to think it's grim up North?

[threefeethighandrising]

We are going to relocate in the next few years, and Manchester is a serious contender for DP for jobs.

If DP was to get work there then we would live somewhere semi-rural and commutable.

But ... the only experiences I have of Manchester and the surrounding areas are though my ex. He was an arsehole of the highest order, and the many people he introduced me to (his family and friends, in Manchester & Glossop) were the most painfully dysfunctional, damaged people I have ever had the misfortune to meet.

My opinion of the area is that it's the last place on earth I'd want to live, and my skin crawls when I think of the time I spent there.

But it can't all be like this can it? Surely IABU and my experiences with my ex are clouding my judgement? Surely there's a good (great?) side that I've just not seen?

Can you sell it to me?

Not W either. I have no idea where you are on about now . Will PM you.

Nice market towns: Altrincham, Clitheroe ( I love this part of Lancashire), Ormskirk, Lymm in Cheshire ( I think this might be your best bet).

If you like coast Lytham is lovely tho' a bit of a commute.

nice to see how much pride is being shown here!

Hebden Bridge is lovely. it's a mecca for lesbians. Todmorden nearby is getting a bit hippy too.

oh well given that neither of is live there - it was West Cornforth.
It was one of those Neighbours from HELL programmes, where this woman (with a southern accent, called something like Mercedes de Ferrari) said she had been victimised by all the inbred, stupid locals. The inbred stupid locals claimed she was the neighbour from hell. Jury was still out at the end but not somewhere I'd like to live!

(Apologies to any W Cornforth people - the shots they kept showing of the green looked lovely)

Just to let you know, North East Manchester has some of the most deprived areas contained within it, so you won't want to be looking there. RightMove will be pretty indicative of that though. I would second Ramsbottom as my choice for you. If it were me (apologies Pan) but I would avoid Glossop and nearby places like Hadfield and Chapel en le Frith. Just watch League of Gentlemen if you wonder why.

Rossendale is sort of grim.... if you're stood by the reservoir watching your wetsuit-clad child falling off on windsurfer ....

Ha ha, x posted with the other mentions of LOG. I fucking loved that programme. I speak with experience though, DH was born and raised (by his mum who is also his sister and his aunt) in Chapel. ;)

lilolilmanchester I did not mean to offend! I am well aware that basing an opinion of an area containing millions of people and vaste swathes of space on a few dozen arseholes people I met through an ex is irrational.

That's why I asked, you see?! I want to hear about the good bits, not prove that it is grim!

pipi - you are sooo wrong. Run away, lightweight!

Ramsbottom is a cul-de-sac, in so many ways.

"Hebden Bridge" is that the place with the best service station ever? (Great children's area, lovely farm shop, decent food, duck ponds ffs! )

Like you've just walked into a parallel universe where motorway service stations are actually a pleasure.

Glossop - friendly, accessible, semi-rural, easy, I live here. What more??

I'll run away kicking and screaming from those banjo's in Chapel
I'm not from Rammy btw, nope somewhere a touch more, erm cosmopolitan. Actually by cosmopolitan I mean Jewish. I love it here.

"Todmorden nearby is getting a bit hippy too." ooh hippy = good I'll look it up

Altrincham is out, That's where ex's large family live. I would be terrified of bumping into them.

He's an ex of the make-your-life-hell-if-he-knows-how-to-contact-you type.

That's a step too far (or close) for me sorry!

AwesomePan and Pipi - do you happen to listen to local radio in Glossop/Chapel? Just might have a vested interest wondering?
FWIW I think that the Peak district and that neck of the woods (Glossop, Buxton etc) are beautiful!

Toddy - Victorian death. They screw each others pigs. But, each to her own.

"He [your ex] was an arsehole of the highest order". Then what were you doing with him? I mean, ever?

I have a friend who lives in Poynton - just outside Manchester. Lovely little town, once a mining village, now very gentrified. Beautiful scenery on the edge of the Peak District. Alderley Edge, Wilmslow etc., all very nice and near Manchester.

If you want sun though, you are gonna be disappointed if you stay on the West side of the Pennines! Pissing down all day here. lovely and green though and no sign of a drought here.

Seriously look at how much interest even a general enquiry has generated. There is something for everyone depending on what floats your boat. Lots of gorgeous countryside within half an hour of most places, can't promise the coast but we are Cheshire and within an hour we can be at Hoylake on the Wirral with amazing beaches.

"They screw each others pigs"

PMSL!!

I remember a very posh woman at work bragging that her son had got a hospital job in north yorkshire (was middlesbrough where I grew up) she was trying to sell it as some kind of idyll lmao.

Would love to move back up north tbh, I was looking at properties around Middlesbrough and there are loads within spitting distance at London prices. Seems posh villages are the same all over the country, overpriced and snobby.

bag - s'true.

"PippiLongBottom" to be serious it's not just that ex's family were arseholes.

Some of them were, but it was in a small town in Glossop that I first saw real deprivation in a rural setting, and it shocked me. Being from the city, I associate deprivation with inner cities, but the realities of how isolated people are in a community like that when the industry has gone was a new thing to me, and very sad. We were surrounded by beautiful countryside, but the people I met (ex's family) were up to all manner of crime - petty and otherwise - and not in a crafty way It was all just so desperate, and it stuck me, this is what life can be like if you're in the middle of bloody nowhere and there's been no work for anyone for a couple of generations.

We are cushioned to things like this in London, because even if you've been dealt a really shit hand, there are opportunities everywhere.

And deprivation isn't always obvious too. Where I lived in London last was on a nice looking road with Victorian houses, but after I moved in I discovered it was a huge "front line" for crack cocaine dealing! I don't want to make a similar mistake in a new area, now that we have DS.

I hope I'm saying this right I don't want to offend anyone!