Possibly moving to Manchester from London

[shouldiorshouldinot]

Hi everyone,

We are possibly planning on moving to Manchester from London. I've never lived anywhere other than London so it's daunting. I have 4dc 12,10,4,1. The very main thing is excellent schools. St the moment my kids are at outstanding schools so I really hope they can continue like that.
Anybody made the move and how have you found it?
What's the best place to move to with great schools secondary and primary and maybe not too far from the city centre?
Looking for a 4 bed semi or detached
How likely is it to get into food schools and getting into same schools?

Thank you all it's all very overwhelming

Ceeveebee that's sounds amazing. Are you enjoying it, and how
Long have you been there? I'm so worried I'll regret it and really miss London

Oh and I forgot to add, I'd like somewhere where there are lots of young families so my kids can make friends.

lastqueenofscotland sorry should have said, I guess as long as I can reach the city centre by 20-30 mins drive that would be good. But again If areas that close are not great then I'll happily move further back.

Urmston - good transport links, hospital, good schools, near to Trafford Centre, lots of young families, lots of things to do. You'll be looking at a bit more than £300k for a detached house though, house across the road from mums is a standard 3 bed semi and has just sold for £320k

Is there any particular areas which area a no go and I should avoid

With that extra information @shouldiorshouldinot - I'd go for Prestwich!

In that case with your budget another vote for Urmston or the area of Swinton south of the east lancs road (Worsley road area) and maybe Monton?

Areas people avoid are very personal! The main one for me would be avoiding Fallowfield like the plague, unless you want to be kept awake by uni students all night evey night.

lilacrosa and lastqueenofscotland thank you so much for your help, I will look into these areas.

How is Irlam? That's seems to come up
A lot of right move ?

And cheadle? That pops up a lot too

I moved from London to Manchester in 2017. Lived in the city centre for a year, then we moved to Knutsford in December. Knutsford is pretty far out from Manchester (if you need to commute to central), but it is absolutely stunning and such a lovely place to raise kids.

Also agree with PPs about Altrincham - I work there and it's also lovely! Much prefer it up here to London.

The non-grammar schools in South Trafford are all good I'd say (certainly ACA, Ashton on Mersey and Wellington, North Cestrian is still finding its feet maybe? I've heard good reports from Sale High too. There's BTH if you're Catholic as well).

You’ve had some great suggestions here!

My only flag would be wanting to be a 20-30 min drive from the city centre. Manchester is not a pleasant place to drive around and the council are actively discouraging car travel in the city centre. Is driving a dealbreaker for you?

Thinking about Heaton moor, its one of those areas that has been ramped up over the years mostly by estate agents of course and it has now styled itself as one of those high end areas such as chorlton and didsbury. Of course walking round heaton moor, you can tell that historically it has always been an affluent area. There are plenty of big houses with fine features which were clearly inhabited by the better off in previous eras. Many have been split up into flats,some very nice and others more like bedsit land.

There is a lot of snobbery. For instance, on the road which spans the railway bridge at the edge of heaton moor border close to the A6, they have commisioned a nice cast iron wall sign with two arrows, one pointing to heaton moor and the other to nearby heaton chapel which of course isnt seen as quite a desirable as heaton moor.

They recently reorganised the electoral boundaries and the orignal proposals would have seen a chunk of HM included with Heaton chapel. Well the shit hit the fan big time,,,people so scare of being lumped in with another area which included what were perceived to be less desirable areas,,claims that heaton moor was a "village" ,, etc etc...

I suppose that in this broken country,one of the big drivers IS schools and of course priestnall is well respected. I have no idea what its catchment area is but surely a chunk of Burnaage nearby must be in it?

Alternatively you could dare to cross the aforementioned frontier bridge and check out heaton chapel and the village of south Reddish which are perfectly decent places to live ,,err,,and many people do.

Cheadle is very nice but you will struggle to get 4 bed close to the village, within your budget. You would be able to get 3 bed for about £300/£320k near Cheadle village

Yuu

Mamamamysharona thank you, I'm so glad you put my mind to rest that you're not regretting moving. Which part of London did you move from? I'm from sw London

Thank you all. I guess if schools are very local driving isn't that much of a dealbreaker. I live currently 5 mins from the shopping centre where they have all the shops possible and also an Ikea etc. Which places are there around Manchester which have big shopping centres?

@Coldilox do you live in Windsor or Staffordshire then?! The largest public park in the UK - let alone Europe - is not in Manchester! Google it ☺️

I agree Arnoldcatand think that snobbery extends to a lot of areas of south Manchester, including Cheadle. In Cheadle the snobbery is in relation to whether you are an SK8 or an SK3 postcode!

Also there are a hell of a lot of "villages" springing up in what are quite simply just suburbs of bigger towns and cities. For example all the above mentioned areas are in Greater Manchester.

There are no duck ponds, maypoles or similar village like accoutrements
in HM,cheadle,Chorlton,didsbury etc,,, there is a large village green in the village of southReddish nearby complete with a pavilion ,childrens play area and bowling green which is simply delightful in summer. The village green in south reddish has for many years held the coveted green flag award until Stockport MBC decided to cost cut and stop sponsoring it.

Shopping centre wise Urmston isn’t too far from the Trafford centre.
There’s a supermarket archipelago in Swinton which isn’t too far from Monton or the area I mentioned south of the east lancs road.

Thank you ladies. Any idea about Irlam?

I forgot about Sale @shouldiorshouldinot ! And I think Heaton Park is (Or was?) the largest municipal park in Europe. In any case, it's a really nice park!

lilacrosa thank you I will check sale, it's been mentioned a few times x

Irlam/Caddishead are a little isolated, as you're trapped between the ship canal and the M62. Consequently they're very....parochial, I guess the term would be!