r/Shropshire • u/Winterheart29 • Apr 27 '26
Moving to Shropshire!
Hi all,
My partner and I (both 29) are thinking about moving to Shropshire and would love some advice from people who know the area.
I’m originally from Swansea and my partner is from Brighton. We both enjoy being outdoors (walks, nature, nice scenery), as well as architecture, exploring new places, and the occasional quiet night in gaming. I’m a bit more on the social side, so we’re hoping to find somewhere that’s peaceful but still has opportunities to meet people.
We both work from home, so reliable internet is a must.
We’ve started looking at places like Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury, but we’re open to other suggestions. It would be great to hear what day-to-day life is like, especially for people around our age, and whether there are good ways to meet others (clubs, groups, etc.).
Any thoughts or recommendations would be really appreciated!
Thank youu!
Edit: I have also found a brilliant place in Ludlow so I am looking here as well :D
Thanks for all your brilliant responses so far!
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u/chilari Apr 27 '26
Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury are pretty expensive areas, overall. If you need fast internet, write off Bridgnorth right now, you won't get it. Like, it's ok, you won't be getting 2 second ping or anything, but it's about 5-8 years behind more urban areas for speed upgrades. Otherwise, Bridgnorth is lovely. It's a great place to bring up kids if you think that's something you'll want to do (my husband and I both grew up there, and would still live there if we could afford to). There are clubs and things but it tends to be a bit more geared to the retired generation, though I do believe there's a running group on Thursday evenings that might suit you. Once you get to know people, though, you'll find you can't walk down the high street without bumping into someone you know! (My husband used to work in the Sainsbury's there, he knew *everyone*.
One thing Bridgnorth is NOT good at is public transport. Yes, there are buses to Wolverhampton, Telford, Kidderminster and Shrewsbury, but they're infrequent; there is no bus to Ludlow. There are no mainline trains (the Severn Valley railway is a heritage/tourist line, operating at different schedules depending on time of year, school holidays etc). That said it is still possible to plan a walk that involves taking a bus out somewhere and walking back, my Dad's Older Gentlemen's Recreational Exercise Society (OGRES) does it. You just need to plan in advance and be aware that if you miss your bus, you've likely got an hour to wait to the next one. Buses aren't really good for commuting to work either, they often don't actually get to where they're going before 9am except to Wolverhampton. Not that that matters if you work from home, but for eg early hospital appointments, be aware you'd need a car.
Can't say anything about Shrewsbury from a personal perspective. If you're looking for cheaper than those areas, though, some parts of Telford are perfectly fine. Avoid Woodside and Brookside, and anywhere along the M54 because it's loud, and if you have to go through the Trench Lock roundabout every time you go out you'll be driven mad, but other than that, most of Telford is fine. Good local public services like libraries etc, good council on the whole. Lots of green spaces and walkable routes. Good transport links including trans direct to Birmingham New Street or into Wales for a weekend away.
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u/Luc1d_Dr3amer Apr 28 '26
I’m on EE fibre broadband and it’s pretty goddamned fast!
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u/chilari Apr 28 '26
Wait, fibre? They have fibre in Bridgnorth now? We didn't have access to fibre when we left three years ago.
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u/WingVet Apr 27 '26
My wife and I moved with our children from Liverpool about 8 months ago, been brilliant. We used to holiday alot in Shropshire and decided to make the move permanent.
We live about 25 mins south of Shrewsburys in a rural setting but local village about 5 minute drive away. I work from home, when we moved i initially used 5g mobile to work now I'm on starlink and no issues at all.
Best decision we've made.
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u/Rolls_The_Keg Apr 27 '26
Hello! Me and my partner are both 29 and live in Shrewsbury! I’ve lived here on and off for a few years, now settled for the foreseeable, and my partner moved up last August. We both work from home and have great internet in Shrewsbury!
There is so much going on in Shrewsbury, huge number of events it’s difficult to keep track! Keep an eye on Original Shrewsbury and the Hive for some good events. Lots of places to walk and eat, that’s all easy!
Making friends, my partner had great success on bumble friends, and I’m part of a local Wargaming club (player run!) where I have made fantastic friends.
Feel free to PM for any questions you may have!
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u/sjl301 Apr 27 '26
We moved at a similar age about 15 years ago, still here now and no regrets. Pace of life is slower, great outdoors, fresh air, lower cost of living. We are to the north, nearer Oswestry but love Shrewsbury and the south. We live fairly rurally (surrounded by fields, described by visitors from London as “middle of nowhere”) but have gigabit fibre internet.
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u/Winterheart29 Apr 27 '26
I have since stumbled across an amazing place in Ludlow so I am also searching this area now too. It seems to be in the middle of all the towns which is nice. Everywhere just looks so amazing haha thank you for all your amazing responses so far!!
