Priory Vale
| Priory Vale | |
|---|---|
 Priory Vale
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| Priory Vale shown within Wiltshire | |
| OS grid reference | SU135887 |
| Civil parish | |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SWINDON |
| Postcode district | SN25 |
| Dialling code | 01793 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Priory Vale is a community in the north of the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire and comprises the urban villages of Redhouse, Oakhurst and Haydon End. Although not strictly part of Priory Vale, which comprises some 6000 new dwellings, the nearby village of Taw Hill completes this latest instalment in Swindon's northern expansion which began with Abbey Meads in the mid 1990s and continued at St Andrew's Ridge. The area was developed during the early 21st century.
Priory Vale is served by Thamesdown Drive, or the 'Northern Orbital Road', a dual carriageway which runs through the centre of the area and links Purton Road in West Swindon, itself an urban expansion area from the 1970s and 1980s to the A419 Blunsdon Bypass.
On completion, Priory Vale is expected to comprise just over 6000 new homes spread over 640 acres (2.6 km2) of land. The homes themselves take up 390 acres (1.6 km2), interspersed with 82 acres (330,000 m2) of open space.
There are currently six schools in Priory Vale spread over 45 acres (180,000 m2): Brimble Hill Primary School, Isambard Community School, Red Oaks Primary School and Uplands Secondary School all within the Priory Vale Learning Campus in Redhouse, Orchid Vale Primary School in Haydon End, and Oakhurst Community Primary School in Oakhurst.
Originally known as the 'Northern Development Area' or 'Haydon 3' (Abbey Meads. Taw Hill and St Andrew's Ridge forming Haydon 2 - Haydon 1 representing the entire area but was never realised as a development proposal) is home to what was reputed to be the largest supermarket in the United Kingdom, Asda Walmart with 97,000 square feet (9,000 m2) of retail space. As well as the superstore, the Orbital Shopping Park plays host to a number of big name stores including Marks and Spencer, Next, New Look and Homebase, a drive-through restaurant, coffee shops, a petrol station and the North Swindon Library.
The Northern Development Area was first identified by Swindon Corporation in the 1960s under planning documents known as the Gold and Silver books and the scheme was confirmed in a "Vision for Thamesdown" in the 1980s.
Although a coterminous part of the urban area of Swindon, Priory Vale falls outside the main non-parished township of Swindon and is divided between two parishes; Haydon Wick and Blunsdon St Andrew. The bulk of the expansion area lies within Haydon Wick parish which covers the areas occupied by earlier developments from the 1970s at Haydon Wick, Haydonleigh, Greenmeadow, Abbey Meads, Haydon End, parts of Redhouse, Taw Hill and large parts of Oakhurst west of the Tadpole Brook. Redhouse is located within Blunsdon St Andrew parish. Unlike the townships of Swindon and West Swindon, the residents of these two parished areas have parish councils.
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Wikipedia