Mum coming to live in Bath - help - advice needed!

[princessfifi]

Hello, I'm moving to Bath at the end of March and would really appreciate some info from local mums on life in Bath!

Ds is four and will be at home with me until he starts school in September so he'll need entertaining...any tips on activities in Bath would be much appreciated - he loves tennis, football, swimming and anything energetic or creative. Dd is eighteen months and is up for anything.

I'm also interested to know the going rate for cleaner/mother's help/au pairs?

And as a desperate long-shot...if anyone knows of a 3/4 bedroom house or flat going for rent in Lansdown or surrounding areas - I'd love a tip!!!

Any information on the local vibe, best places to go, best ways to meet other mums would be much appreciated...sorry to be so demanding but I don't yet know anyone in Bath!

Your children are the same age as mine but I have two boys.

Lansdown is great. Can't give tips on available houses as they move quickly. We rented (elsewhere in town) after selling in the summer as it's quite hard to buy a four bed house unless you are a proceedable cash buyer. We lost out on two family homes in two weeks before we got somewhere suitable. There are lots of rental agencies. I think most of the decent ones advertise through rightmove but if you want to find a place before it is advertised yo would be best to register with a couple of agencies. I can suggest names if you need them.

Have you got a place for your DS at school?

Bath has lots of pre-school activities. For "gym" there's tumbletots, baskervilles gym, swimming and the fabulous Swainswick Explorers. I don't know about tennis and football as my four year old is not that way inclined. The parks are great. Victoria Park and Alice Park have lots of things to do.

On the creative front there are two sets of "drama" groups - dinkies at the egg theatre and great pretenders (two venues, I think). There's an art group at St Stephen's church in Lansdown which I've not been too (clashed with dinkies, ). There are often art activities at the Holbourne Museum (gardener's lodge). I think Jo Jingles is still going strong. I don't know if Kindermuzik ever got going.

The local NCT website has a good list of toddler groups here. Bradford on Avon is not far for either groups or swimming. Bristol is obviously also close but has some monstrous traffic jams on account of being a Big City.

I pay my cleaner £7.50 an hour. When I lived in Camden (next to Lansdown) I couldn't get one even at £8 an hour. Agencies are £12-£14ph. Good babysitters are a fiver an hour, qualified nannies £7-8 net. A good mother's help could charge what she wanted in Lansdown.

I moved here a couple of weeks before DS1 was born. The town is swarming with incomers which makes people open to making friends. I went to as many groups as we could manage to meet as many people as possible.

Anything else?

Thank you SO much for all that information. It's really helpful.

Btw, I don't drive and am hoping that I'm still going to get away with it...or am I sadly mistaken?!

Yes please could you let me know which rental agencies are good to use. There seems to be nothing much available at the moment and we keep pinging agents from Cluttons and Swallows who don't have any options.

So do you live in Lansdown...and is it easy for daddies to make friends? Dh works from home.

We're hoping Ds will go to Kingswood, but he hasn't got a confirmed place yet. King Edwards is our second choice. I hear the state schools are good in Bath, though? Where does your Ds1 go?

Everyone who lives in Bath seems to be so happy that they live there which is great! Are there any negatives to living there, or anything to watch out for as a newcomer?

I don't live in Lansdown. I used to live slightly down the hill and to the east a bit in Camden but have moved to the other side of town (Combe Down). I go to church in Lansdown and DS1 would have gone to school there had we not moved.

I asked about schools (apart from being nosy) as we have all just been allocated our state primary places (St Stephen's is outstanding - "not surprising given the intake" to misquote ofsted - and oversubscribed) and I had heard on the grapevine that Kingswood was full! My DS will be going to our local primary on our side of town. Believe me you do not want to be travelling across the narrow Cleveland Bridge at school run time ...

You can manage without driving here. The No2 bus which goes up the hill is mostly very reliable. Only every half hour but once you know when it is OK. Waitrose doesn't have on-line shopping but does deliver if you go in. You can get normal on-line deliveries from the other supermarkets.

The hills are very steep and you will get very fit very quickly. I have been ill and done very little activity over the last year. Even so, I had become so fit from the hills that six weeks post major, major surgery I could happily stroll up a hill most healthy people would quake at.

I'm very glad we moved here. Negatives to look out for? Feeling of smugness? Getting too relaxed that all is well in the world while one lives in one's own lovely bubble?

agents later as must go.

