Moving to Gloucestershire

[Bambi14]

Totally new here & no idea if I’m posting in the right section. So please bare with. Due to o/h working in Gloucester we are currently looking to relocate here from Wales. So far we have looked at properties in the following areas.

Lydney

Newent

Dursley

Hardwicke.
Ideally we’d like to move to a safe, semi rural location with a friendly community where in particular myself & my 2yr old can make new friends (attend some groups) as we will literally know nobody. I’m finding the concept of moving away from family quite daunting. So feel it’s really important to find the right location.
I’m also horse mad & love the outdoors so a location with a friendly livery yard & plenty of nice walks would be a huge bonus.

So basically if your from any of the above areas I’d love to know what you think or if you can recommend any other nice areas within Gloucestershire or areas to avoid it would be much appreciated ☺️ TIA xx

Wherever we move O/h would be commuting to Hardwicke Mon-fri for work, current commute time is 2hrs so anything under is a massive bonus!! With fuel prices etc it’s definitely just too much of a drive to continue driving from our end of Wales.
I’m currently a sahm so would only be looking to drive to a possible livery yard/toddler groups regularly. Neither of us are big ‘shoppers’ per say we do most of our shopping online. So that’s not a major factor for us. O/h does like a nice place to eat or a take away occasionally but we’d be happy to drive for that as it’s more of an occasional thing anyway. Otherwise its just having a nice safe neighbourhood with some nice dog walks & scenery.
So far we have viewed properties within budget in Lydney, one of which we did like. We should also be viewing a New build this weekend in Newent & a home in Dursley next week. We have seen a few within budget in -
Quedgeley - (mainly kingsway)
Longford
Innsworth
Brockworth
Tuffley.

I know Kingsway pretty well and actually it's fine. I have family who live there and everything is pretty much on your doorstep, playparks, shops, primary schools, nurseries. It has a very friendly vibe.

I also can thoroughly recommend some of the places in the Forest of Dean. If you like outdoor pursuits then it's great for the kids with Puzzlewood, Beechenhurst, Cannop Ponds, Soudley Ponds. It obviously has a completely different vibe to Kingsway and the other suburbs around Gloucester, very country. Some of the villages are great and have good primary schools. Newnham, Blakeney and Littledean might be worth a look for you. I

With the budget I would say Kingsway or huntsgrove. I think you will struggle in the older parts of Quedgeley budget wise. Kingsway does get a bad press but it's a huge area and some of the parts are nicer. The same for coopers edge. I had a house in Quedgeley and it was one of the nicers parts and about £100k cheaper than it would have been in Stroud area.

I really would avoid Dursley personally, same for the forest if you're looking long term as I know teens can find it quite hard transport wise.

Personally I would find something newish and am sure you will find a good community as lots of people have settled in Kingsway / hardwicke in recent years due to the number of new houses. Feel free to pm

I'm in Kingsway & touch wood had no issues in the decade I've been here. Go out running late at night etc & never feel unsafe or threatened. Lovely neighbours & happy for my kids to get themselves about locally.
Itsnot semi rural though.
Be mindful that there is a shed load of housing developments planned between Hardwick & Stroud as well as North of Gloucester which will impact on some of the villages

The new Great Oldbury development on the outskirts of Stonehouse might be an option? Easy commute to Hardwicke and lots of investment in the area.

I used to work in Quedgeley and found it awful, lots of drugs etc, but obviously everyone has different experiences. We nearly bought there prior to getting to know it and I am pleased we didn't in the end. I would go Forest of Dean way woth your budget. Lydney has improved massively and has a nice community feel now, the villages around are really good too. Consider looking at Yorkley, Parkend, Whitecroft, Pillowell sort of area. The last couple of years they have all had lots of people relocate from places like Bristol so there are lots of people who are also settling in and getting to know each other. Aylburton and Alvington are also nice. Stroud I found a little uncomfortable feeling.

Northway or Bredon maybe? Villages just outside of Tewkesbury. You’d be looking at a three bed semi on that budget. The rest of the hill would probably be out of budget but worth a look.

Bishop’s Cleeve or Tewkesbury are affordable on your budget but might feel a bit suburban/town/big if you want rural.