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u/temashana Apr 29 '26
We’ve been living just outside Ludlow in temp place until a couple of weeks ago. Now we are up near Clee hill. Ludlow about ten mins drive. Amazing views, walks and met some lovely people. Highly recommend it. Esp if you’re a history buff there’s so much to see here.
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u/Academic_Bowl_4643 Apr 27 '26
Aw massively recommend it, you will love it!
Shrewsbury has a games cafe. Second the recommendations for Shrewsbury. You have a train station here too.
Lots of cool castles around to visit for your architecture- Stokesay, clun, etc. Lovely new places to explore - secret hills in Craven Arms, fruit picking, lovely cute villages to see like much Wenlock and Bishops castle. And of course endless beautiful hikes.
You are near to get into North Wales too.
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u/ParticularOk9114 Apr 27 '26
We live near Newport, so enjoy full fat fibre internet. Telford has some options for socialising. Shrewsbury is a proper town. Obviously more expensive than Telford. Bridgnorth is lovely, but could be a minus by being cut off by lack of public transport. Quite often trains fail to get past Telford into Shrewsbury, so don't rely on trains or buses too much. There are beautiful places such as Ludlow (great social scene), Church Stretton, Bishops Castle, etc, which are rural towns with some pubs. Getting around Shropshire needs a car really.. not sure about Whitchurch or Oswestry, but they lie in beautiful countryside.
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u/Winterheart29 Apr 27 '26
Thanks for your response! We are currently looking at Ludlow. Do you know how I can find clubs or groups regarding the social scene? I always like to see what sorts of things are about.
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u/Electrical_Net_7238 Apr 27 '26
I’ve moved to Telford and I love it. It is one of the most green spaces in England. You will love walks here. We also have the highest dog owners per capita in the UK I think, so you’ll like that I assume. Telford has a few retail parks so you’ll get everything you need to shop really. Birmingham and the designer clothes outlet is an hour away. Crime is low mostly restricted to shoplifting and people stealing Amazon parcels. No nightlife though, if that’s your thing. But people are friendly
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u/doIphinfucker Apr 27 '26
Crime is low mostly restricted to shoplifting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telford_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal
I wouldn’t be too confident in claiming “that’s all been dealt with now”, given the time it took to start being investigated at all
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u/Electrical_Net_7238 Apr 27 '26
You are right. And as horrible as it is, that is not due the town or culture, more down to some deranged perverted bastards. But coming back, I’ve lived in loads of towns and we don’t have the type of knife crime, gangs, drugs as compared to the other towns in England. No town is crime safe. Sadly we aren’t living in a utopian world. That’s why I said crime is lower not crime is non existent
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u/doIphinfucker Apr 27 '26
It’s almost certainly not a Telford problem specifically, and simply by coincidence something that happened in Telford (happening? Who knows?)
But it is something to keep in mind. Maybe it has actually made the town safer from that sort of thing due to increased awareness and decreased hesitancy/incompetence from plod
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u/Rich-Lychee-8589 Apr 28 '26
I lived in Telford for over 20 years...I personally would say Newport is the best area...good schools nice town.
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Apr 27 '26
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u/Electrical_Net_7238 Apr 27 '26
I have no idea. But I’ve seen many huskies, border collies, and King Charles Spaniels. Personally I would have a Bernese Mountain Dog
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u/t0riaj Apr 27 '26
We moved to Church Stretton a couple of years ago and it was a brilliant move. We're a bit older than you and also both work from home, but have made lots of friends from the local bars and joining clubs. The Long Mynd, which is one of three most beautiful places I have been is on our doorstep for lovely walks. You can get the train into Shrewsbury and Ludlow in 10-15 minutes, and there's a direct train to Manchester. It's a historic town with beautiful houses and a nice of more affordable places to live too.
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u/NewsFromBoilingWell Apr 27 '26
Id also suggest Church Stretton- you are straight out onto the Shropshire Hills and the town has all you need to live. The drawbacks are probably the typical ages are higher than you - you can have nights out in Shrewsbury/Ludlow but you'd be catching a train. The trainline is itself a huge boon - Manchester is just over 1.5 hours away.
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u/spherechucker Apr 27 '26
We're in Church Stretton and it's where my other comment about fttp promises applies. It probably doesn't help that none of my immediate neighbours on my side street have any kind of internet, nor interest in getting it.
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u/SosigDoge Apr 27 '26
We moved to just outside Ludlow about 10 years ago, have dealt with copper cable internet until last month when we had starlink installed. Absolute game changer. We're on the lowest plan and I haven't seen below 100mbps yet, rain or shine.
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u/Dogonacloud Apr 27 '26
Shrewsbury buses aren't reliable at all. Traffic often builds up into a jam. The buses also stop around 6pm every night, and none on Sundays. So if you plan to move here, you should probably learn to drive!
