...to not have a clue where to live in Yorkshire

[Suburbubble]

We (me, DH, DS (14), DD (9) may be moving to Yorkshire in the next few months. DH's job will be to the east of Leeds. We have a budget of around £270-300,000 for a 4/5 bedroom house, which seems to be doable in the local area but... where in the lcoal area?

DH has put a pin in a map and suggested Selby. He doesn't want to live in Leeds (long story, but he doesn't love cities) and has found a few new developments around the town. I know nothing about Selby (we're currently in the Midlands). Please tell me about Selby! Anyone live there? Suitable for a teenager? For me?

Please help?

I’d have a look round wakefield.

We did the move last year and the most important thing is schools. When I compared Leeds and Wakefield secondaries Wakefield was better when you looked at east/south Leeds.

We’re within minutes of the M62/M1/A1 which makes commuting easy. Also the train from Wakey to london is under 2 hours.

Rothwell/normanton etc aren’t as well supplied with good schools wakefield itself. Outwood Grange still has an excellent reputation, as does Rodillian, woodkirk and morley- a choice of more than one gives you a better choice of getting in a decent school mid year.

I would thoroughly recommend Chapel Allerton , Roundhay and between there and cross gates.

Chapel Allerton and Roundhay are way out of budget.
Between Roundhay and Crossates is Seacroft- is that what you meant?

Outwood Grange still has an excellent reputation, as does Rodillian, woodkirk and morley- a choice of more than one gives you a better choice of getting in a decent school mid year.

Dd goes to outwood. It's a good school. Strict, but good. However, its really struggled with changes to GCSEs and had quite a high turnover of staff. Some lessons have been left without any staff.

@Suburbubble have you thought about east ardsley. Great for commuting. Near junction 41 for motorway. Several non motorway routes to leeds and wakefield. Great public transport and Outwood trainstation is very close by. It's a village. But a huge village with shops, cafes etc. Catchment for a few good schools.

Outwood is a MAT that teachers avoid working for.

@TheRebelAlliance

There are 4 bed houses around chapel allerton//roundhay available for under £300k- not ‘way out of budget’ at all

Op how will you husband get to work and what is his max ideal commute?

East Yorkshire? Beverley, pocklington, cottingham perhaps.

Beverley's a lovely town with quite a lot to offer.

Another vote for Ilkley. We've just moved down from there to E. Midlands. Nice small town, good schools (Ilkley Grammar), near country side. 20mins by train to Leeds.

There are 4 bed houses around chapel allerton//roundhay available for under £300k- not ‘way out of budget’ at all

Very flexible definition of roundhay on rightmove!
The OP wants 4/5 - no 5 and only 1 that is 4 bed on Elmete drive at £419 that needs work. Everything else isn't roundhap but Oakwood, moortown or Seacroft

What have you found?

Wetherby is a pretty easy commute to Garforth, 30 minutes in rush hour. No station but a reasonable bus service to Leeds.

Personally I don't get the love for Tadcaster, so much of the town centre is owned by the brewery and boarded up and derelict.

Aah @Zaphodsotherhead I grew up in Fishergate OP I wouldn’t discount York completely, it is possible to buy a 4 bed for £300k but you would need to be on the West of York to have a fighting chance of getting to Garforth within 45 mins drive at rush hour. I live in the burbs of York and it takes my bus 35 mins to travel into the city centre. Its very lovely and consistently named as the best place to live in Britain but the traffic is horrendous.

Selby has a bit of a reputation but I know a fair few people who live there and love it.

Think you need to visit, its a big big county!

I live in East Yorkshire and lots of people in the villages around brough work in Leeds or London as transport links are so good. You would be a good school catchment area (south hunsley). Selby is really run down.

Humphrey Smith isn't an asset for Tadcaster and he does impact the town center. But it is in a good location for OP, has decent schooling and is less rough than Selby.
OP doesn't have the biggest budget to play with for housing.

My aunt lives in a village called Newby, it’s between Clapham and ingleton. I love it up there and would move in a heartbeat although I do like settle, skipton. Even Kirkby Lonsdale. But that’s from my London eyes just loving anything that ISNT London.

If I were you I'd visit some towns and villages east of Leeds (Kippax and Garforth, maybe Woodlesford) and around Wakefield (Walton for example). You'll get more for your money around Wakefield.

