Where to live round Liverpool or west Manchester

[Jackie02]

My husband starts a new job in Liverpool soon and we are looking at relocating up that way from down south. We've got 2 little ones who will be staring school soon, and a dog who we love getting out on decent walks with. We love hills (big or small) for dog walks, we want nice community and decent schools....the holy trinity I'm sure!

To (finally!) be a bit closer to family we want to be to the north or east of Liverpool, probably within about 50 minutes of the city centre.
Any thoughts of where might fit the bill? Endless Google searches and a few weekend trips and we've seen some nice areas but we are very undecided and the constant wondering about what to do, where to look and where we could end up is driving us mad!

I left in 86 …I believe it’s still an excellent school

This is all brilliant thank you. We have been doing a lot of Googling and right move searching off the back of this.

M56 corridor opens up some hilly options. Frodsham, Helsby and the surrounding villages are good places to live and come with their own hills. It's also a quick zip along to Wales if you want mountains! You can be in Liverpool from Frodsham/Helsby within 30 mins by road when the going is good. Also direct trains to both Liverpool and Manchester.

I'd vote for Formby - the state schools are fantastic so it's perfect if you have young children. In general the prices in Formby are better than Altrincham/the posh bits of south Manchester - you can spend upwards of a million in Formby if you want a substantial house in the very best part of town, but if you're happy to be east of the railway line and you're not picky, you can get a family home for under £400k.

Parbold and surrounding areas are lovely. A bit more rural will be Mawdsley and Rufford.

Agree. You couldn't pay me to live there anymore. Have a look at Delamere.

Eccleston as on a still night you can hear lions roaring and pretend you are on holiday somewhere exotic!

Like several PP's have suggested, were I working in Liverpool I'd probably look at the Crosby/Formby area (there are some lovely houses in Hightown...I'd like to live there if we ever moved to that area). I like Blundellsands too. Or as others have said there are some nice areas in West Lancashire. You won't get much by the way of hills in Liverpool and the immediate surrounding area but there's still some really pleasant ccountrysidand road links are quite good to other areas.
As a PP suggested the Wirral also has some very nice places and you're close to North Wales. However, my brother in law lives on the Wirral and works in central Liverpool and he says coming through the tunnel can be a pain at busy times so just bear that in mind.
I can't comment on schools sorry as whilst I have quite a lot of relatives in Liverpool it's a long time since any of them were at school so their opinions would be very outdated!

A 50 minute commute into Liverpool city centre at peak time doesn't really afford you much of a radius outside of the city.

He'll be 30 minutes minimum from the end of motorway to the city centre. One miserable drive through a horrible part of the world as well.

Really? A relative of mine lived there for a bit - I didn't know it was so exciting :)

Yep, the end of The M62 is a heck of a drive to the City Centre

Another vote for Ormskirk and surrounding areas. Countryside, coast and cities all within easy reach.

the Wirral!
west Kirby,
heswall,
caldy,
Neston.

really gorgeous and beautiful friendly neighbourhoods.
so close to Liverpool, wales and Chester.
brilliant primary schools.
its a no brainer!

Can he commute by train? So much better.

@Jackie02what did you decide?