Anyone in Bath/Bristol?

I am interested in hearing from anyone who is in Bristol or Bath -- especially those with kids. I am currently in Brighton but a potential job could take me West to Bristol.

How is Bristol as a place to live, and a place to raise kids?
What are the schools like -- which ones do you recommend (or caution against)?
Which are the more family-friendly neighborhoods to live in?

How about Bath -- is that a nicer/more affordable option? Is it commutable to the center of Bristol?

So, yeah, those are my main questions. What do you like/dislike about the area, and how does it compare to other places you have lived?

I know you're not officially an expat, but there are lots of people with families (and singletons) on this FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/USEXPATSINBRISTOL/

I rate Bristol very highly, but it depends on how you are looking to live.

Good point -- I guess I'm mainly after quality of life and work-life balance. Brighton (where I am now) is lovely, but it is so expensive to live here and it seems to have become a sort of offshoot of London. I am looking for friendly people, natural beauty, and decent cultural offerings. Ideally I'd like to be in a situation where we could have a decent life on one income, so that my wife could take some time off work or maybe go part time.

I reckon if you don't require having city life immediately around you, you could live on the outskirts of Bristol (or Bath) much more cheaply than in the cities.  From what I know, Bath is more expensive, more homogenous, less colourful and diverse.  The nature of Bath is to be upper crusty and everything same-samey.  I'm sure there are parts with 'regular' people living regular lives and all but from my perspective it's a town that values it's 'civility' above all.

Bristol is earthy, diverse and very colourful; graffiti is art, buildings are canvases, and people are people.  Depending on where you can afford to live, your experience will vary.  The closer you get to the city centre, the more densely populated and potentially iffy the area gets.  I hear of the lower income borough of St Pauls as being crime ridden while my friend in the the upper income area of Henleaze considers my neighborhood somewhat of a slum.  I've never experienced problems where I am but other people have.  It's a crap shoot. 

If you can get out of the city, you will probably find yourself in a quiet village where it's cheaper and friendly.  Public transport here is not always fabulous though and it could take you 40 minutes or so to get here from 10 miles away on a bus.

In general, North of the city tends to leafy and quiet (but farther removed from the centre), East of the city generally is considered more dicey (but very culturally and artistically diverse) and South of the city is very artistic, but less diverse  (tending to the tired and economically depressed side but slowly reviving).
 

I lived on the edge of Clifton, which is said to be a nicer area...very close to city centre, which I liked a lot. There seems to be something going on there all the time. It is funky and a bit studentish. There are these little gap areas you can find close to centre where housing isn't quite so bad. Holly's assessment may be more up-to-date, I was there seven years ago.

But Bristol as a whole I liked very much and actually miss.

Thanks all for the info. Some interesting points to ponder here.

Is anyone in/near Portishead? I love the band, but what's the town like?

hi Arthur_dent...
Can't say i've ever lived in Bristol, but have been making truck deliveries in and around the area for the last 10 years. I have grown up about 20 miles north of the Bristol.
hollyberrys description of Bristol and Bath is spot on. Both have two universities, and specialist industries. In my opinion Bath trades on it's world heritage status  and roman baths to much and as such never feels as though it is lived in...
The public transport links between the two cities are OK...they are expensive, but a regular bus service runs every 15 minutes or so.
 However Bristol has some of the worst congestion in the country...worse than London in my opinion!!
(not helped by road closures and improvement works going on at the moment!)
So if you are planning to commute i would factor that into where you buy!
on the plus side Bristol has ALOT for kids to see and do...the museum, the aqaurium, @bristol and the zoo. Plus the annual Harbour and food festivals, and Aardman animation are also here so they usually get involved in the fun a few times a year! There are also lots of parks, the Downs and Ashton Court are both free council run parks which are well used by the communites...and lots of things are usually free, or just a chill and relax on the harbourside...and LOTS of shopping opportunities in Bristol.
As for Portishead? It is basically a commuter town. It has a few large chains like co-op, lidl and waitrose, but mostly it's a local high street with independant shops. until recently it was a relatively small town but they have just built a massive new housing development, with some new bars along the marina. (so again big increase in commuter numbers into bristol)

If you are used to the beaches, sadly you'd need to travel to Weston-super-Mare for that, but easy to get to by car of train.
If you are looking out of the city, i would suggest places like Thornbury/Wotton-under-Edge/Dursley area. (I might be biased as this is where i grew up!) but they have all retained their own character whilst only being 30-45 minutes out of Bristol...
but a car would be essential as public transport is an issue out in the coutryside

I am currently looking to buy my first place in Gloucester, and have found that rightmove will map the local schools and a provides a direct link to the ofsted report if that's of any help.

Best of luck with your move!

If you are looking out of the city, i would suggest places like Thornbury/Wotton-under-Edge/Dursley area. (I might be biased as this is where i grew up!) but they have all retained their own character whilst only being 30-45 minutes out of Bristol...
but a car would be essential as public transport is an issue out in the coutryside

Ooh, that's interesting... I grew up in Thornbury myself .

I do drive when I'm back there, but the public transport isn't all that bad, is it? At least not so much from Thornbury - hourly First buses into Cribbs Causeway and Bristol, plus fairly regular local company buses to Bristol Parkway/UWE/Chipping Sodbury etc.

I love the Bristol area and would love to move back there one day. The city has loads of character and lots going on - it's so bright and fun and vibrant compared to where I currently live. Thornbury itself is a lovely, safe town - I believe a few years ago it was voted one of the Top 10 towns in the country to raise kids in .

Unfortunately, my job dictates where I live and there are no locations in my company that are close to Bristol so I have to grin and bear it for now (the closest offices are in Devon and Oxfordshire)... in the last 4 years I've lived in Exeter, Shrewsbury and Lincoln (and abroad) for work.

Right now I'm in Lincoln, and I spend a fair amount of time wishing I was back in Bristol again - the city is way too small (about 1/5 the population of Bristol), and the transport links here are terrible compared to Bristol (expensive and long, complicated journeys to other cities). Plus, the traffic can be awful because the city is not well-designed for it (small, one-way roads and dead-ends everywhere, plus a level crossing right on the busiest part of the high street which stops traffic every few minutes for several minutes at a time), and half the shops I need to go to are not even in the city which means I have to travel 40-50 miles just to buy things that I need .

Hi d-a-d,

I live in Bath, and while there are a lot of tourists here it's also a very nice place to call home. It is a small city but Bristol is a 15 minute train ride away. Housing is expensive--it's definitely no cheaper than Brighton--so that's something to consider. Traffic is awful but we rarely use our car. It's a great city for walking and I'd say all parts of Bath are within walking distance to both the city centre and green fields.

I might add that there are plenty of normal folk in Bath but I am not one of them! I steer well away from peons!!! Filthy things!!! If you have anything less than a grammar school education I advise to stay well away from this small but well preserved bubble of true civilisation.