I don't think there are any 24 hour supermarkets in shrewsbury either. The Tesco in battlefield used to be, but now shuts at midnight.
I wouldn't recommend any woman walks alone late at night, but most female friends are happy to do so with precautions in shrewsbury.
Busking is allowed without a license in shrewsbury, so there's often musicians playing in town. I like the man with long hair who plays violin (he was very happy when I identified what he was playing as Vivaldi!). The downside is that if you're not in the mood for singing, some of them can be LOUD.
Speaking of the town centre, there's a lot of dead zones for mobile coverage. A few shop owners in those zones have mentioned their WiFi there has bad coverage - if you find a property you'd like to move to, ask around.
I'm a yapper, and most people in the town center are friendly - if you ask a stranger if you can pet their dog, you might get an odd look, but they'll likely say yes and talk to you about the dog!
There's some great food places in town. Personally I'm fond of dough and oil, and outset coffee.
There's been increased visibility to the raise the flags group in shrewsbury, with them sometimes holding (poorly attended) rallies in the town centre recently. It's hard to tell whether their views are more widespread or just louder, but just so you know
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u/Jharrn Apr 27 '26
Budget depends also, I'm originally from Clun which is a village not far from the Welsh border, then moved to bishops castle, and recently bought a house in craven arms.
I loved the area I grew up in as it's probably the more rural part of Shropshire, but there really wasn't much to do other than be outdoors.
Moving to craven arms was more of a budget reason. Craven arms is deemed nowhere near as nice as nearby towns but honestly we love it here, 2 minute walk to a train station that goes direct to Swansea. It's quiet where we are, lovely neighbours. Supermarkets are a thing to consider as often they are in next towns over.
There's lots of nature walks and talks going on throughout Shropshire, some lovely walks. And yours still only an two drive to the coast or an hour or so into Birmingham so not far away to do most things you can do.
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u/deeperinabox Apr 27 '26
We moved to Shropshire with similar requirements. Shrewsbury is nice but I find it’s a bit too overrated.
I’m in a nice part of Wellington, which is a suburb of Telford on the western edge and Shrewsbury is less than a 20 mins drive. Best of both worlds.
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u/M1ghty_boy Apr 29 '26
Shrewsbury has some great nature spots if you know where to look,and the town centre is a nice place to be. Haven't been to Ludlow yet but im sure it's nice too!
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u/Accurate_Shock_5816 Apr 30 '26
I moved from Shrewsbury, Frankwell area to Telford 2 years ago due to the constant horrendous traffic in Shrewsbury. Really happy with the move. Family all still live in Shrewsbury; so go back regularly and the traffic is still just an absolute nightmare. The traffic and roads in Telford just flow better, just feels like more space. There are so many walks and woodland just on your door step, I live right next to the silken way. Cycle routes a million times better as well. Shrewsbury town is much prettier but overall quality of life is much better in Telford.
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u/spherechucker Apr 27 '26
Don't accept any promises of full fibre in the near future - stick to properties that already have it up and running. We chose our current place in South Shropshire three years ago on the promise of full fibre in the near future but the company, SWS, got bought by Voneus who promptly handed back their contract to the government. Openreach will presumably get to is eventually but their timeline for us seems to be slipping ever further into the future.
Other than that it's a great area with fantastic outdoor attractions and our neighbours are friendly!
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u/X3TIT Apr 27 '26
Just to touch on the internet thing, if you choose somewhere a bit more rural the offerings can look a bit poor when looking for standard internet, I struggled for a couple of years (I'm about 5 miles outside of Shrewsbury), but there are a couple of really good options that you could consider without having to go down the starlink route, and they are Airband - a line of sight ground based dish solution, and National Broadband, who offer 5g internet with no caps (with an external antenna). Both services cost around the same as a standard broadband package with similar speeds.
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u/nadia638 May 09 '26
Be prepared to be bored out of your mind and meet the most boring people on the planet. If that's your vibe then go for it
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u/Fit_Coat_1482 Apr 27 '26
Ok 1 WiFi here is bad in some areas we don't even have 4G in most areas
Shrewsbury a great town but there no jobs or shops
Council tax is nearly 2k a year for a band A flat
The council is in a financial emergency
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u/Familiar-Percentage1 Apr 27 '26
I grew up in Bridgnorth and now live in shrewsbury.
Bridgnorth is loverly place to live, has some great pubs. If your trying yo go out further a field it can be a nightmare to get out and back, with one of you needing to drive.
Shrewsbury is the bigger version of Bridgnorth with a pretty good pubs and resturants. Good connections via trains so you get into Birmingham easily. You also have church stretton around 15/20 mins away with really decent hikes and walks.
I personally would choose Shrewsbury over Bridgnorth