Tell me everything about Melrose!

[KindnessCrusader]

We are a family of 6 (children aged 3, 6, 7 and 12) currently living in the South East and looking to move to Melrose, Scotland. My family are from Berwick so we kind of know the borders area but you can never truly know somewhere unless you live there can you?!
I'd love to hear your experiences of living in Melrose-of the schools, clubs for the children (particularly music based), the community, the church etc.
We are very involved in our community now-we love to volunteer and get stuck in with community projects and would love to do the same should we make the move to Melrose.
Thank you so much in advance!

I’m afraid I don’t know much about clubs etc, but am a regular visitor there and my parents lived nearby. It’s a lovely place.

It does suffer a bit from being a bit of a suburb of Galashiels. There are primary schools in Melrose, but high school is Gala, big supermarkets are in Gala etc. Gala is nice enough but not a picturesque and “posh” as Melrose.

It’s well placed fir the Borders railway up to Edinburgh, but the train journey does take about a million years because of the number of stops. Handy for teens who want to go into Edinburgh though.

Lovely walks over the hills, and along the Tweed at Abbotsford. Lovely kid-friendly walk from Abbotsford to Bowhill. Good links to other towns, in fact the local towns very much become a part of each other, Melrose, Selkirk, Bowden, St Boswells, Kelso. etc.

It’s quite a tourist town, but still with with a good local community spirit. Most community interaction is focussed around the rugby (very, very, very big part of life in Melrose), the riding (early summer gala), and horses.

They have a lovely book festival too, usually with some big names.

Join historic Scotland to get access to all the local Abbeys etc. Smailholm tower popular with the kids. Great adventure playground and walks at Bowhill, as well as community events around festivals Easter/Halloween etc. Also a nice community theatre.

Lovely bookshop nearby in St Boswells (Main Street Hare).

The wee ice cream shop diagonally across from the Abbey does some of the best ice creams in Scotland

Music lessons and clubs - Nomad Beat in Peebles are really really good, but about a half hour drive from Melrose. They might be able to point you at something more local though.

Melrose is a great place for families, with the countryside on your doorstep. It is more open to outsiders than many Borders towns, in part because it is more affluent and picturesque, so has always attracted 8

Pressed post too soon with my fat finger!

I was going to say, it always attracted retirees from outside the area, but recently has become very popular with families as well. A large part of the population are attached to the local hospital. The primary school is considered desirable, with a large number of out of catchment families choosing it over their local schools. As with all of Scotland there is no ranking system so you have to delve into each school's inspection report on the government website to see how it is performing. I have heard criticism of its special needs provision but I think that's a problem in many schools here. The catchment high school is Earlston which is one of the top two high schools in the Borders. There is also a private school, St Mary's, which goes up to age 13.

There are plenty of clubs, scouts, brownies, sports, arts etc available, not the range you find down south and you may have to travel to other local towns for some of these but not great distances. There is a music school in town and a few of the local towns have bands that children can join.

As pp said there is a good community spirit there but you will have to learn to love rugby! The Melrose 7s is massive and attracts a huge influx of visitors. The rest of the year it is popular with tourists but not to the point where it's annoying for locals. In common with all the Borders towns there is a festival in the summer which centres on a ride out but which has lots of other activities (community bike ride, fancy dress etc) that always get a big turn out.

Melrose Parish Church is Church of Scotland; the school do Easter and Christmas services there (or at least did until this year!) There is also an Episcopal Church and Catholic Church.

There's a small coop as well as butcher, bakers, greengrocer, deli and wine shop so you could theoretically do all your shopping in town but Tesco and Asda are nearby in Galashiels.

I moved to the Borders from the South many years ago and really felt I was in a backwater but now I have kids I can't think of anywhere I'd rather bring them up.

If you're looking online at property, Newstead, Darnick and Gattonside are adjoining villages within walking distance to Melrose.

Thanks so much all for your detailed and thoughtful replies.
It's so hard to know what to do for the best when you have children but your comments are cementing our decision to make the move!
I spoke to a lovely estate agent earlier today and we are now 'on the database'. He did say properties rarely come up for sale but we are happy to wait.
I'm feeling excited and nervous! Nervited!

