Corsham v Box v Bradford on Avon

[AliCanTea]

Looking for some local help! We’re moving from Gloucestershire with a nearly 2 year old and are going round in circles trying to find the right house near a good school when we can’t visit schools at the moment! We don’t want to lose the buyers we have for our house currently so are on a timer... Can anyone advise re primary schools in these areas? And any pros/cons to the areas themselves? We would love to be close to Bath and also need to be able to access the M4.

I know nothing about the schools here (except that quite a few kids commute into Bath from these towns for private schools).

It might be worth a quick google, but the rumours of Corsham train station reopening are fairly regular. I quite like the town and it is very close to some cute Cotswold villages and Lacock. It has a great little leisure centre (with swimming pool and library in the same building), Arts Centre and decent pubs. Chippenham is an easier drive than Bath for bigger supermarkets and DIY stores. The Coop is okay...

Bradford is also a nice little market town, but it doesn't strike me as being an easy drive to get to the M4. It is a quick train ride away from Bath though.

You'd need to be in the car most of the time if you lived in Box, but it does have a great little nursery/forest school (you can tell I rarely linger there).

PS: It might be worth seeing whether there are any "local" pages for Chippenham (these places are all in Wiltshire).

Have you ruled out Marshfield?

PS lots of people relocating from London do a short term rental to get to know the area better. Would that be an option?

Have you thought about Chippenham?

Great schools, handy for the M4, 12 minutes on the train to Bath.

Thank you @Madcats and @Sidge - my husband won’t consider Chippenham and I hadn’t looked at Marshfield... We think we’ve settled on Corsham or Box though. Hope the right house comes up.

My mum lived in Colerne for years and it was the loveliest, friendliest village I’ve ever known! Absolutely beautiful and I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive them for leaving there!!! Even if it was to be closer to us!!