give us

Bradford on Avon is another option but it’s a small town. What about outskirts of eg Bath?

Ah I see this is a semi zombie thread.

yes we've been looking around there also but i think we need to be nearer to job hubs

Warminster, you have longleat forest just on the doorstep. Great park in Warminster and the regular independent markets. Great outdoor based nursery in The Learning Meadow.