Nice places to live in Leeds

[Mum2Lucas]

Hi,
I'm returning to work soon and looking for a job in Leeds at one of the Banks (GE in Morley, First Direct in Stourton, YBS or Bradford & Bingley in Bradford). I don't know Leeds so I'm trying to find an area with a good primary school and nursery from which I could commute to one of the areas listed above. Ideally, I'd prefer somewhere relatively easy to commute to most of those places so that if things don't work out and I have to look for another job I won't have to move again. Could anyone recommend anywhere? I'm starting to wonder if it's worth the effort as I seem to be spending most of my maternity leave going to interviews and researching new ares . HELP!!

Depends if you want to actually be in Leeds itself or not. Burley-in-wharfedale/Ilkley/menston all outside Leeds with great schools, and only 20mins by train to either Leeds or Bradford.

i guess it depends what your priorities are in an area: green spaces? multi cultural? young? i live in harehills/chapeltown area which some consider rough (some taxi drivers still won't go there at night!!) but i love it, its very mixed racially, loads of good nature bits nearby (parks and woods), dead cheap, everything in walking distance, public transport good, amazing free baby groups every day, that sort of thing.
we're talking deprived bottom of the league area though, so if you have enough money you might want to try somewhere like chapel allerton which is meant to be quite lovely and child friendly, with good schools. but is a lot more upmarket!

Garforth, Barwick in Elmet and Scholes are nice areas to live with great nurseries and Primary schools. It's also about 5 mins drive to A1/M1 Link Road so ideal for commuting but it feels like you live in the country.
Garforth also has a train station and tesco supermarket and it's not far from Leeds city centre or York and Wetherby.

We live in Moortown (North Leeds) and love it. Close to Chapel Allerton which is very baby friendly. Also close to Harrogate and you can get out into the country (Harewood House etc) within 5-10 mins. Just about to put my precious into nursery so can't really comment on schools etc but there a number in the area.

Good luck!

We live in Roundhay/Gledhow. Oldest dd only 21mths but apparantly schools are very good. Good local shops, second Chapel allerton and harrogate for a bit of 'posh'.

drighlington is lovely, very "villagy" feel to it everyone is friendly, and the schools are supposed to be really good. we are about 10 minutes from morley 15 from stourton and bradford, the only downside is its quite expensive

Thanks for the response everyone. We've been looking around Horsforth. Does anyone have any experience of the area/schools/nurseries?

Hi
I'm from Horsforth originally and most of my family still live there. It's a lovely area, nice park, not far to the country!
Nice little centre with everything you could need. A train station gets you into Leeds or Bradford. There are a wide selection of primary schools, some with nurseries attached to them. My friends kids went to the one at Trinity and all saints college and then moved to the one attached to St Margarets school and she has only had praise for both of them. There is also a nursery opposite St Margarets I have never looked into Nurseries in Horsforth and I'm sure there are more. My brother actually moved back to ensure his daughter could goto Horsforth Secondary. The only thing I would say is that it is near Leeds Bradford airport and it never bothered us but there are planes overhead a lot. If looking at houses it might be worth asking about plane noise! At one end of Horsforth they go over practically unoticed but if your on the flight path at the other end (like my brother) they can be noisy,he says he only hears them if he is in the garden. HTH, anything else just shout! I would happily live back in Horsforth.

I'm in Horsforth, have been for 6 years now and love it. St Margarets is meant to be very good - also Featherbank Infants has had an oustanding Ofsted. My ds attended the nursery attached to West End School for a short time and I thought it was lovely.

Flame is right about the airport but having grown up under the Heathrow flight path I don't notice the planes!

If you're still watching...yes Horsforth is lovely, I've been here for 2 years now. Most - not all - of the nurseries and schools here are very good, it has a strong community feel and is a great place to be with young children.

Happy to answer any specifics - good luck with the job hunting!

Otley's also a fab town but we don't have a train station. There is a bus that goes up to Menston to meet the trains though so it's not too hard to commute.
However, because we're so nice (I am biased being born and bred here) the house prices are a wee bit higher.
But, there's a great community, loads of pubs, great mother and baby resources, a beautiful park, shops are a bit so so but we've got the basics and some excellent butchers/greengrocers, we have a Waitrose and a soon to be opened Sainsbury as well as a Netto supermarket.

Thanks again for the responses. We are looking at the nursery in the college though would have preferred one that opened a bit earlier and had a few more rooms. If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them. Have also registered with Leapfrog at Guiseley but they're messing us about and refusing to commit to a place for the boys - apparently they cant say yes or no - very helpful when we're due to move at the end of July. I heard from someone on netmums who'd been promised a place there but they revoked it 6 weeks before she started work so i'm beginning to have doubts. Flame, which side is under the flight path - i don't mind some noise as we get planes occasionally coming over where we live now and my toddler thinks it's fantastic bit i'm not sure about living directly under the flight path. To be honest, we're having to rent initially as we're struggling to sell our house in the current market.
Thanks again everyone

Nurseries: My DSs went to Dolphins which I am very happy with. We also use Ducklings (suitable from 2.6 yrs up), ditto, NB it only has the one room. Most popular is Sunnybank, which has a waiting list, I have friends with children there, they are all happy with it - I think the waiting list is to do with its central location partly. Don't know about the one at the college, purely because I haven't met anybody who uses it - is it term time only?

Um, there is one I'd advise against, but I probably shouldn't mention it...

Pre-schools: Ducklings is both a Ipre-school and a nursery; Rainbows at West End Lane is very good, and there's also Brownberrie Lane which I hear good things about.

Flight path - recommend you look at Google maps to get an idea. The DSs love it. this is the busiest time of year, it's much quieter in the winter. I was quite worried about it at first but to be honest after 6 months I hardly noticed it.

Oh and I should mention, the supermarket in Horsforth is a Life on Mars experience (except without Sam Tyler, sigh...)

I imagine she's found somewhere 9 years on!

Hello, I'm looking to move to Leeds with my 8 and 10 year old. My budget is 150k for a 3bed and would like an area for a family and also multicultural too. Would like to be close to amenities and also good schools. Would appreciate any advice on nice areas and places to avoid. Thanks