SOUTH OF MANCHESTER

[Postchildrenpregranny]

Thinking of down sizing and moving North -partly to realise some capital (DD2 lives in Manchester, DD1 in London, which we cannot afford. We aren't moving just to 'be near' as no guarantee she'll stay)
Does anyone know anything about Whaley Bridge? Marple Bridge? Macclesfield ? Chapel en le Frith? ( I know Buxton can get cut-off) Looking to spend £350,000 or so . Very open minded as to type of house .Location is more important.We are relatively young/fit/active retired . I'd like to be able to see hills and trees from my windows...I hate living in suburbia (was born and bred in the country)
But given that we would hope to live out our declining years wherever we go, it cannot be too remote and must have reasonable public transport, ideally Dr Library, local shop. And access to theatre etc , airport, rail service to London (hence Manchester)

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35521832?search_identifier=5bbc3d68b214ddc59cf419bd0a12d4fb#ihJ7clrEVq9k8QzX.97
How about this? Hills on your door step, we go walking here! Nice pub up the road Hare and Hounds luzley road. Ashton/Stalybridge is probably the nearest towns with plenty shops only 15 in car.

I'm from Bramhall; good transport links, small village, good community feel but if your wanting walks if suggest Poynton

If you want your countryside to be hilly and a bit wilder, then choose places to the east. As others have said marple, glossop, Buxton, bollington, Macclesfield etc.

To the west you get the cheshire plain, which is flat and fairly dull from a countryside POV (In my opinion). Places like wilmslow are very suburban. Alderley edge is I think officially the most expensive postcode in the UK and is full of plastic mansions and posh 4x4s.

Buxton does get cut off in the snow quite a bit. It has an opera house/theatre and a very attractive ad historic centre. Bollington is great, with a v village-y atmosphere and lots of clubs and activities. Housing stock is a bit limited though...lots of small cottages with tiny gardens (pretty but small) and the bigger places are more expensive.

Macclesfield is slightly cheaper with a wider range of housing stock and facilities of a small town(hospital, medical centre, supermarkets etc). I live here. The town centre itself is slightly underwhelming, fairly unexciting Main Street etc but I feel it is improving. Some areas of the town are very nice and some are less good. There are plans to redevelop the shopping area although it remains to be seen if these will be an improvement! Macc does have a good train link to manchester (25 mins) and London (1h40). Macc forest is a great resource, but there are many many walks everywhere around here. PS the house uplink is on a very busy road and you will struggle to get out of your drive in rush hour!

leek and Congleton are further south and much cheaper to buy in.

Macclesfield hilly and has fantastic walks.
Leek no good from train service point if view and further to Manchester.
Congleton has train station with services to Macclesfield, about 10 minutes away by train,or Stoke.
Lots of nice countryside around this area too,more hilly than Cheshire plain towns.

I am also in Macclesfield. £350K would buy you a pretty decent 4 bed detached I would think. There are some surrounding areas e.g. Wilmslow, Prestbury or Alderley Edge where you would be pushed to get anything for that.

As I sit here having my breakfast I can look out of my window at the hills!

As others have said there are decent transport links - DH works in Stockport and can get to work on the train.

Having the Peak District on the doorstep is a real plus point for us as we go walking nearly every weekend if we can manage it. Some of the places mentioned in Derbyshire are also very attractive but we can get there quite quickly if we want to visit. We roam over much of Derbyshire on our walking excursions.

Meant to add there are regular trains to Manchester via Macclesfield from Congleton.

Yes, we're just a few miles from the start of the Peak District National Park. Hayfield is a stunning village (The Village is filmed there) and it's only a few miles from Marple. You do get the best of both worlds, transport links into Manchester and gorgeous scenery. (No I don't work for the tourist board!)

Peak District minutes from Bollington, which is in itself hilly. It's actually really nicely situated on the edge of the peaks/plain, so you get great views across the plain from an elevated position, almost anywhere around here, and then turn around and walk up hill and down dale, Goyt Valley, Windgather Rocks, Lamaload, etc. all just minutes away...

Traffic in and out of Glossop can be really really heavy. I wouldn't live there. In fact traffic all around the Disley/Stockport area can be bad.

Macclesfield isn't close enough to a motorway for me.

If I had a choice in that area I would look at Knutsford/Lymm/Altrincham/Wilmslow

Am even more convinced we should go for it, having done a bit of trawling on property websites last night .We could definitely get something we'd like for around £350, 000 (or less) which would give us £20,000 for any renovations and a fairly hefty chunk of capital
Many thanks for Comments and suggestions

I know you said south of Manchester but for value for money, hills, country pubs etc, ramsbottom is lovely. You'd get a fab cottage that way with change

Sounds like you need to plan some fact finding holidays missions in the next year or so. Depending where you position yourself relative to the motorways, from that sort of area, in addition to being nice of itself you can get to North wales, the Lakes etc pretty easily too.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33549882.html. Just by a really nice Park.

I am from Lymm - it's very pretty and has good motorway links.

Altrincham the best for schools I believe.

I know Lymm and it is nice but 'wrong' side As is Atrincham (also too built up) And no proper hills......