Moving to West Yorkshire

[Move2WY]

Hi. Posting here for traffic.

Please can you help me find a place to live. Needs to be 45 minutes drive max to Wakefield. But not Wakefield.

I have a 19 month old and another due in June so a town with playgroup and soft play is ideal.

We don't want to move to a city and worry a village is too isolating as we will not know anyone. We love Harrogate.

Will be renting to begin with and budget is up to 1k a month.

I have seen mirfield but unsure about high street. Anywhere out there similar to Harrogate? Thanks x

10 years ago it took longer than 45 minutes to get from Ackworth to Wakefield in rush hour, can't imagine it's got any better.

Avoid Agbrigg, Horbury used to be nice, DSD lives in Ossett and loves it

I forgot the ukulele and drumming groups in my list of things going o in Holmfirth.

I wouldn't class Hade edge as a holmfirth junior school, it's miles out, there's quite a few closer. Lots of descent primary/junior schools though. Upperthong is close.

If I was looking at Holmfirth I'd look at villages surrounding it rather than holmfirth centre. A lot of them such as Scholes, Upperthong, Netherthong, Thongsbridge and possibly New mill are walkable. Honley and Meltham are a little further out but then are bigger so have a little more going on than the smaller villages.

You forgot the art festival/art week as well BikeRunSki

And the WI in holmfirth is young and funky

I'm in Methley, it rocks. About half an hour tops into Wakey from here.

Meltham is lovely

Sandal in Wakefield is nice. Agbrigg is next to it and is not very nice. It's quite common to get nice areas next to not nice areas up here. As an aside, someone I used to work with had just moved up from the south, he was househunting and showed me details of what he said looked like "a lovely half timbered cottage in a small village". He was a bit disappointed when I pointed out that it was actually an ex council house in a rough area with some particularly dodgy cladding and clever photography omitting the bombsite of an estate it was on. Local knowledge is everything!

So is Honley

And Holmfirth too, but then it's Yorkshire so enough said

Newmillardam is fantastic and only about 20 minutes to Wakefield, there was a lovely two bed cottage to rent with garden, garage and parking, next to a great cafe and the lake for about £650 pcm. Went very quickly, properties round there don't hang about.

Woolley just down the road from there is nice, as is Notton a bit further down. All an easy commute to Wakefield. A grand a month should get you something pretty special to rent in West Yorkshire to be honest, anything anywhere near that price would be in a good area by default, most properties to rent are nowhere near that amount.

This is in Sandal, opposite a very nice pub. Sandal Castle is a five minute walk away, great location. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-39190263.html?showcase=true&premiumA=true

This is in Heath, alos known as Heath Common. Beautiful place. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-55980794.html

Just outside Wakefield City Centre, so walking distance: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-55980794.html

The better areas in Wakefield are probably Sandal and Newmillerdam. Durkar isn't too bad. Someone upthread mentioned Crigglestone - I live there, it's ok but nothing special. It used to be lovely and quiet but lately there have been a lot of incidents of people breaking into cars there, and trying to break into houses so that would put me off if I didn't already live here.

Although the city centre is pretty dire in Wakefield ( absolute dive to be honest ), you're within half an hour of both White Rose centre and Meadowhall, with great access to the M1 so there are pluses to living in Wakefield.

Morley, Birstall, East and West Ardsley, Rothwell, Woodlesford, Heath, Outwood, Newmillerdam, Swillington, Garforth. All are places with nice parts and within a 30 minute commute of Wakefield in the rush hour.

Brighouse, Halifax, Saltaire, Holmfirth etc are far too far away from Wakefield I'm afraid.

We live in Horbury, which is 3 miles from Wakefield. We moved from London (although I grew up in hd8 area). It's a nice village with a decent housing stock. Good schools both primary and secondary. The people are friendly and has some really nice pubs. Bit lacking on the restaurant front but has a popular Italian that people seem to like (I don't!) Takes me 10 mins to drive to work in Wakefield centre.
Wakefield is pretty shit, but it is trying! If you look closely there are some cool things popping up. Leeds is close by, as is loads of fabulous countryside.
I can get to holmfirth in about 45 mins but I do that by driving probably too fast on all the back roads and not at rush hour!

What about Norton or Womersley? I want to live in Womersley but can't afford the house prices Grew up in Doncaster, moved to west Leeds, now living in S63 area mentioned above. The manvers estate is ok but going the A1 way I would struggle to get to Wakefield in 45 mins and definitely not at peak times. Also agree with Wentworth - some beautiful areas around there and Elsecar but don't know how close it is! To be fair there are a few new build estates in pontefract and castleford that would be a great location for you OP.

Also newmillerdam is pretty

Disagree with wiseup. I've done many a holmfirth to Wakefield drive and can easy get there in 45 minutes.
Also used to drive quite regularly to Horbury Bridge that would take me 30 mins if that.
I'm in one of the further out Holmfirth areas and that's to Wakefield centre.

Thanks Fatima! I love the look of Holmfirth and to be honest the commute was a worry to me.
I think I've narrowed it down a bit as I had so many suggestions. All are good but some are a little too far out or maybe a bit too sleepy village so I think I need to get up here and explore.
Thinking I'm going to focus on:
Holmfirth
HD8 area
Sandal
Newmillerdam
For now.

Have I missed any place that people think I'd be crazy to ignore? Thanks!

blibblibs Trust your gut - and don't buy something just because you think you should. That is exactly the mistake that I made and it ended up costing me dearly (both financially and emotionally). Basically, instead of the house being a good investment, I ended up losing £10k to move out of there, but it was worth every penny.

I don't know how you're fixed with jobs etc. but how about some of the places mentioned on this thread? Holmfirth strikes me as worlds different in feel and ethos: one of the few things I did enjoy was trips out there. Or what about the edge of Sheffield - Grenoside, for instance? You would be within a fairly easy drive of the school (going against the traffic) and you can buy some lovely houses that feel very country-like, but you're also close to the city.

Thanks shovetheholly. Schools are not a priority for another 3 years. As mine are too young at the moment.

We are also renting in the interim until we settle on somewhere we both love I suppose. Husband will be working in Wakefield. I won't be.

When you say Holmfirth is worlds apart what do you mean? From London or Harrogate?

A lot of people mention the outskirts of Sheffield but it seems too far to me. Perhaps I'm wrong.

I have written everything single one of these places down. I'm running it through google maps to make sure the drive is no more than 45 and then considering those that are left. Long task!

I'd say Sheffield is too far from Wakefield if you have to travel in rush hour.

When you do your Google maps test, try doing it at the times you will need to be travelling - it will give an idea of the extra time for traffic.