Possibly Moving to Newcastle under Lyme (Rather Than Stoke on Trent) - Advice?

[DeedeeDashwood]

I'm utterly sick to death of where I live right now (large-ish city in the Midlands with all the classic antisocial behaviour problems and plenty of broken glass and syringes on the pavements). In my heart of hearts, I'd like to relocate to a country town or a small seaside town, but I want to remain in the Midlands and I need to stay within easy reach of a significant hospital because I seem to have a stupid number of clinic appointments these days. I'd also like to live somewhere which still has proper shops, especially those which help keep the cost of living down, so moving to a small upmarket town where the only supermarket is a Waitrose and the nearest retail park is 15 miles away isn't an option.

I've found myself wondering about Newcastle under Lyme as a sort of wobbly compromise. It's not a country town, it's not by the sea - but it's a smaller place than a big Midlands city, it seems to be quite well provided for with shops and it's close to Stoke for hospital appointments. Looking around the town centre on Google Street View, it makes quite a decent impression, albeit lacking in character and old buildings. But what I'm wondering is, what is it actually like to live there?

It's a university town and that normally means quite a lot of inconsiderate behaviour from students, especially at night, if you live in the wrong area. But on the plus side, it's not Stoke, so presumably it has the sort of cohesion as a place which Stoke lacks - and presumably Newcastle people are as friendly as Stokies generally are, which'd be a plus. But how much of a difference is there really between the quality of life in Newcastle and the quality of life in Stoke, when the two places are just one conurbation?

Where should I consider living? (I'd be renting.) And where would I be out of my mind to consider living? I'm aware that outsiders consider Stoke to be a dump, but I'm also aware that Newcastle residents are emphatic about their town being an entirely different place from Stoke - and it doesn't appear to have fragmented in the way that Stoke has.

If anyone can feed me the facts, plus and minus, about Newcastle, that'd be grand. Thanks.

PS: I've read about the hydrogen sulphide gas that leaks out of the Walley's Quarry landfill site and which can sometimes be smelt for miles around. Should I be seriously worried about this? Or is it merely like being able to smell rotting seaweed occasionally if you live near a beach? That's to say, is it like Hull's former sewage stench or just something you catch an occasional faint whiff of?

Newcastle considers itself to be a cut above Stoke on Trent, but there's not a huge amount to differentate them to be honest. The town centre is a little less run down than some of the Stoke towns, but is sadly not as vibrant/nice as the buildings look. The town centre is surrounded by a ring road, so it's quite cut off from the residential parts of the town - it's definitely a car kind of a town, not a walking one.

The housing stock I would say is on the most part nicer than Stoke - it depends what you're after, but there are a lot of quite nice mid-century houses about, e.g. the Westlands area.

Walley's Quarry is an issue - generally the wind blows in the opposite direction from the landfill site to Newcastle, but on bad wind days you can smell it. There's quite a lot of pressure on the owners, so it should hopefully improve in the medium-long term.

If you like the countryside, I find the landscape around Newcastle to be rather dull - and it's a drive through Stoke and out the other side to get to the Peak District

How close do you need to be to the hospital? If small country market towns are your thing, I would definitely recommend Leek (pretty town, nice markets, affordable houses, nice independent shops/pubs/cafes, busy local Arts centre, at the edge of the Peak) over Newcastle, but it's about a 35 minute drive from the Royal Stoke.

Where are you now? How much money do you have to spend on a house? Where do you need to be for work? There has got to be somewhere nicer than Newcastle under Lyme with access to a hospital.

Where you are now must be bad if you are thinking of moving to the Stoke area.

On the positive side, Newcastle is close to the countryside, the town itself is ok, a bit run down, the house prices are quite low, students from nearby Keele university live there, it's not far from the Peak District and Manchester, it's not far to the M6.

Downsides to Stoke and Newcastle are mainly that they were industrial towns - coal and pottery mainly - and those industries aren't really there any more. The jobs are now in factories, warehouses and retail. The nearby countryside is ok but not beautiful. In winter, it tends to get the bad weather, but so do other places in the midlands.

rbe78, Petronus and B0G0F, thanks so much for your responses.

rbe78, I've just been on Google Street View again and I see what you mean about the town centre being cut off from the residential areas. I've dropped down into a few randomly selected residential streets and some of them were a pleasant surprise, but I'd be looking for a bungalow or a ground floor flat myself, with a parking space, so I guess I'd have to go where those are, if they actually exist. Terraced streets would obviously be out of the question because of the student population, as would anywhere near purpose-built halls.

I know Leek well, but I was giving it a miss because of its Buxton-type weather and the facilities which it doesn't have. Under other circumstances it'd have been just the right place for me though. Thanks for clarifying the Walley's Quarry situation for me.

Petronus, I'm in Derby at present, but after 16 years here I've had more than enough of the ever-increasing seediness, the saturation-level begging and the way the council has of not spending money on anything which would improve the place. The parks are great and I love the interesting layout of the city centre, but it's a dying city centre and I feel a strong need to get out before the ship sinks. I'd never move to Stoke on any account, but I had a feeling that Newcastle might be a pleasanter proposition. I'm trying to avoid having to battle my way into and out of major conurbatia to attend hospital appointments, so Leicester, Nottingham and the West Midlands are out, especially in these days when taking your car to a big hospital is essentially a non-starter. Sadly this means that Melton Mowbray and Lichfield are out too. My ankle problems have sidelined me at present, so I don't have to be anywhere in particular workwise.

B0G0F, I just spotted that the Roebuck Shopping Centre in Newcastle is in its death throes, so I guess that's part of what you mean by the town being a bit run down. But at least the town centre itself hasn't been smashed up like some and looks a darn sight better than Hanley. I take your point about the countryside being unbeautiful; I've been spoilt by Derbyshire on that score, so in theory I'd agree with you, but at the moment my ankle issues stop me from going anywhere much so it's a bit academic.

