Please tell me about living in Cheltenham

[Picklesandpies]

Hi,

Considering a move away from where we currently live. We moved her four years ago and although we have friends and our children (7 and 10) are happy, our lives seem to have been curtailed somewhat. We are just not inspired by the area we live in. Our actual town is fine and has good schools (our 10 will be moving up to secondary this year) and it has what we need day to day but there is no where within an hours drive that we like to go at weekends! The countryside isn't as nice as what we had (we like walking), the cities nearby do not offer us food shopping or culture. It feels as though it takes ages to get anywhere and there is very little going on where we live. We are not placed well for making the most of our weekends as a family. The other thing is that dh currently commutes into London for work and he doesn't want to do that forever. However, where we live that's the only option really. We are 30 minutes from the nearest city by train and it's nothing special.

We would like to live somewhere that has more going on and feel part of somewhere bigger but still have access to countryside we like. Cheltenham seems to tick that box as it's more buzzy, lots of shops, festivals etc but the Cotswolds are on the doorstep as well as closer access to other cities such as Birmingham, Oxford, Bristol etc which would provide opportunities for dh's work. As our children grow up I'd like to be able to offer them more than what we have now - it's pretty but quite isolated and there isn't much to go at within an hour because of where we are geographically. I just don't feel ready to say 'this is it' and settle when we have known a better quality of life and I believe we could have a better one elsewhere.

If you live or have lived in Cheltenham, what are your experiences (good and bad welcome)? Is it easy to make friends? Does your quality of life feel good? What are the good and bad things are the area you live in? Experiences of schools would also be particularly useful. I know school places are highly competitive and that would worry me as our 10 year old has a place at a good school for September and our 7 year old is happy in our village primary - so I'd need to get it right. One child is really into dance so a school which values the non academic subjects would be great.

We spent a day there last Sunday with dc. We didn't get to see as much as we would have liked and lots of shops in Montpellier were closed so had all the traffic with not all the buzz. Dh really liked it. I liked it but felt it was really nice in some areas and felt a bit tired in others. We are going on our own for two days next week so hoping to see more then.

TIA for any information you can share. Such a hard decision/want the best for our dc so desperate not to make a mistake. x

That should be 'good shopping' of course, not 'food shopping'!

Cheltenham v much depends on area, and as you’d expect, the naice parts are eye wateringly expensive.
Town has a decent selection, there’s the theatre and a JL opening in October

There is a decent bus service - we considered Bishops Cleeve as being more affordable but still possible to get into town easily. Has a secondary but not sure how it is, have friends with children in primary school there who are happy.

We do have the grammar system in Gloucestershire which you might want to consider, not sure how you might go about applying late though I’m sure the LEA would be helpful. I have a friend with a child at Pittville secondary who is happy there.

Not sure if that really answered much! Do holler if you have any more questions though.

You are spoilt for choice for schools, to be honest, grammars (a lot of kids attend Gloucester Grammars as well - Ribston is particularly known for performing arts/dance I think), good state schools and a variety of independents, day and boarding. There is a new secondary planned for Hatherley area, I think.
Very good access to other cities. Just over 2 hours on the train to London. You can also get to London from Evesham, Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxford Parkway stations and Oxford Tube coach service if you are prepared to drive to Oxford (Thornhill park and ride).
Loads of culture, festivals, Everyman Theatre, Pittville Pump Room, concerts, also lots going on in Gloucester, Stroud, Cirencester, all easily accessible. Stratford and Oxford are also only only an hour away.
Housing is very expensive. You could choose to live in Gloucester and still have everything very close by.
Several very good dance schools in town, lots of opportunities to perform in local performing arts festival every May.

If you are white, British and have money Cheltenham is great. There is a bit of a Polish buzz around too, but not very culturally diverse.

It is a bit of a backwater - there are all the festivals - Jazz/Music/Science/Literature/HorseRacing, but not a lot else - though we do have Bristol and Bath and Birmingham and Cardiff in easy reach. The West side is ideally placed for the motorway network.

There are theatres (they only attract smaller touring companies), a decent cinema and a really good bus service. Schools are generally good, but with small catchments. The grammar schools are competitive (only one in Cheltenham and it is considered one of the best in England) - with NO catchments, so kids get bused in from many counties.