The Forest of Dean is lovely but a massive pain in terms of commute.

@JustAnotherViper Interested what makes you say FOD is a pain to commute from? We find it really good for Cheltenham/Gloucester, even London isn't bad because you can hop onto the M4. I suppose if you don't have a car it may be trickier. Not saying your view is wrong at all, just different to what we have experienced living here.

Make sure you check very carefully for flooding. A number of the places mentioned can flood badly and in some area new build is on the flood plain. Look at the environment agency website for details.

@JONSAR Thank you, we’ve been made aware of flooding in Tewkesbury & Longford but nowhere else so I will definitely do some more research.

Upton st leonards
tewkesbury
minchinhampton
hartpury
and of course Cheltenham!

If you don’t need the London or Bristol side of Gloucestershire for any reason, or rail links, I don’t see any point in paying the premium to live in places like Tewksbury or Stroud. I would suggest you hop over the border to Herefordshire and look at Ross on Wye, it’s beautiful, friendly, many women I know are horse crazy and you could get a lovely house and garden for £325. Takes 30 mins to get to Gloucester. The high school in Ross has gone a bit shit recently but it’s getting a new headteacher and just spent millions on a new computing block, my DC will go there in a few years and many students go on to study at top universities after completing their exams. Crime is extremely low and nearly everyone I’ve met in the few years I’ve lived here is friendly, helpful and genuinely community-minded.

Upton st Leonard's is lovely. I lived there for 10 years. Very horsey.
My daughter lives in Storehouse
She loves it there. She works in the centre of Gloucester and it takes her just over half an hour.
There are some lovely villages around there.
Ecotricity are building a large stadium, hotel and care home on the M5 end of Stonehouse There are houses around here well within your budget.
Stroud has a comprehensive and a girls and a boys grammar school. My daughters stepson goes to a village school just on the edge of stonehouse which is Outstanding. .

I'd agree with others who have suggested Herefordshire. Ross and Ledbury are good options.

@Bambi14 - you mentioned houses in

" Quedgeley - (mainly kingsway)
Longford
Innsworth
Brockworth
Tuffley"

None of those especially fit the outdoorsy lifestyle you describe other than potentially Longford - and you have to be very careful with flooding there. Even if you're not in a part of Longford that floods, you could get cut off.

All of the other places on that list are essentially urban residential areas, definitely nothing like semi-rural living. And all of those mentioned have some very iffy parts so you'd need to be quite careful.

I agree Ross and Hereford are lovely - but it is a bit of a trek for your DH if he's going to be working in Hardwicke. Stonehouse suggested by a PP is a very good shout - avoid Little Australia, the rest of it is quite nice and has the benefit of both Gloucester and Stroud nearby as well as lots of countryside. Dead easy to get to Hardwicke too.

Also worth mentioning re Tewkesbury - not all of it is prone to flooding. If you go away from the town and towards Ashchurch/Evesham direction you have the M5 if the A38 floods so you won't get cut off. And lots of green and space.

Highnam would be a good option. It's just on the outskirts and is a nice area. I would avoid living too far out to avoid travelling .

I have lived in Gloucester all my life. Personally I would recommend on your budget:

Longlevens
Churchdown
Innsworth
Longford
Hucclecote

There are lots of new houses being built in Innsworth including a new shopping centre and these connect to the new builds in Longford / Twigworth.

I would opt for a Gloucester location as of the groups, libraries, shops, cafes etc you want but there are other areas to avoid which I won't list on here but happy to pm these if you want.

@Ladybird777
if your happy to pm me areas to avoid that would great too. I know not everyone will share the same opinion anyway but the more info we have to look at the better. :)

Update - Thanks for all your suggestions. We had a good weekend travelling around different areas. Saw mostly new build sites this time around but unfortunately we weren’t aware of the service/estate management fees that come with nearly all new builds these days. Which has put us off slightly after reading horror stories online about prices rising each year! So we may need to reevaluate & look at some older properties but at least it’s given us an idea of the some of the areas available in our budget.
We did like a property in longford but slightly concerned about the flood risk.