If you're working East Leeds, you don't want be travelling from North Leeds (Roundhay etc) and Definitely not from West Leeds (Horsforth etc)! Oh man. The ring road is not a pleasant place to spend your spare time.
One extra point through... If you're buying East Leeds, check its not on a flood plain. Some times it's obvious in the name... Allerton Bywater anyone?

Have you considered yeadon or guisley? there are the essential shops as well as a retail park, and a local theater. Only thing it lacks is a cinema but transport on the train and bus is very good. There is of course also Menston but that is a lot more residential

I’m chuckling at some of the really impractical suggestions. On another thread about things that are now considered old fashioned some posters have mentioned atlases/maps. Can I suggest you get an “old fashioned” map and actually have a look at the areas mentioned to get a sense of perspective. Posters who are suggesting anywhere West of Leeds is either assuming that the OP’s husband’s job is near Garforth station or hasn’t tried to drive around or through Leeds in the rush hour.

We drove up the A65 between Horsforth roundabout and Rawdon traffic lights last Sunday, and the traffic was nose to tail even then. And Horsforth roundabout has to be one of the worst designed roundabouts in Leeds. Driving this route during the rush hour would be horrendous. I used to commute to South Leeds from Guiseley back in the 1980s and it was bad even then.

I agree that you need to stick to anywhere to the East of Leeds. Traditionally anywhere to the East of large industrial cities was usually cheaper as they were subject to the smoke and pollution due to the prevailing Westerly wind. You need to be out of Leeds though as most of East Leeds itself is not very nice.

Even if the DHs job is near Garforth station, from somewhere like Horsforth or Guiseley, he'll need to get a train into Leeds and then wait for a second train, so it's still going to be well over an hour once travel to the station at each end and changing platforms and waiting for a train in Leeds is taken into account. And that's if it all goes smoothly.

Plus they probably don't have the budget for a 4/5 bedroom house in those areas. And the OP hasn't said whether commuting by train is an option - does he need to travel around for work, carry heavy equipment, work outside standard office hours when trains are much less frequent - eg hourly?

So I don't understand why people are still banging on about the areas of North Leeds, which are both impractical and probably too expensive when there are many nice areas within an easy drive of the area where the job actually is that are probably much more suitable.

And as for the Newby suggestion, words fail me.

I think some posters have a poor grasp of the geography of Leeds BarbaraofSeville

OP your DH’s job is in Garforth, then living there seems like a no brainer. It fits all your needs.

No idea why traveling right across Leeds to Garforth would have any benefits.

Garforth, and east/south Leeds is also much better sited for travelling further as good motorway access. If you need to get to or from the motorways from north Leeds at the wrong time of day, that can take an hour.

The park and rides are also both on the south/east side of the city, with a third planned at Stourton. It's almost like the question is why would you want to live in areas with worse traffic, oversubscribed schools and more expensive prices, just because there's some misguided notion that it's 'nicer'.

I live in south Leeds and work in north Leeds, but also travel for work at least one or two days a week so like having good access to the motorways.

A lot of my colleagues live in north Leeds. I don't because I grew up in south Leeds and for a long time, couldn't afford to live in north Leeds, and even though I probably could now, don't particularly want to because I don't see the advantage.

It's also worth noting that a lot of my colleagues who live in the nice north Leeds areas have been burgled, some more than once, so it's not like living in an area perceived as nice necessarily means lower crime rates. There's also been some serious incidents in the schools in that area, including one so shocking, it made the national news.

Yes - I was mildly amused / bemused by some suggestions. I think if OP’s DH turned up to work in East Garforth on Day 1 and said he lived anywhere in North or West Leeds the office would think he was quite rightly bonkers. Seriously OP, there are loads of options around East Garforth, including East Garforth itself! Loads of new builds around the area as well; not saying you need to buy a new build, but it just increases the options.
The Selby / Leeds train today was on time (but only two carriages) so there is hope if you’re commuting
And I’m off to investigate this Doughnut shop in Selby!

I think I know which news incident you mean Barbara.
Headingly used to be the most burgled postcode in Britain. I don't know if this is still the case. Also, when we lived in Leeds we had a car stolen once and several car break ins. I believe that at one point Leeds/West Yorkshire suffered the worst car crime in Europe. Although this is going back a few years.

I’ve not read the full thread, but I work i Harrogate and it’s lovely, as is Wetherby