[Closed] Moving to Stroud Area

@Querty to the forum please...

Stroud is horrible. Whiteshill is Stroud for people who don’t want to admit they live in Stroud. Nailsworth is OK. As is Minch, or anywhere Tetbury or Cirencester direction. The villages up the painswick or slad valleys are nice too (and have the best riding).

We moved into the area 3 years ago, and we love it. We're a mile from Nailsworth up near Minch. Nailsworth has got everything we need, we only go into Stroud for a supermarket, or to the excellent Farmers Market.

For us it's the perfect mix of green, with cracking views, good schools, good pubs, and still being close to amenities when you need them. I wouldn't personally be looking at Stroud itself.

Where we are, houses either never make it onto the market because they're sold through local contacts, or they tend to be on the market for ages because they're over priced.

Totally disagree 5thelephant, Stroud's great, wooded valleys all around, plenty riding in all directions, interesting mix of industrial and rural, mixed demographic, loads of friendly interesting people, too much good stuff to list

Thanks for the replies. I've been to Stroud a few times and generally liked it, but the town centre itself seems a bit drab? 5thelephant I like your description of Whiteshill, it just seemed a very pretty village without seeming overly prim like some of the Cotswold villages do. Love Slad valley but not sure if it has much of a community, it's pricey. We're have a young kid so ideally after somewhere good for families with a bit going on.

You called...........

We moved here from North London in 2011, we saved over £500 on our car insurance just by moving from EN1 to GL5, so it has its positives.

In 3 words: Affluent, hippy & chavvy = Stroud.

Its a bit of a mish mash of housing types & values all thrown in together. Some of the newer estates / builds will be more of the same.

Your only over the hill in Cheltenham so pop over and trawl around the mean streets.

Stroud gets a lot of stick for some of its negatives, but trust me, those negatives are still present in the surrounding "nicer" towns too.

For us its a place where people still say hello when they pass you walking along the street, people tend to make eye contact as opposed to avoiding it, none of the schools are "bad" and none of them have security staff or metal detectors at the gates, traffic quietens down around 8pm, deer come out and munch on the grass on Dr Newtons Way in the middle of the night, commuting along the canal i see herons fishing daily & kingfishers a couple of times a week, its rather hilly in a short sharp climb kinda way for doorstep MTBing, no one will bat an eyelid at whatever you choose to wear, you can live a 5-10 min pedal from Waitrose & feel like you live rather rurally, the many folds of the valleys reveal some rather lovely views, buzzards patrol the skies.

Come to the farmers market on a Saturday 09:30-12:30 and then come and walk through the town centre on a mid week morning around 10:30.

What do you want out of the move to Stroud?

Thanks qwerty

A number of reasons - to be closer to countryside, a bit more for your money than Cheltenham, hopefully less stuck up than Cheltenham (I find people here can be quite rude). I also like the hills with the views, whereas 'nam is very flat (which does have its positives for riding around town!) The countryside around Stroud seems lovely, without that stuffiness I tend to feel when going into Cotswold villages further west

PS: Stroudie bikepacking nite

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I would say the Stroud Valleys have everything you are looking for, however getting to 'nam in the morning can be a bugger. The few times I've tried to get there before 9am has been nose to tail traffic from J11 towards town. The route via Painswick can be as bad.

When I was changing jobs last year I favoured jobs in Bristol to Chelt as its quicker to get to! Maybe look M5 side of town for this reason (Stonehouse/The Stanley's etc)

Oh, and despite what people say about Stroud, I think it's a nice place to be espeically when the Farmers market is on. There's also a few nice bars and places to eat of an evening as well.

I'm in Cam so not far from the hippie metropolis of Stroud. I think it's great, farmers market, subscription rooms, nice pubs. Daughter schools in Stroud too so I'm there a fair bit. Very nearly moved to Stroud from Kent but at the time we couldn't find somewhere we liked. There's some great biking, road and MTB and some kind fella from this here forum organised a great CX/gravel/MTB ride this new year too. Did I mention the brewery, great pizzas and beers.

I’ve lived in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Cirencester and now Stroud for the last seven years, so I feel Stroud works for us. Really disagree with 5thElephant’s comment, unless it was tongue-in-cheek.

You say ‘Stroud’, but as I soon learned, what most people mean is the Stroud valleys (as mentioned above), because it’s a collection of villages, some of which have merged.

Stroud town centre has lots of mini roundabouts that tend to be where the congestion forms. Worth considering if your route is going through the town. If you’re west of the town, then you could cut north-west through Stonehouse, or sit bumper to bumper on the A419 all the way to the M5.

Don't forget, depending where you are in Stroud & where you want to end up in Cheltenham, you have a few route options. From our end we have Old Bisley Road or Claypits or Toadsmoor & then Bisley, The Camp, Birdlip, Crickley Hill and drop into Cheltenham from there.

Have lived in Minch for 15y now and never thought Cheltenham was much of a prob to get to, provided you avoid the A46. So like qwerty it’s over the tops and down Lecky hill for town side, or round the M5 and along the A40 for gchq side. Eldest at school in Cheltenham so go at different times and it’s fine. Would rather drive to Cheltenham than Bristol...
Stroud is great in a quirky way, it is getting better (less scuzzy), but will thankfully never be totally gentrified due to its alternative edge. If you want gentrified try Ciren (although less so since Pateman’s closed 😞). Nailsworth was a dump 15y ago but has undergone a regeneration, all the 5 valleys are more “fashionable” these days as they are better value than N or E Cotswolds and less of the “crunchy gravel set”, but enough of a mix of people to make genuinely a great place to live.
Trails do become sticky slop in the winter though (thinking pedalling downhill 😞)

We live in Ciren, and when we were looking to buy five years ago we discounted Stroud. In the past, on here, I've given Stroud a bit of a hard time (including, I'm pretty sure, on Qwerty's original "thinking of moving to Stroud" thread).

We will now happily admit that we were wrong. If we were moving again within the area we'd definitely look at Stroud, mainly because of the hippy/unpretentious vibe. It's just a down to earth place than the surrounding area. Saying that though, as above, It's worth working out which bits of the valleys you're interested in, cos it's pretty spread out.

Really disagree with 5thElephant’s comment, unless it was tongue-in-cheek.

If you're looking for not-posh, cheap and close to nice places then Stroud is a good bet. Whiteshill and Nailsworth even better.