Wigan

[bonniej]

Thinking of moving here to be near dh work. Does anyone know what the area's like and if there are any parts to avoid?? Any help would be appreciated. thanks

I live just down the road from Wigan in Westhoughton. But dh was born and raised in Wigan and the schools are excellent. Goose Green is nice. Hawkley Hall and Worsley Maines are the places to avoid. If you need anymore help, E-mail me. I can scout out an area on the way to the in-laws one weekend. They live in Wigan.

Thanks Flip, i've just put my house on the market so we are just browsing at the moment as not sure how long mine will take to sell. The prices in Wigan are really reasonable but am looking for a nice area with good schools/playgroups and stuff. I will email you if thats ok when we start looking properly.

No problem. Whenever you're ready. How old are your children?

ds is 15 and dd is one. Really important to get ds in a good school as he takes gcse's next year. I don't like the school he's in at the moment so hoping he will do better elsewhere.

I am a Wiganer born and bred and 2 of my children go to school in the aforementioned Goose Green.

my boys'school

I have lived here 41 years, love it and would never move anywhere else.

I lived in Hawkley Hall for a short while last year and loved it - there are rough places in Goose Green tho' can depend on which bit!

If you want posh try Standish, Swinley, Whitley. Steer well clear of Worsley Menses (pronounced Mains!), Norley Hall, Pemberton, Kitt Green,
I live in Winstanley, there are good schools here, easy motorway access and we are 2 miles away from the town centre.

We have a new maternity unit which opened last weekend, a fantastic rugby team and loads and loads of lovely people like me

get in touch with me and I will let you have my phone number, where does your dh work? Or if you have Janh's email addrss (I always think that everyone does!) e mail her and she can give you my mobile number.

And of course you can go on the Manchester meets - which should be reason enough to move here!

Flip - Hello - I used to live over near that side in Hindley Green, in fact a lot of my misspent youth was in Daisy Hill

only just read that your ds is 15, my dd is the same age, depends on where you live for secondary schools. Byrchall out in Ashton is quite good and if you're catholic St Peters at Orrell also has a good reputation.
My dd goes to the Deanery which quite a large c of e school in the town centre. My dd1 is starting there this summer (gulp) and I would recommend it
dd's school

I would steer clear of Kingsdown in Pemberton and Mornington Rd (but both my boys go to the Kids Club at Kingsdown in the summer and love it)

As I said before, get in touch!

Or come to live in St helens. Much better area with a far better Rugby team!

Just caught up with this thread. You Wiganers sound like a very friendly bunch, i'm looking forward to moving there now . My for sale board has just gone up today so hopefully i'll get some response soon. Hubby is a lorry driver based in chorley at the moment but we need to be somewhere with easy acces to manchester, motorways etc and really like the look of Wigan. House prices look good as well which means we can get a nicer house. Will be in touch and looking forward to meeting some new friends when I move. Thanks for the tips on schools, it's really important for ds as his exams are next year.

Hello again

If your dh works in Chorley, Standish is on the Chorley side and Standish High School is really good. Goeff Ashton who is the head taught me when I was at school and is reputed to be an excellent headmanster - in fact people move to Standish so that their children can go there!

Standish High School

oh - and a word of advice for when you come here - beware St Helensers, very strange bunch - and very very jealous of us Wiganners and our excellent Rugby team and the fact that we got Danny Sculthorpe whilst they are stuck with Paul

Oh and BTE, Danny is coming to Saints, so ner ner!!