WELCOME to Down Your Way, a new community feature in which we’ll be turning the spotlight on the rich mix of communities who make up Swindon, chatting to some of the personalities and digging up key facts and figures.

This week we’re looking at Taw Hill, Haydon Wick, Abbey Meads, St Andrew’s Ridge and Blunsdon – and we want to hear from you.

What do you think about the area? What is good, what is bad, what would you like to see improved?

Email newsdesk@ swindonadvertiser.co.uk or write to Down Your Way, 100 Victoria Road, Swindon SN1 3BE.

ST ANDREW’S Ridge may be overshadowed by the iconic former Motorola building next door, but residents and workers on the estate believe it has as much to offer as many of the well-established areas of the town.

‘Up on the Ridge’ – as those that live there fondly refer to it – there are a wide range of facilities to serve the estate’s population.

It is part of Priory Vale – a new community in north Swindon made up of the ‘villages’ of Redhouse, Oakhurst, Haydon End and Taw Hill. The Northern Expansion began with Abbey Meads and continued at St Andrew’s Ridge some 12 years ago, making it one of the older developments in the area.

It remains a quiet neighbourhood, made up of many individual communities within a number of cul-de-sacs and boasts a pub, shops and nursery at the heart of the Ridge, in the Neighbourhood Centre.

Hayley Seagroatt, 28, opened her own salon, Serendipity, in the centre six and a half years ago and employs a team of six staff. The premises she owns was once a travel agent which moved out of the area to bigger premises.

“It was hard work setting up my own place, and it still is,” she said.

“At first, it was a novelty for everyone in the area to have their own salon, everyone wanted to try it out.”

Hayley said the lack of signs to the village centre in St Andrew’s Ridge in Thamesdown Drive means many people do not even know it exists.

“It’s a shame because I think more people would come up here if they knew about it,” she said.

“We’d like to get some signs, and we also need some bins around here – there aren’t any at the moment and I have to go out and clear all the rubbish myself.”

Resident Morag Puffett, 36, lives in Longfellow Close with her husband and two children Alex, six, and two-and-a-half year-old Emily.

She moved from Plymouth to St Andrew’s Ridge 10 years ago.

“I love it up on the Ridge, we have a great view looking over Ash Brake and you can see all over Swindon,” she said.

“It’s lovely and quiet up here and it is ideally located for accessing Cirencester and for getting round to the other side of Swindon.

“I live in a cul-de-sac and everybody that lives there gets on really well.

“It’s a great mixture of people – families with young children, young lads who live opposite who like to have their parties, it’s great.

“Going back we all used to have parties together, we had a street party for the Jubilee and occasionally we used to have summer barbecues, we do still get together a couple of times but not as much as we used to.

“It’s a nice area for the children to grow up, a lot of the roads are wide and very safe for them to play outside and ride their bikes.

“It’s so perfect for me living here, we’ve got the big supermarket just down the road, the little shop in the centre, it is only when Alex started school that I needed to buy a car.

“I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in Swindon.”

Graham Oliver and wife Sarah moved to St Andrew’s Ridge from Bracknell in March and set up Chick-A-Dee Chippy in the Neighbourhood Centre.

“St Andrew’s Ridge is just an extremely nice, friendly place and we are making the business better and better,” said Graham, 42.

“There’s a great atmosphere with customers coming in through the door all the time, and a nice bit of banter going in, it’s brilliant.

“As a resident, we haven’t encountered any problems. I know the shopkeepers would like some signs on the main road because people just don’t know we are here, but other than that, we love it here.”

Over in Highdown Way, is Leapfrog Nursery, which currently has 128 children on its books between the ages of three months and four years old.

It celebrated its 10th birthday last year.

Manager Niki Eyles, 34, said: “We’ve got a lot of children at the nursery who live up on the ridge which is nice, it’s a friendly place and it is great that all the shops are now open in the village centre.”