East Lancs area advice please

A_LANCASHIRE_LAD_2

Hi, we're originally from Lancashire (Preston) living in Scotland and are considering moving to East Lancs, due to budget initially we'll be looking at 2 bedroomed terrace style properties to rent, have seen some Great Harwood, Rishton sort of areas can anyone give us honest pointers on this particular area, shops, schools etc or indeed any areas to avoid, details of any major employer in the area?

trippy

Can't help you with Great Harwood & Rishton but I live in Rossendale so if I can help with that area, let me know.

vandanfc

Hi, can't be specific but both towns have dodgy parts. We moved up here from Blackburn just over 18 months ago, so I am a bit out of touch now. A lot of the big employers don'y really exist anymore (phillips etc), so not certain how good the employment situation really is. East lancs is quite deprived really. Renting is possibly a good idea as you aren't committed to an area for more than 6 months at a time, but some property is still cheap enough to buy and pay the same in rent as in mortgage. Rents seem to start in the £350 pcm mark. The estate agents used to be pretty good, so why not give a couple a ring.

Vanda

A_LANCASHIRE_LAD_2

trippy wrote:

Can't help you with Great Harwood & Rishton but I live in Rossendale so if I can help with that area, let me know.

Morning yes be great if you could tell me what the Rossendale valley area is like , i cannot believe that looking through some estate agents their they are charging only £260 a month rent !

A_LANCASHIRE_LAD_2

vandanfc wrote:

Hi, can't be specific but both towns have dodgy parts. We moved up here from Blackburn just over 18 months ago, so I am a bit out of touch now. A lot of the big employers don'y really exist anymore (phillips etc), so not certain how good the employment situation really is. East lancs is quite deprived really. Renting is possibly a good idea as you aren't committed to an area for more than 6 months at a time, but some property is still cheap enough to buy and pay the same in rent as in mortgage. Rents seem to start in the £350 pcm mark. The estate agents used to be pretty good, so why not give a couple a ring.

Vanda

Thanks on that Vanda m like you say the area is deprived it seems to be country wide at the moment , here in Kirkcaldy cannot be any worse ...well it is very little happening jobs wise in Fife no investment by companys at all . We have checked the rental side out and as you say 350 seems to be the norm , what part of Scotland did you move back to ? We really dont want to move back inm a " street house " i know that many of the Lancashire towns are like this Accy Blackburn etc , we moved from one in Preston in 2004 and having a little boy i dont want him growing up in street life , so we are looking at maybe getting / renting a bigger nicer house with a garden for him . I was just wondering generally what the areas i mentioned where like ?

alec_eiffel

Well now I feel totally depressed.

I moved from York to Padiham in 2002 and now live in Altham. And yes, while some areas are still a bit pezzy alot of places are on the up. There's been a ton of building near me and is mainly filled with commuters to MCR (and increasingly Preston). The further away from the town centres you go the nicer it gets.

It's like anywhere, within each town there will be good bits and bad bits, some parts of Rishton are pretty nice, especially going further out towards Whitebirk. I don't know Great Harwood all that well, only to go to the co-op.

I agree that it's a good idea to rent for 6 months first so you have time to poke around and find out where's best for your family.

vandanfc

I agree with the comment about Rishton, in that the houses on the outskirts going towards Blackburn(whitebirk) are lovely, some really nice places. Again the outskirts of Great Harwood are nice. Most of Clitheroe is great, if you are looking slightly further afield. Mellor outside blackburn is good (houses to buy are expensive) but great village life. Outskirts of Accrington also on the up.

Can you get cheap train tickets and go for a look round to suss out the better areas ? Might be able to stay in a travel lodge if you can get a room for a tenner ??

http://www.lancashireeveningtelegraph.co.uk/ - this is the local paper online, it may help with some research.

Good luck.

Vanda

trippy

We moved to Rossendale from the Lake District for work and live on the edge of Haslingden. I wouldn't recommend Haslingden particularly, it's a bit depressing but we live on a new small housing estate of 4-bed detatched houses just on the Haslingden/Rawtenstall border so there ARE a few nice places around. AND it appeared on Relocation, Relocation and was described as a nice town!! Helmshore is nice as is Rawtenstall and there's only feint lines dividing them all anyway. We chose it as it's on the moors so we still felt it was open and fairly rural, with the motorway on our doorstep for easy access to services. There are buses into Manchester and it's within 10 mins of Bury, 15 mins from Blackburn and 20 mins from Burnley all places to look for employment. I know people who live here who work for Lancashire County Council in Preston. There are nice places in Bolton, Bradshaw is also quoted to me for being good for families with children as it has good schools. Then you're in the Bury/Tottington/Ramsbottom areas which may well be a bit more expensive for its proximity to the tram to Manchester. I drive through Baxenden on the way to Accrington and that seems lovely too.

trippy

I should add that we used a relocation agent when we moved and our brief was somewhere still fairly rural but with good access and a maximum of 30 mins from Bury (where work was). But we were moving from a 2-bed to a 4-bed so were pretty restricted by money. Anyway he suggested Rossendale and Littleborough. I didn't like Littleborough as it was just serviced by Rochdale whereas there was more choice to the n,s,e & w from Rossendale.

linniestorm

clitheroe and whalley are a bit expensive!!!! I can't speak for preston at all, but I live in clayton-le-moors, right in the middle of accy, gt harwood, rishton and padiham! Like everywhere round here really there are good and bad bits! I looked at the estate agents recently (can't afford a house with my debts but I can dream!) and there wasn't much affordable in places I'd want to live!! (around 50-60K).

I agree there are some really nice bits of rishton toward whitebirk, and gt harwood on whalley road out (toward clitheroe) and up harwood lane. From the look of a lot of the stuff on the agents sites there's not much I'd consider in accrington at the moment, but have you looked at oswaldtwistle at all? again, some good bits, some bad!! i really like the look of padiham, but not having been to burnley much (gravitated toward blackburn when I was younger) I'm in the same position as you, not knowing what's good and bad.

there's loads of estate agents on the web with property in the local area. pm me if you want the websites, don't think i can post em here. that cover stock in most of the areas around here.

and i guess if you see something online you like the look but aren't sure of the area (i.e. if its safe!) then you could always post it here, I'm sure one of us would have a shrewd idea of whether its worth a closer look!!! alec eiffel is right though, we seem to be blitzed round here with old mill conversion and new build apartment blocks for manc commuters that could probably do a lot to raise the profile of some areas, but its probably not worth considering unless you've got the spare £160,000 (£160,000 for a flat, not even a house!, in huncoat!!! I ask you!!!)

HthPrk

Hi

Are you set on the Rishton/Great Harwood area? I have taught in a school at Rishton - Rishton Methodist and there were a couple of very good teachers there.

I live in Blackburn in the Feniscowles area and it's pretty nice here. The are 2 very good schools - St Francis (were my kids go - excellent), St Pauls (a catholic school that has good rep) and Feniscowles Primary (again has a good reputation). Nearby is a small cricket/football ground and a play area. Down the road is an area called Cherry Tree that has a few shops and a railway station. Then a little lower is Witton Country Park. House prices are reasonable and you could probably get a 2 bed semi for less than £100,000 ( on the small council estate) or a 2 bed terrace house.