WHAAATT??? No Waitrose online in Bath? This might well be the big negative for me! Apart from that it sounds almost too good to be true (that's the cynical Londoner in me!)

I know Kingswood nursery is full but the headmaster says that a handful of kids normally drop out before reception to go to St Stephen's, so we're hoping.

Do you go to St Stephen's Church? Is it a good family church...Sunday club for the kids etc?

So sorry to hear you've been ill. I've got an inflammatory bowel disease so I get really ill regularly. We also liked Combe Down, and Monkton Combe school, but the hill on that side seems even steeper and I knew it would be an absolute non-starter during illness with no driving skills. Anyway, hills can only be good for health and I'm hoping for better health in Bath!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news about Waitrose. Despite appearances Bath is firmly in the West Country rather than a suburb of London. I suspect the shop is so small it couldn't cope with any additional trade.

OMG IBS? I had (have?) colorectal cancer. I don't enjoy this game of swapping symptons, mind you, sigh. I shall test my recovery by how long it takes me to be able to manage the walk up the hill from town. But at least where I live is now level.

I do indeed go to St Stephen's. It is a very nice church with good Sunday clubs for the kids. 'Tis much to be recommended and friendly.

As for agents this was a good excuse to read last week's property supplement. Do sign up on rightmove. I can recommend Homelets of Bath, Bath Property Services and Andrews. Others worth trying are Bath Property Shop.

If you can find a way of telling me your address without telling the world I can post you the property pages which has several pages of lettings.

I think I'll just write my address here but keep my name off it to respect mumsnet anonymity.

Why don't you send the property pages to:
Mrs H
27 Dartmouth Road
London
NW2 4ET

THat's really kind of you, thank you and thanks for giving me so much information. I feel much more confident. Now if I could just find somewhere to live and get my child into the right school...

I might be back pinging you again sometime soon!

And good luck with your walks!

Ooo I know where you are wink. I can visualise your street! Did you have the tornado or whatever it was?

You'll have mail.

No the tornado was down the road! But very close.

Thanks so much for the paper - very useful!

And we've found somewhere to rent...in Bathwick Hill! It's lovely. Not very close to Lansdown...but we'll cross that bridge in September!

Bathwick Hill is great if you don't drive. The student bus goes up and down it. This is the most frequent bus in town and according to adverts runs every three minutes in peak time. I don't believe it myself but I always saw several while waiting for my old bus. It's an orange bendy bus so you can't miss it and you can get a pushchair on it.

Did you seen Grand Designs last week? That was a house on Bathwick Hill.

Bathwick Hill is great if you don't drive. The student bus goes up and down it. This is the most frequent bus in town and according to adverts runs every three minutes in peak time. I don't believe it myself but I always saw several while waiting for my old bus. It's an orange bendy bus so you can't miss it and you can get a pushchair on it.

Did you seen Grand Designs last week? That was a house on Bathwick Hill.

Bathwick Hill is great if you don't drive. The student bus goes up and down it. This is the most frequent bus in town and according to adverts runs every three minutes in peak time. I don't believe it myself but I always saw several while waiting for my old bus. It's an orange bendy bus so you can't miss it and you can get a pushchair on it.

Did you seen Grand Designs last week? That was a house on Bathwick Hill.

Bathwick Hill is great if you don't drive. The student bus goes up and down it. This is the most frequent bus in town and according to adverts runs every three minutes in peak time. I don't believe it myself but I always saw several while waiting for my old bus. It's an orange bendy bus so you can't miss it and you can get a pushchair on it.

Did you seen Grand Designs last week? That was a house on Bathwick Hill.

Bathwick Hill is great if you don't drive. The student bus goes up and down it. This is the most frequent bus in town and according to adverts runs every three minutes in peak time. I don't believe it myself but I always saw several while waiting for my old bus. It's an orange bendy bus so you can't miss it and you can get a pushchair on it.

Did you seen Grand Designs last week? That was a house on Bathwick Hill.

oops having a few probs there, sorry

I did see Grand Designs - nice house. I liked their old house even more though, wherever that was!

Our house is at the bottom of Bathwick Hill thank goodness, but I'm planning on taking the bus up to the university so DS can do some trampolining and things.

I've been looking into all the activities for the kids and it seems like there's loads going on. You obviously go to Dinkies...would you recommend it? Have you ever tried Great Pretenders?

