Stratton St Margaret is well connected to the internet and middling at everything involving leaving the house. Gigabit broadband reaches almost every home. The train is something other people take. Half the workforce drives and nearly a third never leaves the spare room. The place solved the commute by not doing one.
Swindon Rail Station is the nearest station, but fewer than 1% of working residents commute by train, which says more about where the jobs are than about the timetable. The buses are more visible: there are 177 stops in the area, yet only about 3% of workers take a bus to work. Plenty of infrastructure, not much of it on the journey to the office.
The real commute runs on four wheels or none. About 53% of working residents drive to work and 29% work from home. Walking accounts for about 5% and cycling about 3%. Around 44% of households run two or more cars, while about 16% have none. The driveway is not a luxury here, it is the transport strategy.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area rather than timed from any particular front door, put the nearest town centre about 11 minutes away by car, 16 by bike, 22 by public transport and 35 on foot. A 35-minute walk to the shops is the finding. Nobody is strolling into town for a pint of milk.
For most journeys, that leaves the car, the bike or the bus, in roughly that order of honesty.
Broadband is the part that works properly. About 96% of premises can get gigabit speeds, and the same 96% can get ultrafast and superfast connections. No premises fall below the legal minimum broadband speed, which explains a good deal about why so many people commute to the back bedroom.
Mobile coverage is complete: 4G or 5G is available across all of the area from at least one operator, and from every operator too.
Everyday trips are short by car and slow on foot. The same modelled statistics put a GP about 9 minutes away by car, 15 by public transport and 20 on foot. A food store is about 7 minutes by car and 9 on foot. A hospital is about 17 minutes by car but 47 by public transport, which is a long ride for anyone without a car or a lift. Employment centres come out at about 17 minutes by car and 11 by public transport. The public transport figures date from 2019, and services can be cut faster than models get updated, so they deserve more caution than the car and walking times.
The buses themselves are current and reasonably frequent. The average stop sees about 39 scheduled departures on a weekday, around two an hour at peak, and 85% of stops have some weekend service. That is a real bus service rather than a pole with a laminated sign, though two an hour is still a timetable people plan around rather than ignore.
Road noise reaches almost everywhere. About 100% of postcodes sit near or above 65 decibels, the level official mapping treats as significant road noise, and the loudest band present reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source and about 99% of postcodes sit near or above the same 65-decibel line from railways, also topping out at 75. Neither figure predicts how loud any particular bedroom will be, which is what a viewing on a weekday evening is for.
Electric car owners have nine public charge points to choose from, with 36 connectors between them, four of them rapid. Four rapid chargers means topping up is something to plan, not something to do while picking up the shopping.
Connectivity is middling: excellent broadband and decent buses, let down by a commute that mostly means driving and a railway almost nobody uses to get to work. The place is best connected to people who do not need to go anywhere.