Was it Rettie? They are probably your best bet as I imagine with a family of 6 you are looking for something on the larger side! I should warn you that it's not uncommon for houses in Melrose to change hands off the market--sorry, not that helpful as I have no idea how you go about it, however being local Rettie's should have an ear to the ground of potential sellers. Another agent to try might be MacPherson's; they're marketing a development of new builds in Gattonside. In fact there are a number of new build developments around Melrose of larger houses, Monkswood and Huntlyburn eg. Cullen Kilshaw is another agent in Melrose, they are a member of the local solicitors consortium called BSPC; it has its own website that's worth keeping an eye on although they mainly market more mid-range properties. The property market here is buoyant at the moment so be prepared to act fast!

Thanks @1000umbrellas those are brilliant tips! I spoke to Edwin Thompson but I will try the others you mentioned above. It's difficult at the moment because we can't (and wouldn't contemplate!) travel up there.

Yes it must be a nightmare trying to do research long distance. On the upside I'm stuck at home poking my phone so if you have any more questions ask away!

Thank you SO much @1000umbrellas I'm sure I'm going to think of lots more! One thing I am interested to know is if you're allowed to request a primary school that isn't your local. Say for example we moved to a neighbouring village would we be able to request a place at Melrose with the hope of moving there ASAP?!

I know nothing about Melrose specifically but do love the Borders.

Re schools, you need to make a "placing request" via the council but also register with your catchment school. There is really no trick to it, if they have space then they will allocate it to whoever applies. If a lot of people apply (usually for P1 spot or S1 for secondary school) then they will have a laid down list of criteria in order to allocate places if they don't have enough for all that apply. The council website should list these but it's usually something like:

Children with a special need for that school - e.g. they have a disability that only that school can cater for
Children who are "looked after" e.g. fostered/children's home
children from the council area with siblings at the school
children not from council area with siblings at the school
then usually distance etc.

It might be worth trying to see if there are any facebook groups for the area you want to move to as there might be useful info on there. Also, whiclt a school will never tell you that there will be space without you having applied through proper channels, it can be worth phoning and asking if they are normally able to allocate spaces to all applicants or not. Later primary years are generally easier than P1 but if you got your older DC in then that might mean extra priority for your younger.

Thanks so much @WaxOnFeckOff I'm coming from the South East where people are crazy about schools. We are lucky to have got in to our local school. There's been cases of siblings living a street away from school not getting in. People renting houses here but not living in them, things like that. I hate it! It sounds so much more relaxed up there. I can't see they subject the kids to SATS either which is another win!

Have you seen this house

My DC went to non catchment nursery (but that was because my two are only a year apart and we needed two spaces at the same time and local did pre school in the mornings and pre pre school in the afternoons - the other nursery was bigger and had both age groups available at the same time) , then catchment primary and then non-catchment high school. It's always a bit of a sweat waiting to hear about paces for younger siblings but hopefully for you it would just be a temporary thing, although I have no idea how busy the borders schools are. We have family with kids in the Borders but not Melrose.

Schools are much more relaxed about entrance here. Of the several dozen families with kids that I know in the area, none have had difficulty getting into their preferred school, and a couple have nice schools to non catchment with relative ease when they felt their kid would be better somewhere else.

Nice schools = moved schools
Strange autocorrect

What’s your budget? This is just slightly outside and needs work but is lovely and has huge potential.

I had an in law who lived there, so we spent many a weekend up there. My impressions are it’s a fairly typical borders market town, if you know the borders you’ll know what I mean, it’s a close knit one where everyone knows everyone, but more affluent than gala or Selkirk.

I’d honestly not be keen to move my kids there to be honest. There is not much left in the borders now, and there are many more opportunities in the south East. In my experience the borders now are either where you were born, bred and stayed, or a retirement place

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/68911262#/

That's lovely @Bluntness100 Not in budget right now but that kind of place is the dream!
Thanks for giving a different perspective, it's definitely something I worry about.

@Norah8 that's one we have our eye on!

Re: living out of catchment I would hate to advise you and then you discover you can't get a place, but Melrose Primary currently is not at capacity and everyone who has applied for a place there recently has got a place. Same with Earlston High School. The pressure on catchments is really nothing like the southeast, or even Edinburgh.

Re: the insular nature of the Borders, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with Bluntness but if you're from Berwick you'll have an idea of what its like.

@1000umbrellas I've never lived in Berwick, my Grandparents did. I have always lived in the South East. Unfortunately with the house prices here there's no chance we will ever be able to buy.
I feel like we could have the life we crave in Melrose. Open countryside, clean air and a slower pace.