Parking is becoming eyewateringly expensive, the hospital no longer has 24 hour A+E.

But it is relatively low in the crime stats, it has a quiet feel to it outside of festival season and it feels "safe" to live here. There is plenty of work and many large employers, shops from Waitrose/new John Lewis in October, to Aldi/lidl//Poundland. So I have mixed feelings really, it IS a lovely place to live, I feel a bit "sheltered from the real world" sometimes though.

Super helpful - thank you. I'm interested (and heartened?) to hear that it seems 'safe' and 'sheltered' as it felt quite busy to me and, like dh says, stretches our definition of what a town is. Given what I saw on a Sunday it would be like living in London compared to where we are now . We have no cinema, no theatre... unless you count the small amatuer dramatics one.

Is there a good sense of community? Easy to make friends? Where we are now it has taken a good three years for me to make proper friends - even though we are in a village it's quite cliquey and was hard to arrive as an 'outsider'.

Our budget would be max of 850K for a 4 bed house but depends very much on dh finding a job as well paid as his London one. Would probably have to be Birmingham or Oxford for that.

The Grammar which is good for performing arts would be great but our child probably isn't academic enough to get in. Thanks for sharing though. I have heard mixed things about Bournside School - any experiences there? The secondary our dc will attend in September is known for drama and dance - which makes it harder to move away from.

It's so hard... I know we could plod along here and I'd miss the friends I've made dreadfully but I'm scared I'll look back and wish we had taken the plunge and aimed a bit higher. I've just received the OS map for Cheltenham and it's just surrounded by walking footpaths! Where we are there is a lot of old money and a lot of private land so harder to find walks!

Thanks again - I'm super grateful for the insight.

We used to live in Cheltenham and loved it. Great shops, places to eat and things to do. We loved the surrounding walks and countryside. It's easy to get to Bristol/Bath/Cardiff/Birmingham. We moved overseas due to work and didn't want to live where our house is in Pittville because it's a longer drive for my OH and because the primary in the catchment wasn't good (it may be better now?) We wanted to buy in Charlton Kings or Leckhampton but our budget just didn't stretch very far there. It's got fantastic schools (both Balcarras & Bournside are great) and we loved the areas. We'd still like to move back one day as we both love it. If we moved back after our daughter leaves school (long way off) we'd probably go back to Pittville or Prestbury as we love those areas

@4yearsnosleep thanks for your reply. We drove through Prestbury last Sunday. Saw signs to Sudeley Castle which looked nice. Pitville looked nice too when we stopped to eat our lunch in the park. I've seen a few houses which looked good but then are in the Pitville School catchment which I've not heard good things about (it may have improved now though as they were old posts.) Any more recent views on that? Also Cleeve School doesn't seem to have the best reputation. I wish we could just go and trial living there for a month to see whether we like it!

When we lived there 8 years ago the school wasn't great, but things might have changed. With your budget you should be able to buy in the good school areas (Charlton Kings and Leckhampton) but you'll probably definitely get less for your money

Definitely steer clear of Queen Elizabeth Way area and Whaddon. Bear in mind though that housing is weird in Cheltenham, one road can be rough and the next road over is lovely! Good luck. If we had your budget I'd move back tomorrow:)

Is there a good sense of community? - yes there is, Cheltenham is built from a series of "villages" all with their own school, pub, church, little shopping areas - it has a very good community feel to it.

Bournside school - hmmmm - we are in catchment but chose not to send our girls there - it is huge around 1700 pupils, and when we were looking 6 years ago the Maths teaching was lacking. (that has changed).

Ours went to Chosen Hill - in Churchdown, just a 10 min bus ride away. One is currently staying on for 6th form, the other has gone through a Gloucester grammar 6th form.

The public transport is really good here.

My brother lives there the area around the race course gets very busy and race goers can end up parking all over the place which causes bad feeling. It seems a pleasant place from what I have seen

Pittville has improved a lot over the last 4-5 years. Balcarras is an amazing school - if you can afford a house nearby.

There are lots of lovely walks around; all the Beacons, the Malverns are a short drive away too.

Has your partner explored job options in Oxford and Bristol? Mine works in London and commutes weekly because salaries and day rates nearer are much lower.

