Moving to Manchester

blue_max_3

Gotta say, it seems to rain every day. It's not called the rainy city for nothing. 

Rambosmum

Angela_D_3 said:

The problem you have with Manchester is even if a good school is on your doorstep its so densely populated your first choice isn’t guaranteed and it tends to ho downhill quite rapidly.  

Just taking where we moved to for example there is an outstanding - great fingers crossed we get it - but plan B and C are good so it wouldn’t be the end of the world,  i dont know how street wise your kids are but some of the ones we drove past were like gettos.  Rough AF 

You don't like Manchester, we get it. Now move along. 

grumiofoundation

blue_max_3 said:

Gotta say, it seems to rain every day. It's not called the rainy city for nothing. 

And with no warning. 

I learnt to always take a coat to work regardless of how nice the weather looks!  

frogglet

Rambosmum said:

Angela_D_3 said:

The problem you have with Manchester is even if a good school is on your doorstep its so densely populated your first choice isn’t guaranteed and it tends to ho downhill quite rapidly.  

Just taking where we moved to for example there is an outstanding - great fingers crossed we get it - but plan B and C are good so it wouldn’t be the end of the world,  i dont know how street wise your kids are but some of the ones we drove past were like gettos.  Rough AF 

You don't like Manchester, we get it. Now move along. 

You took the words right out of my mouth Rambosmum. Lol.
I loved living in Prestwich.

Madmel

Angela_D_3 said:

Trafford schools that  are outstanding i believe haven’t been inspected for over 10 years.  They have the two tiered grammar school system and the private ones arent great.  Schools is what completely put me off Manchester.  It would have to be one hell of a job to get me to relocate there.  

Blimey, I thought I was blunt.  Under the Gove reign as Secretary of State for Education, schools which had been designated as outstanding were not required to be reinspected.  It's hardly the fault of the Trafford schools if they haven't been inspected.  Try blaming the government.  My own school in a completely different part of the country had not been inspected in 12 years when OFSTED rocked up last year because we were outstanding the previous 3 inspections.  Guess what - we're still outstanding.  OFSTED reports are not the be-all and end-all.  They are a snapshot at a given moment in time.  Lots can change between inspections; in my school it is 3 Heads but the ethos is similar. Go and visit a school and see how the children react before making snap judgments.  

I grew up in Sale, my dad lives in Altrincham, DH lived in Heaton Moor, all of which are nice but not ideal for your commute.  I agree with lots of the comments above apart from the poster I quoted who is obviously very happy in Cheshire.  My uncle lives over the border in Cheshire and when my cousins were teens, it was a royal PITA getting into the city centre, plus cost a fortune.  Lots of the benefits of being part of the metropolitan area were not available to them.

To the OP, I have a school friend who lives in Uppermill and is very happy there.  Given that Ashton is NE of the city centre, you would be better off looking in that direction for commuting purposes unless you use the tram.  To go to football matches at the Etihad, which is on the Ashton line, it takes around 40 minutes from Altrincham on the tram.  If you are driving to work, the M60 is really busy and you need to factor that in but Prestwich might be a good bet as a PP has suggested.  If your wife doesn't drive, proximity to the tram is a good thing.  It doesn't yet go out to Stockport but as far as I can remember, it is planned so there will undoubtedly be loads of disruption whilst they do the work.  Davyhulme and Flixton have nice parts.  They are cheaper than Sale and Altrincham but further from Ashton and not on the tram network.  In your position, I think renting is a great idea.  You will find the good and bad parts of wherever you are and would then be in a strong position to buy once you are sure.

vivster

Surprised no one’s mentioned Dukinfield! Or there’s Hyde...

Broadbottom’s quite charming, and is just the right side of Glossop’s traffic problem. Plus you get to live in a place called Broadbottom.

Agree with everyone who said stay in the east/north east side and echo Mossley, Uppermill and the Saddleworth villages.

cant comment on schools I’m afraid.

Bravo_Zulu

I spent 14 years in Salford and it has some fabulous history and locations. Commute might be a problem for you though and as others have said, getting around the outskirts of Greater Manchester is a pain on public transport - think spokes of a wheel, all routes go IN but they don’t join up at the edges.
Before people start saying how awful Salford is bear in mind properties range from £100k to over a mil - huge differences across the area 
.

Rambosmum

Bravo_Zulu said:

I spent 14 years in Salford and it has some fabulous history and locations. Commute might be a problem for you though and as others have said, getting around the outskirts of Greater Manchester is a pain on public transport - think spokes of a wheel, all routes go IN but they don’t join up at the edges.
Before people start saying how awful Salford is bear in mind properties range from £100k to over a mil - huge differences across the area 
.

I have a real fondness for Salford having worked there for a few years. It really is such a dichotomy - footballer row to the down and out trainspotting-esk areas!

But yes, commuting from Worsley or such to Ashton would be a nightmare. And the Secondary schools are not great.

Angela_D_3

2000 homes and businesses evacuated last night due to flooding... stood out in the snow in the night 

Chandler85

Angela_D_3 said:

2000 homes and businesses evacuated last night due to flooding... stood out in the snow in the night 

The homes in Didsbury didn't actually flood though, they were evacuated.

Meanwhile in Lymm in Cheshire, there were floods and they didn't bother to evacuate them.

I think your opinions have already been made clear, you don't like a whole region, because your couldn't find a house that you liked.