Where to live in/near Macclesfield?

[indigo123]

My DH is considering a transfer to a job in Macclesfield. I have been doing some looking around on google at the Cheshire area and am getting a bit confused about where we could possibly live.

Is Macclesfield nice to live in? Are there good areas nearby? We have a toddler so would be looking for area with good nursery at first and then in a few years primary school.

Thanks for any advice

lucky you - we lived in Prestbury, just outside Mac. 15 years ago (so I'm not sure how out of date my views might be). Anyway, given the choice I would live in Bollington, except that the housing stock is mostly limitted to terraced workers cottages, which are very nice but small.
Lots of people like Alderley Edge- good shops but too posh for me.
Prestbury is OK (with train station)
I suppose it boils down to what you like.
I remember Macclesfield itself as a great small town with lots of good independent shops.
Lovely countryside nearby, also Manchester is easy to get to.

I remember Prestbury had a nursery attached to the school, and is in the catchment area for Fallibroome, a well-regarded secondary school in Macc. If you've got any more specific questions just ask and I'll see what I remember. We've got very happy memories of living there.

Prestbury, Adlington, Bramhall, Poynton - they are all on the macc-manchester trainline.

Hazel grove is close too.

Then there is Bollington and tytherington too.

Macclesfield is lovely. Prestbury is lovely too but it's full of millionaires so unless you want an inferiority complex then I'd personally avoid it!

Lots of nice suburbs but for me unless access to manchester is important then I'd go for Macc itself

If you cant afford any of the areas suggested above (which are all lovely BTW but expensive) then look no further than Altrincham, Cheadle or Knutsford, all very family friendly areas. I live in Alti, my friend lives in Cheadle and we both have made loads of friends through our toddlers

Thanks for all the suggestions-looks great. I was a bit worried about some places being a bit too posh/expensive for us, e.g. Prestbury/Alderley edge. We are looking for something in an area which is down to earth. Does anyone know which particular areas of Macc are nicest?

Cheers

Friends who are very keen to move into the area keep talking about Congleton and Ashbourne.

HI indigo123 - stumbled across this thread while trying to look for opinions on primary schools in Macc. We live in Macc, it's a lovely town with a lot of good primary schools (not gotten on to secondary schools yet). We live in town and at some point I'm hoping to move out to either Tytherington, Bollington, Sutton or Langley - they're all a little bit out of Macc town but not too far and not as expensive as the likes of Prestbury. There's also an estate on the north west side with a load of street names names after places in Cornwall, that's quite nice. A fewplaces near the hospital are nice too. Hope it all goes well and good luck.

I grew up in Macclesfield and went to one of the schools listed above (generally, the schools are very very good). It used to be a bit of a cultural backwater but they are really amping it up again and I think it's a good place to bring up a family.

NikNakPaddyWack I know the one you mean - is it officially called Greenfields? I did a lot of driving lessons round there...

How nice to see mners from Macclesfield, I have never seen anyone from round here on mn before.

OP I live in Bollington and have done for most of my life (apart from uni and a year abroad). It's lovely, a lovely place to bring up a family, good primary schools, great community feel even though it's not a 'village' any more.

Tytherington also good although billions of houses and not very much to service them, just a couple of shops and one (massive) primary school and one pub.

Sutton and Langley nice although much more rural - not much in the way of local shops etc. that you can walk to.

Rainow is also nice but again very rural and nothing there in the way of shops at all (two pubs that are often closed for weeks/months at a time).

What I love about Bollington is that there is a lot that we can walk to, but it still feels villagey. E.g. when I was off on maternity leave, I could push the pram to the butchers, bakery, library, parks, etc. sonear is right there is a shortage of 'family' type housing, but decent sized houses regularly come up around the South West Avenue area for less than 300k.

Prestbury and Alderley are also lovely but would be way out of what I would call 'normal' price range, as in they would almost all need two full professional salaries (e.g. two accountants etc.) to be able to afford to buy there.

Knutsford and Altrincham etc. nice, just a bit further from Macclesfield and can also be pricey but you can find reaonsable houses there too. Knutsford is actuall lovely, I work there (am in Knutsford now!) but I do think if I lived here I would go a bit mad for the lack of proper supermarket and shops to get useful things from (there are a lot of gift shops etc. but not much actually useful). Altrincham would also be a bit less rural feeling, whereas Bollington is on the edge of the peak district so you can be in the peaks within minutes (we walk from our door), whereas Knutsford et al are definitely flat Cheshire plain territory.

Macclesfield itself is nice, is kind of towny, and the traffic and roundabout hysteria during rush hour can be a bit of a nightmare, so I would choose to live out of town a bit because of this. You have most things there though, including obviously station (really good as 20 minutes into Manchester but also all the London trains stop there so it's only 2 hours to London if you need that for work etc.).

Well, obviously, I am completely biased, I lived in Bollington growing up and came straight back when I graduated. It has a lot going for it.

D

second vote for bollington. i grew up there - well, from about age 8 to about age 20 (parents where then there for another 12 years until they moved abroad) and live in the dratted south now but yearn to go back and spend my time at work trawling rightmove. issue being we'd both need jobs up there, so only a dream atm. but plus point is that property is significantly cheaper than where i am now (oxfordshire). bolly is fab and macc ok too. i went to primary in bollington (bollington cross) and secondary in poynton. prestbury is very posh, poynton too near stockport... macc itself is fine and considerably cheaper than outlaying villages.

Hi there.
We are moving to Macclesfield in July. We still need to find somewhere to live, does anyone have any suggestions please. Suburbs or areas.
My son goes to a secondary school there so we definitely need to move closer.

Thank you

Poynton, Bollington, Adlington, Rainow? Or go over to New Mills or Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire. Still less than half an hour travelling time by car.

Depends on budget, to get a lot of house for your money go south of macc, either congleton or even Leek. Leek is a little market town about a 20 min drive from Macc. It’s very down to earth, lovely buildings and in the Peak District so pretty picturesque views if you move to the outskirts. You can get a very lovely 4 bed detached for £250k, but there’s 2 bed terraces on the market for under £100k. It’s a bit of a hidden gem. Pretty good schools (look up Westwood high, it’s known as hogwarts in Leek!). Only draw back is no train station so you need to drive here.

For Macc itself you want to be in the catchment area for Fallibroome, look at Greenfields (this is an area of Macc). It’s a lot of 3 bed semi’s that are all fairly similar, but they’re good quality houses. Bollington is over priced IMO and Presbury is a ‘Cheshire Set’ hot bed, you pay for the postcode.

Congleton is down to earth and commute to Macc is a 20 min drive or 10 min train. It’s northern rail though so prepare for frustration! Some lovely houses in Congleton and again not over priced. Not sure about schools.

There’s also a couple of villages to check out: Rudyard is between Macc and leek and is very rural. It’s got a beautiful lake and that’s about it, but it’s truly gorgeous.

There’s also places like Bosley and Weston on that same stretch, but not as nice and property up for sale are like hens teeth.

If you want to be in a town, I’d go with leek, Macc itself or congleton in that order as that’s I think where you’d get best value.