Chosen Hill is a great school but very oversubscribed as a direct result of the grammar system (it’s the only comp in Gloucester I’d send my children to because the others are either church schools or awful. Hence taking part in the grammar hustle even though I disagree with the concept.)

If you like the outdoors, you are also about a 40 min drive from the Forest of Dean which is lovely (which has a sculpture trail, Puzzlewood (where some of the recent Star Wars movies were filmed and a Go Ape). Also close to the Malverns and Brecon Beacons. Good train links to Birmingham/Bristol. My friend's kids go to Chosen Hill and are doing really well.

The Everyman Theatre is good, plus Gloucester Quays (10 miles away) has loads of outlet shops and lots going on over the summer, lots of food/music festivals and very family friendly, also lots of places to eat (Bill's/Nandos/Pizza Express etc).

We lived in Cheltenham for years but left when DS was 3 and DD was 2 so cant comment on schools other than if you want to get into a good one (there are many) you need serious money to afford the houses prices or rent.

I moved to Cheltenham for work when I was single and have to say, it was hard to make friends. Before Cheltenham I lived in London and Bristol and made good life long friends but Cheltenham is cliquey. Had I not met my DH I would have left.

But that aside, there are many wonderful aspects to Cheltenham. We lived in Winchcombe before kiddies and then Prestbury. We spent a lot of time at Sudley Castle and the parks in Pitville, Montpellier, Hatherley are so lovely - I do miss them.

We visit often as my Inlaws still live there so I feel we get the best of both Worlds.
The key is to establish a friendship group which will come with school but you really need to put yourself out there.

Good luck

Has no one mentioned the Lido - it's absolutely wonderful, I don't live in Cheltenham but happy to drive there for an hour on a hot day .

@sausagedogsmakechipolatas my husband hasn't explored job options properly yet but certainly think Birmingham and Oxford would be a possibility from what I have seen. He can work the odd day from home which is good.

Interesting about mixed Bournside reports and I hadn't heard about Chosen Hill so I will investigate on that. Thanks for info about walking areas and Forest of Dean. It just seems so well placed for getting out at the weekends.

Really appreciate all of the feedback - really useful. I'll report back when we have been next week.

@Ragwort we had a peek at the Lidl before we left last weekend - looked lovely!

I moved to Cheltenham from London not long ago. I live in Whaddon Avenue and was warned that this area is ’to be avoided at all costs’. I still moved and glad I didn't listen to all the comments. I feel very safe here and being non-British feel extremely welcome too. Many houses are private around me and the neighbours are so friendly and helpful.

The primary schools are exceptionally good and the secondary ones are well spoken of too. We have two primary school-aged children and there's so much to do which was a surprise for us having been spoiled with London choices. Lots of parks, Funky Warehouse etc is a cool place to chill while kids are taking their bounce. Lido, the leisure centre, sports clubs, pottery, arts and crafts activities, to mention the least. My kids love it here.
Thinking of the comments about racism, nationalism etc. we have been warned about, I am astonished why these people were so negative about this place. We found more racist remarks about our background, culture, traditions in London, rather than here. Honestly, the ’worst’ area in Cheltenham is a lot safer than the safest area in London. And I lived in different nice areas of London.
Cheltenham is a beautiful spot in this country with picturesque Cotswolds at your doorstep. I would recommend anyone to give it a try and do not be put off by comments of the people who spend all their lives living in one place without experiencing any change in life.

Hiya, just seem this thread, did you move to Cheltenham in the end? Im looking at moving here xx

My parents and brother live there, I only lived there for about 6 months many years ago but visit a lot.

I hate the place. It’s a bland, middle class, Tory stronghold with fuck all in the way of diversity or anything interesting going on. There are no music venues or clubs for young people anymore, some nice enough places to eat out but that’s it.

It also has this air of snobbishness and entitlement to it, anything new or different is sneered at and complained about.

The town centre shopping used to be ok but now it’s awful, tired and sad with all the good shops long gone.

I wouldn’t inflict it on your teens, they won’t thank you.

My daughter is looking for a part time job in Cheltenham is there a job agency she could use

I disagree! Cheltenham is a wonderful place to live! It is lively and has many things for young people to do. I think it would be a wonderful place to move to and I wouldn't disregard it as an option.