Relocation to Bristol

[Ontheflipside_]

Hello, looking for some advice on areas in and around Bristol for a young family.

We currently live in West Sussex but are looking to relocate to Bristol. We have a 3yo and 2nd baby due in January. DH's brother and his gf live in Bristol, I have friends in Bristol/Bath and Calne. It will also put us closer to my husbands parents who are in Cornwall.

We are outdoorsy and have a dog so not too bothered about being in city centre although we would like to be easily commutable by train or bus. Good schools are also vital.

Budget £500-£600k. Any area suggestions please? So far we've been recommended Keynesham.

Id definitely recommend East Bristol, keynsham, or closer to the centre, fishponds/downend.

Thornbury is very nice too and you'll get more space there.

It really depends what you are looking for and your priorities. Might be worth visiting schools too if you get kids.

Ah my brother in law has also recommended Fishponds/Downend. My main concern was no train station into the city centre

How often have you been to Bristol?

Why the need for train? Fishponds and Downend have some of the best routes into town, a lot more frequent than any trains from Keynsham station for sure.

I live near Keynsham. Forever jealous of my East Bristol friends, their transport is a lot better than mine for sure. Have lived here all of my life.

^ Bus, routes that is. Sorry realised after it posted I must have missed that part. But their buses are very frequent and run early / late too.

Ah ok that's really interesting to know. I work in London so would need to commute about once per month and thought getting the train to Temple Meads and then into London would be easier/ quicker than a bus then train but maybe not if they're more infrequent.

Food for thought... Thank you

Agree - Thornbury lovely if not fussed on the city living. And the T1 is a pretty good link.

Ok great, I'll look into Thornbury also, thank you

I also regularly travel to London (more so than once per month) for other reasons.

Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway (North Bristol) both run to London, though Keynsham doesn't and as you say you would have to train to TM first. But we also have very frequent coaches (3h journey time usually) from Bristol Bus Station, right in the city centre, and the University of the West of England (UWE) which is North Bristol not far from Parkway.

I would say the train timings from Keynsham due to it not being the most frequent link into the city would likely often involve a wait to change train and may not run at the best times for that switch so could be a little frustrating, but saying that I never do it (I bus, then train/coach - sometimes I coach in and train back, save on costs and only have one long journey) but obviously not an option for everyone. Depends how much time you can allow for the journey 🙂

Look at backwell - has station, bit cheaper than Bristol so your money will get a good house. Excellent dog walking opportunities and secondary is the one people want to go out of area to. South of the city so getting to Cornwall is simpler, you get straight onto the m5. There's direct trains to London from backwell first thing in the morning!

I live in Keynsham. We have station with trains to Bristol, Bath, London Paddington, Cardiff and Weymouth. We also have buses to Bristol Airport, Bristol and Bath bus stations and Southmead Hospital. There's a number of primary schools and a couple of secondary schools.
There's another couple of satellite towns around Bristol that have good transport links includingrail. . Nailsea to the south Yate to the north.

Alternatively look at north Bristol close to parkway station, I just don't know how nice it is, I've driven through going to the station and seems like 70's estates.

Parts of Bristol are very very expensive, I live to the west in n Somerset but unfortunately our station is still not built, was meant to be completed last year and they keep putting it on hold

Backwell or Congresbury - direct trains to London, just outside the city but not in the middle of nowhere. Good schools and nurseries.

Thank you 🙏🏼

Ooh not heard of Backwell. Thank you. Are the primary schools good?

Sorry just seen someone else saying schools are good.

Does anyone know what the schools around Fishponds are like?

Winterbourne/Frampton Cotterell worth a look - close to Parkeay

*Parkway

I wouldn't go anywhere near fishponds/downend, but everyone is different.

If you need the train to london then near Bristol Parkway (technicaly in south glos) or bristol temple meads are your best bet.

I'd definitely look at Fishponds/Downend. Specifically Thingwall park/Everest road.

• good transport links to the centre (though most people I know cycle)
• catchment area for some lovely primaries (Glenfrome, Avanti etc) and we're hearing good things about the secondary options (Fairfield and Met) too
• easy walking distance to the high street which has supermarkets, lovely brunch places, charity shops, pubs (the star has a traditional skittles alley and often has wonderful music nights in the garden), opticians etc
• on the doorstep you have eastville park and the Frome valley walkway which leads through to snuff mills, Oldbury court, stoke park etc. You don't feel like you're in the city.
• very easy to access the Bristol/bath cycle path which makes visiting beautiful places like Bitton, Willsbridge and Bath very easy
• absolutely top notch community. They have arts trails where people show off their wares either in or outside their homes, the allotments do things like apple day where everyone gathers for scrumping, there's music, cake, BBQs, entertainment for the kids etc. There are often play streets and things like that, everyone knows eachother on the walk to school which is through the park along the river.

Honestly it's lush. Can't recommend it enough

Further into Downend I don't know so well but we go for the parks and kids spaces. Page Park is often voted as a fantastic local hub and a top park to visit. There's lots on for families.

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Oops sorry @ellseca didn't mean to quote you!

Ooh this is really insightful, thanks so much! Pretty contrasting to the post above so I think we need to visit the area and get a proper feel. Thank you!

@Ontheflipside_ I would. My top tip would be to do some stuff you'd do if you lived there (like visit a playground as an idea) and speak to people there. See if they're local to that area, see if they're your type of people! Bristol feels like it's made up of pockets which are so diverse. There are some which I'd never want to live in (I really thought I did when I was looking but in retrospect it would have been too 'keeping up with the jones's' for me), some which are fine but didn't feel right for various reasons (IE bedminster is lovely, nice people, great high street but the gardens are felt tiny and I didn't love the type of houses). It wasn't till we really walked around the different zones, met people, tried the coffee shops etc that I realised I was better suited for some postcodes than others. Sure you'd make the most of wherever you ended up though! To me Keynsham feels more like another little town outside Bristol, a lot of people I know who live there don't visit the city a lot. They've no need to. So depends what you're after!

Quite a few people moving out to Hanham and Willsbridge ATM too so they might be worth a look.

When we relocated we rented for 6 months to get a feel for the city, and work out where we wanted to buy. It worked out well - we're still in the same area 18 years later 😂.

We also asked the people we were meeting where we should live - the same places kept being quoted to us, I think there was very much a feeling of 'people like you live in places like this'. It isn't like London where everyone literally lives anywhere.