Moving near Preston

[AussieBrooke]

Hello, I'm from Australia and desperately trying to find a nice little town or village within 30 minutes drive to Preston. We have young children and a great school is essential. Any recommendations on where we should or should not be looking?

Thanks

I have no ideas about schools, but Ribchester is gorgeous. This is based entirely on 1 weekend there over 10 years ago!

Thanks for your reply. Gorgeous areas are definitely recommendations I would love as well. I know I'm probably aiming high, but effectively I would love a gorgeous little town, with a great community and schooling. I'll research your recommendation now. Thanks

Longridge is a great little town, with excellent schools.

Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley, lots of house building going on. Good schools to choose from but this means slightly higher house prices.

Agree with Clitheroe

Thank you very much for everyones responses. We were considering Clitheroe and Garstang, so I'll certainly look into the houses around there.

Lytham is very friendly and has great schools

My husband recommended Lytham as he worked near there for a few years. The rental opportunities are great there and it's close to Preston. Can I ask if there are any areas to avoid in Lytham? I'm aware that Blackpool is very close, personally I would not want to live in Blackpool but certainly open to good surrounding areas.

Avoid St Anne's

Thanks Mulch, this may sound stupid but most rental properties advertised are putting Lytham St Anne's as the area. So ideally I should be looking for properties advertised as Lytham only?

Was also coming on to say Clitheroe!

Lytham st annes is a district that covers Lytham, Ansdell and Fair haven and then St Anne's
Some areas of st Anne's are a bit less genteel than others
Avoid St Albans Road, its full of bedsits and druggies, but the rest of st Anne's is ok
Ansdell is lovely with a very good school

Garstang, Clitheroe and Lytham. There's some smaller villages which are nice too, like Pilling, Preesall and Great Eccleston. I'd stay more north of Preston so you have the option to head into Lancaster easily too, as it's a much nicer city than Preston. Also be aware that Clitheroe can be quite a handful in terms of commute but the schools are excellent. Avoid Chorley, Leyland, Blackpool and the naffest of the naff, Buckshaw.

Thank you very much for your replies. It has certainly helped me narrow down my search.

Garstang is a lovely small market town with good access to Lancaster , and has a Booths supermarket, so would definitely be my choice!

I grew up in Goosnargh. It's a lovely village. My sis is near Clitheroe which is also lovely.

Sorry for jumping on this thread but we're also looking at moving to this sort of area and were looking at Buckshaw Village, what's wrong with it @BobbinThreadbare123? Houses look nice but I must be missing something! I thought Chorley looked okay as a nearby town too... might need to re-start my search!

Bobbin my best friend lives in Buckshaw and I think it's quite nice in a Stepford Wives kind of way

Where in Oz are you coming from? If you currently live in Bundaberg then anywhere near Preston will seem like a magical paradise, if you are in some nice Sydney suburb then I think you may be a bit disappointed.

What exactly do you want in the location? The places mentioned all have a lovely and often semi-rural vibe, but there are disadvantages.

Also I'm from the Wigan area and Appley Bridge, Wrightington, Parbold and Newburgh are all gorgeous local villages. My parents still live there and I love visiting, they're the next junction south from Preston.

Redpanda Buckshaw ticks lots of boxes if you want a train station, pubs, shops etc. I think the Primary is too small from what my friend was saying so not sure what they are doing about that - and you would have to travel out for secondary schools (but you do in a lot of places).

"I thought Chorley looked okay as a nearby town too"

The league of gentlemen is genuinely based on Chorley. I knew the lass that was Reece Shearsmith's restart officer IRL. She was quite proud of being Pauline.

Chorley does have fab schools though, and the theatre is good.

Our criteria is basically:

• up to £220k for 3/4 bed semi
• easy access to motorway
• some supermarkets and stuff local
• train station with access to Manchester

So it seems okay! Just didn't know if I was missing something.

"- up to £220k for 3/4 bed semi

• easy access to motorway
• some supermarkets and stuff local
• train station with access to Manchester"

Leyland, Chorley, Buckshaw or Euxton. The reason PPs are suggesting other areas is they are very 'naice' but those 4 meet your criteria (depending of price and drive to station) and are all fine. Personally I'd far rather live in Leyland than Lytham, at least until I'm 80ish.

Garstang is lovely, it's got lots of young families and is a friendly community. Also it has Booths (including Booths cafe!) with Aldi across the car park so best of both worlds in supermarket terms. Also nice independent shops and pubs. It's also easy to get to Lancaster which I agree with PP is much nicer than Preston. Public transport is an problem in a lot of the places mentioned IMO so just worth considering if that's an issue.