Am I right in thinking Newcastle is an almost entirely white town, in spite of being in the Midlands? If so, it'd certainly come as a culture shock to me after 16 years in Derby and another 13 in Nottingham.

how about Stone or Stafford? Not exactly booming but nicer than Newcastle..

I don't know Derby at all, but Newcastle is pretty much white. It isn't Stoke, but it's not really separated. I feel it's a bit small city in the middle of nowhere, where people don't really leave. Maybe Derby is like that too.

Don't be put off by the university - the uni is a separate campus over 2 miles outside the town.

It's not dreadful, but housing is cheap for a reason.

AFAIK there is no railway station - it was closed about 50 yrs ago.

Stoke is a city but really it's 6 towns and Newcastle is another town on the outskirts.

On the plus side, if you can drive and want a bungalow, you probably could find a nice enough one in a quiet residential area.

There isn’t a lot of housing in the centre of Newcastle, but plenty of bungalows and flats in non students areas within a mile or two of the hospital. Royal Stoke hospital is actually very close to Newcastle town centre and places like Clayton/ Seabridge/ Westlands/ Westbury Park are in the Newcastle borough but still very close to the hospital. If you can drive there are places that are greener and have more of a village feel like Madeley, Audley, Halmerend where you can still get to the hospital in fifteen/ twenty mins in the car.
If you have any questions about any specific places I can try to help.

What about somewhere like Endon, Stanley or Brown Edge, which are between Stoke and Leek?

I agree with @Binfire Audley is a nice, large village and Halmerend and Alsagers Bank are nice too. Newcastle is a bit run down but the people are lovely. The westlands, also v nice but more expensive than Audley.

@Binfire , that's a bit of a sweeping statement.
Generally, the people are friendly.

<waves from NuL>. I moved here for Keele from that London and liked it enough to stick! Personally I love it. The people are generally great and there are lovely local communities.
I have never seen any problemswith the students. There are some in HMOs near me but it has never been an issue.
There are some lovely parks and country parks and we are near lots of lovely places to visit.
The town centre is somewhat run down like many are but as a market town we do have some fab markets.
I live less than a mile from the stink but it is not a problem at the moment and I'm hopeful that is a long term improvement.
Good luck with your search.

@DeedeeDashwood

How about Madeley, or Baldwins Gate, or somewhere not a million miles away from Newcastle Under Lyme. They are nice. Or somewhere like Loggerheads or Ashley. Not far from Market Drayton, and Nantwich, and Audlem, and easy access to Stoke, NUL, and Crewe if you want to go to a town or city, and get a train, and it's not far to the M6.

Moved to Newcastle Under Lyme three years ago. Used to live in Surrey. My husband got a job in a local authority.

We ended up in Newcastle Under Lyme by default because that's where we found a house to rent.

Shelton is where the student accommodation is because it's by Stoke on Trent 6th Form college.

Stoke on Trent has a nice mainline train station

Newcastle Under Lyme town centre is pedestrianised. There's a few 'chain stores.' The market days are Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

You are right, 'The Roebuck Centre' is pretty much dead on it's feet.

However, the Wolstanton Retail Park is a couple of miles drive away. There's an M&S, Dunelm, Matalan, B&M, ASDA. All very good. Oh, and a drive through Starbucks and an ASDA petrol station.

Wolstanton village has a lovely independent celebration cake shop. A really good helium balloon shop. A post office, a smaller ASDA, Dr's surgeries, chemists, pubs, florists, hairdressers, nail bar, beauty salon, a furniture shop, a vet, a bakery, churches, schools etc etc.

There's a nice park/large village green at Wolstanton.

Nice houses too. The next village is Bradwell which is nice. Porthill (pronounced Port Hill) looks nice.

In the opposite direction is May Bank/Basford. Lovely little village. There's hairdressers and barbers and an independent dress shop in the High Street. As well as a couple of convenience stores and a really nice Chinese Take Away. There's a lovely big old pub there as well.

I only go into Stoke on Trent, Hanley if I'm feeling brave.

Festival Park, Stoke On Trent, is another large retail park with a lot of popular brands represented and several eateries too. It's got some walking trails around the edge of it too.

Apedale Valley has coal mining history and visitors centre. As well as a steam railway. I like to walk around Apedale Valley, it's nice.

You think Bradwell is nice? OK, each to their own.
I wouldn't rush to walk round Apedale Valley, especially if I had a bad ankle.

thesandwich, B0G0F, Binfire, Laquila, Nodney, Lilimoon, WibblyWobblyTimeyWimeyStuff and ToffeeNotCoffee, my thanks for your contributions and for contributing to my ongoing education. You've been really helpful and I've had a good look at all the suburbs and surrounding villages which you've suggested I investigate.

As for Stafford and Stone, I've read bad things about Stafford as a place to live - the gist being that one shouldn't be fooled by the quaintness of the town centre into believing that it's a lovely place, when actually it's a right old rough-house with no end of social evils. Elsewhere, I once read that Stone is the place where the local authority exiles all its very worst council tenants. Hard to tell quite whose opinions these are and how accurate they are. Perhaps they're the opinions of people who'd only ever lived in Cotswold villages before relocating to Stafford or Stone.

Where did you end up? I am retiring and considering moving to Staffordshire. My husband is originally from Stoke.

@LovingScroller I see this is an old thread, but thought you might like to know that the stink from Walley's landfill in Newcastle-under-Lyme is just as bad as ever, despite the fuss, petitions and demonstrations by local people. My son lives nearby - you don't get the stink every day, but when the wind and weather are right it's appalling.
Apart from that it's not a bad area 🙂