Still no bath stone cladding - we're all on stone watch now .

My friends who have been to Great Pretenders say it is better than dinkies. We're not at either atm, as DS1 has started a second day at pre-school. I'm thinking of taking DS2 to Little Pretenders, though. They have a couple of different days and venues.

Hi ThingOne...can I ask you more questions please?!

We are now considering Monkton School as the rumours you heard about Kingswood appear to be true...at the moment a place for DS aint looking likely....anyway, is there any bus that goes up past the university round North Road? All our internet research isn't coming up with anything and it seems so far like the only way to get there from the bottom of Bathwick Hill is to drive. Which obviously I can't do!

What is your opinion on Monkton versus King Edwards by the way?

I've just come out of two weeks in hospital thanks to my hideous illness. Normally I bring home a baby from hospital, but this time I've brought home a drainage bag coming out of my tummy. I'm hoping to get it out of me before we move house on Tuesday, but am not hopeful. Packing is not going to be easy.

Actually, that's another thing, are there any particularly good GP practices around in the area?

How is the stone cladding going?!

Sorry - didn't see this. Sorry you have been in hospital. How has the move gone?

I don't know a lot about either Mc or KES. KES is generally considered pushy and high achieving and it's always a bit hard to know if this is right for a 4 year old. I think the pre-prep is in Weston so I'm not quite sure how you would get there. The rest of the school is right at the bottom of North Road, not that far up the hill from Sydney Gardens and the canal. I know there are some school buses for the private schools but know nothing about them beyond they exist.

MC I know very little about. I'm sure I'll know more soon but few of my friends have older children.

There are some very good GP practices and a couple of stinkers. My Combe Down practice is great but not sure of the area covered nor indeed how you would get there.

I'm too paranoid to pop my name and address down on line. If I send it to your old address will it get redirected?

Hello, finally (unreliably) back online after much delay. Don't ever use tiscali - they cancelled our order for phone and internet without telling us.

Move has gone pretty well - we're still surrounded by boxes and we haven't seen much more of Bath than the recycling centre, but we really like it so far!

I should eventually get post sent to my old address as it's being kept for us.

Would you like to meet up (or is this not good online etiquette!?) Could we meet somewhere like a cafe without having to divulge names and addresses online? I'm quite bona fide and safe and normal, although perhaps a little desperate for a chat after two weeks of unpacking boxes and not yet meeting many people!

Hi Princessfifi and ThingOne!
Just happened to come upon your thread - hope you don't mind me joining in.
Hope the move to Bath has gone well PF - Bathwick is really lovely. Top tip on that side of town is The American Museum up behind the university - you could get bus up to very near there - sounds like an odd recommendation but the grounds and views are really fab(no need to go in the museum itself!), and great place to go with young children and lovely old fashioned cafe too.
I live on Lansdown and have ds (7) and dd (5) - both at KES as it happens, so can offer some insider info on that if you still need it, and have friends with children in various years at St. Stephens, Kingswood, Monkton, Royal High & Paragon so could find out info or even put you in touch if need be (you can send info to another talker that you don't want to put in the public forum using the Contact Another Mumsnetter option at the top I think).
In terms of meeting other mums, I agree with all ThingOne's top tips for pre-schoolers - Baskervilles Gym is brilliant for the children but not walkable - but I met most of my current friends when ds started in the KES nursery (either KES mums or people they introduced me to), and things really took off from there (we came from London too, before ds was born, so at first I made most of my friends through the NCT).
We've been really happy here too and I have no regrets at all. Only thing I would say is that Bath is very small & "news" (ok, gossip!)seems to shoot round like wild fire, so good to be a bit cautious!
Anyway, let me know if there's anything you'd like to know & good luck with the settling in

Great thank you Permatired (Iove the name!). I will try the American museum.

Ds is now into Kingswood so school panic over until dd starts! There are so many good schools here, we're very lucky.

We're loving it here so far - so beautiful, calm and so much to explore. And such a sense of community. We've just been back in London for a few days and I got a real reminder about why we moved: noisy, crowded, unfriendly, overstretched public services...I really hope the same doesn't happen here! Surely not.

Actually I do have more questions...do cleaners really cost £10 an hour??! One good thing about London was that it was easy to find cleaners/mother's helps and they didn't cost the earth. We're trying to find an au pair, but even that's not easy.

Thanks for the advice about being discreet by the way - really good one!!!