Considering moving to Westbury, any insight?

[Olchik]

Hi! We are looking for a place to move out of London and I came across some nice houses in Westbury, Wiltshire. The only thing is that I can't seem to find any hospital with A&E around??? What A&E do people go to?
Also is Westbury a nice place to live?

The Royal United hospital Bath or Salisbury District hospital are your nearest A+E for Westbury.
Personally i think it’s a run down, miserable place. The town centre is grim and it’s surrounded by new housing estates without the infrastructure to support them. There is a train station but you need to go to Bath to get on the mainline for London or Bristol.
The surrounding countryside is nice but that’s it’s only plus point.

I'm about half hour from westbury, and no I'd not recommend it. Like the poster before me said, it's run down, just a drive through town, and surrounded by new estates. It's not great.

Thank you for such valuable information! What places would you recommend instead? I just need it to be commutable to London due to work (under 1h direct train ideally). Budget under 550 for a detached 3-4bed....

I see thank you so much for letting me know! I will avoid it then. Any other areas you recommend instead?

Trains from Pewsey are about an hour and the area is nice, as is Devizes and the surrounding area.
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/64340898/?search_identifier=e489d4f914dd32ead2d9f01a02bf2d2ef00b84c2006b0b9f7dd54075a44fa674

I wouldn’t really recommend Westbury either though the villages nearby are nice.

My local station is at Kemble in Gloucestershire. It’s 1h 10m to Paddington, with direct trains every hour or so. For your budget you could look at Cirencester and villages and towns surrounding - beautiful countryside, but still commutable to London, and lots of larger towns and cities in easy reach - Gloucester, Cheltenham, Swindon, Bath and Bristol are all quick and easy to get to when you miss city amenities.

What A&E do people go to?

RUH at Bath

Also is Westbury a nice place to live?

No, very rundown and deprived

Bath is 1hr20, there's a few detached 3 beds within your budget ATM in nice areas of Bath

You could also consider smaller areas on the outskirts such as Corsham

Chippenham a possibility too

I would look at Chippenham (mainline train to London), Devizes (about 8 miles from Chippenham and I would happily live there!), Corsham, Trowbridge perhaps . Bradford on Avon is nice but a traffic bottleneck, Melksham is ok-ish but shopping centre isn’t particularly good.

Devizes has gone down hill in recent years, and it's half hour from the motorway.
Chippenham is big now, good connections, good train station.
Trowbridge is awful, don't move there.
Melksham is small and quiet, can get train to Swindon..
Corsham is small, not much there, but about 20 mins from bath

Corsham is very pleasant (we live in bath so know it well) - but you will need to drive 10 minutes to get to the train at Chippenham- Chippenham itself well worth a look- it's not amazing shopping wise but you are 12 minutes on train into Bath or 20 minutes driving.

How about newbury ?

@JenniferJupiterVenusandMars Chippenham looks great! But does it have a&e? Hospital?

@Crikeyalmighty looked at Newbury and it is great but it has no hospital and no a&e nearby and I feel a bit nervous about it as I have a baby I want to feel sure that I can get help quickly if needed

Have you considered Salisbury? Trains to Waterloo, A&E, nice little city centre. It does get busy on the ring road but I've known worse. It has been a few years since I was last there so it may have changed a bit.

@Olchik I'm not the worlds biggest fan of Swindon but it has all that- same with oxford (fab hospital) - although you might have to adjust a bit on houses

Chippenham isn't far from Swindon hospital, for very specialist it's easy to get to Southmead (Bristol just off m5) or the various specialty hospitals eg eyes, children's in centre of Bristol). Bath isn't too bad either but traffic can be horrendous

Alternatively live near Bristol parkway

Chippenham Community Hospital has a minor injuries unit but nothing overnight. If you drive via the A420 to RUH it’s about a 30 minute drive depending on time of day.

How much commuting do you need to do and any reason it has to be west of London?

I say this because the line into Paddington is really really expensive if it's regular (we live in bath so I know exactly how much and my H drives in once every 8 days)

Is there a reason too that you can't look at semis?? Because it's still quite a low budget on detached houses in nicer areas.

A&Es are in Swindon, Bath and Salisbury. Next nearest are Oxford snd Bristol. The part of the world you are looking at is not overrun with hospitals. It's a rural part of the country, with no major cities and no universities, so the services are not the same as in other places.

And kindly....lots of people moved from London in lockdown and have unhappily discovered there are no taxis, no deliveroo, muddy etc. I'd honestly go and stay in some of these places and see whether you like it.

@cloudglazer that's why we live in Bath (and pay for privilege) as it has all of these and a decent hospital

Personally I would go for a semi in a good area rather than a detached in an area with poor facilities- the reason I asked about commuting though is I wouldn't live out to the west at all if you need to commute via train regularly- it's hugely expensive

I live in Keynsham. Its midway between Bristol and Bath. It's also on the right side of Bath to get to the RUH. We also have direct buses to Southmead Hospital in Bristol, plus buses to Bristol bus station and a few minutes walk to the BRI, children's hospital and eye hospital.
We are also on the main rail line between Bristol and Paddington Station, and we also have a direct bus link to Bristol Airport (it's buses, taxis or private vehicles only as there's no rail link to the airport).

There is a mainline Direct to Paddington from Westbury. Its usually people that don’t live in the places that slate them.
Although no A&E the White Horse Health Centre is amazing and there is lots of Countryside for walks and outings. High Street shops are limited but you can get everything you need on a daily basis without going out of town. The Town Council are always trying improve the town and there is a great community spirit “ if you bother to get involved”. 😀

A lot of my family live in Westbury/Bratton and one street at one time everyone was related to someone else on the street.

They live there because it's better than Trowbridge 😀