Thetownend.com

Anyone live in Cricklade?  We're looking at moving, out of Swindon but close enough for work, and Cricklade came up in conversation.  Does anyone know of any areas to avoid, not being a snob, but not really interested in ex-council estates for example.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

I cant but my gramp lives there and my mother was bought up there, so I can ask!

My Gramps house just at the end of the high street and its pretty damn nice.

Alan McDonald used to live next door.

It gets flooded an awful lot. Not sure if this affects the houses but the area and roads around can get pretty buggered up.

My workmate used to live there and really liked the place.

Funny place Cricklade....I was in the club the other night...its got some poxy name like the Vale of White Horse Club, despite not being in the the VWH.  Decent place and  a couple of the pubs are OK, but what is teh point of living there?  

 I recall when my sister moved to Brinkworth....she soon moved back into Swindon, because there was fuck all in Brinkworth, so she had to keep driving into Swindon.

I don't really want to live in Swindon long term Reg, think the smaller towns around the town are nicer, that's all.

DV if you could find out some info that'd be grand!

Good point about the flooding Si, will have to look into that.

 Think about if you have kids though.....the small town places just breed chavs.

Like Gillingham

Carefull now Reginald, my Auntie runs that gaff.

 You neglect the bit where it says decent place  I thought it was called Cricklade WMC...although I might have dreamt it....then it appeared to be VWH club.  Which is, at best pretentious and  worst just factually wrong.

 VWH is essentially between Swindon and Abingdon...

  Little known fact, part 329...VWH hunt used to meet in The Square, opposite the The Bell up until the early 60's

As for housing in Cricklade, anything off the White Horse Road area is all council/ex-council. So are most of the places along Bath Road.

Apart from that, it's a pretty nice place. On the eastern side of the high street are the older houses, probably less liable to flooding than the newer houses on the expansion near the A419.

Avoid the Culverhay estate, as Sam says (White Horse Road is part of that estate).  Fucking horrible down there!!

Reg, the VWH Club is named after the local hunt, the VWH (Cricklade) are the ones that met in the Square and the kennels are just outside Cricklade at Maiseyhampton.  They split up in the early 1900's when Earl Bathurst formed his own pack at Cirencester Park, but amalgamated again in the 60's.  Still a big hunting tradition around that area.

  Ah....that would explain it then.  (Expects VWH club to get a visit from covert TEF hunt sabs clique now)

Moved to a small town just before my sons commenced school all at university now and definately NOT CHAVS.  In my experience parenting has a greater influence on a childs development than the environment and the chavs i know tend to be the product of families where the parents needs take priority over the childs needs.

Spot on

I agree with reg as far as there's a greater risk though. Once your kids start school you have to accept that, to an extent, your parenting influence is going to be muddied by the outside world. Small town = less range of different groups of friends to hang out with. Or something.

And anyway, if you're kids are at uni now they probably missed the new-wave of mega chavness the kids have peaked at over the last few years. Yeah you get your hard-core always there chavs, but it's really blossomed into a youth lifestyle now, but they really need to started on the chav road by 12.

Small Town and not chavs? They aren't Emo kids or Goths are they? Not sure what'd would be worse  :D .

Fuck knows what I'm on about, some fine line between a joke post and seriousness possibly. I've confused myself a little bit.

I think you're spot on fB.

What that he's confused himself?  He confuses me!!!! :wink:

  fB's analysis is clarity itself.

I disagree fB, even if in a small town you're going to get groups of the nerdy kids, the chav kids, the skater emo kids etc. It's not as if you have to go to a metropolis to find them.

You might be right about the limitations when it comes to rarer interests. But then would you want to encourage kids to hang about with Goth, D&D Playing, Jazz Musicians? Probably not.

I suppose that in a small town you might be more limited to the people you directly know around you, which I'll admit could lead to a more likely pulling in towards a certain crowd. But then that's more likely to set the seed when you're a bit younger, when parents still have more control over who their kids hang about with.

And to be fair, there's not that much more to chaviness than the classic teenage lifestyle anyway. Yeah you might talk bollocks, you're fashion sense might be a bit crap and you're taste in music will suck more balls than gay billiards player; but socially it's still going to be about going down the park, getting pissed on cider and seeing how far you can get with that drunk bird you like.

Just make sure the kids know about contraception, which should be a requirement anyway.

Culverhay is the ghetto but some of the houses on the high street are alright. I wouldn't say it floods that much unless you live next to the Thames. There are quite a lot of chavs actually. Weed is very popular also. It's a pretty dull place in general.

North Wall at the far end next to the Thames is alright - lot of kids growing up there in the 80's, and their parents are starting to move on now (55 to 60-ish) allowing a new generation of parents to move in with kids/starting families.
Quiet roads for playing out (many a game of rollerhockey out there) and there's a local 'green' for football (jumpers for goalposts and all that!)
Not a bad place and your local is the Red lion or White lion (I forget the name)

They are both in the High Street, as are all the pubs in Cricklade!!

There's some proper weirdos in Cricklade, quite a few of them as well. Really strange place. Got quite a few mates that live there that I knew from School if you want any info from them....

I think you should move back to Calne!  :wink:
even though its a funny little deprived place full of inbreds!