Nice villages in Cheshire? Maybe Lancashire??

[FrankieChesca]

My DH is working near Manchester Airport so we are having to up sticks again!
I have 2 DC, one 5 at school and one 3 at Pre school both boys. We live in a lovely village near Winchester , have loads of friends here so I'm really looking for something similar up there.
The school that DS1 goes to is a small village primary of around 170 pupils which we can walk to. I am planning a reccy at the end of September, maybe somewhere like Lower Whitley?? Don't want anything too snobby though!!
As The airport is south of Manchester, am I right in thinking Lancashire would be too much of a commute?? Thanks in advance for your help!!

Oh and I know for a fact that there are spaces in Y1 at our lovely school.

Omg move here move here!

Hi - how bizarre, we have just moved from a wonderful village in Cheshire to a town house in WInchester, just geting settled in here - it seems lovely but I do miss where we lived before, good schools,lovely community and very friendly and kind neighbours - look at Bollington at the edge of Macclesfield, it is a great place, property reasonable and about 20 mins to the airport, lots of people who live in Bollington work there so its very commutable. Easy access into Peak District - keep wondering why we moved!!!

Hi guineapiglet, I think my DH may have been to Bollington and he said it was a bit too big. Are there any small villages around there you can recommend? All I need is a pub and a school!! My DH actually works at Siemens which he tells me is near the airport, but Im not sure what side.

Hi - Bollingtons population is about 7k - it has a very villagey feel, several lovely pubs and cafes, preschools and primary schools, doctors and dentists and shops - villages around it are Rainow, also very nice and Pott Shrigley - has a gorgeous church and church school but no pub - its only about half a mile from Bolly tho so you are not far from shops etc. Other bits of Cheshire towards the airport are also lovely - Prestbury is worth a look ( vv expensive) and Alderley Edge ( ditto). Personally I wouldnt like to have lived any nearer to the airport as it gets very busy and noisy with motorways etc. Feel free to message me if you want to, you must be quite near me now!!!

PS there are some lovely villages on outskirts of Chester - dont know the area that well any more, but Chester is a bit like Winchester, lovely city so that might be worth a look too, its about 35 /45 mins to airport (?) on motorway - and you have the benefit of the wonderful north wales on your doorstep. Can't lose in Cheshire, Peaks on one side and Wales on the other, fabulous.

There are lovely places with a shorter commute (save on petrol costs). Personally, I like Lymm and Knutsford but they may be too large for your liking but they have facilities that a young family requires without driving everywhere. The area around Delamere Forest is pretty and if you don't mind a commute, it's probably worth looking to the east towards the edges of the Peak District for a rural landscape.

Hi.
Sorry to hijack but I'm watching this thread with interest as we are looking at moving to Cheshire too!
Currently live in a city and like the idea of a village but one with library, pub, shops etc within reasonable walking distance. Horatio would you mind if I PM you too please?

Absolutely! Everyone should live here!

Bollington too big?????? Seriously, it's tiny.

Prestbury is lovely but very posh & Mottram St Andrew too.

And Bollington has White Nancy too!

Grew up in the North West - Bollington is great. I would also look at villages in and around Northwich. Very nice part of the world with good schools and lots of little pubs.

Just be careful that if you buy you don't end up with a gypsy problem. My village where my Dad is currently going through hell and back getting them off land that they bought. He is close to Helsby and it has been an issue. Property prices in areas close to the sites have almost halved (thats if they find a buyer who isn't a gypsy).

If you go west then places like Lymm, Stockton Heath, Moore etc towards Warrington are all lovely.
Lymm and Knutsford would be too big for you by the sounds of things.

Maybe try Dunham Massey, Peover, Prestbury.

Other direction heading east towards the peak district there are lots of nice places too.

Depends just how remote you want to be.

It might be too far to commute but towards Tarporley is gorgeous and quite small villages.

I grew up in South Manchester and moved back recently. We came up for two separate weekends and drove to our furthest commuting point,then worked our way back through all the villages before making our decision. It was really useful and also a good way of seeing what is around even if you don't live there. Good luck!

I'll pull together a longer reply when I've time as we've checked out a phenomenal number of places now over the course of the last 18 months.

The area has great cities (Manchester, Liverpool and Chester) and plenty of picturesque small villages (pub, primary, shop type places) but Cheshire isn't great for attractive large villages/small towns which is what we'd ideally move into (Knutsford and Tarporley being our favourite 'small town' and 'large village' respectively).

I do like Bollington (pretty good facilities, good number of pubs, good primaries, good walks (canals, access across to Goyt valley, Peaks etc), good community, mainline rail a short drive away in Macc). Downsides - secondary school it's in catchment for is ok but not the best in the area, nearest 'bigger' place is Macc - nothing wrong with it but nothing to go dreamy about either. You're a bit of a hike to Manchester (largest nearby centre).

What do you want your village to have?

• pub (or two)?
• shop (or more)?
• primary (secular or CoE)?
• bus route to nearest centre?
• train line to nearest centre?
• more facilities beyond village shop/pub, e.g. restaurants, PO, hairdresser, butcher, grocer, bank, library, secondary school?

If you like Winchester then you'd feel at home taking trips out into Chester or Knutsford (smaller). They're the closest to Winchester in terms of being attractive shopping centres. When you consider options, be conservative around journey to work estimates - some busy roads/motorway junctions near the airport/coming into Manchester.

Sorry, just saw you said you only need a pub and school! Lots of options then. Think about where you'd like access to beyond the airport (M6, Manchester, Chester, mainline rail south etc)

Hello.we relocated from east yorkshire to cheshire last yr for dh's job.he was told he needed to somewhat close to the airport and close to the m6.we chose congleton and rented to see if it suited and we r in process of buying a house here.we really like it.its a town but isn't too big and I feel it has a nice community.think its worth a look 4 u.pm if u r interested.x

Thank you for all your help everyone, Ive got some places to get me started now! I've got a lot to think about as I hadnt thought about the fact that I would have to get my DS2 name down for primary school at the end of January! Aargh!!!

PM'd you, don't worry about the schools thing too much.

I grew up in Cheshire and loved it! Although I have nothing useful to ad!

Can you stand being very close to the airport? (and I mean looking up at undercarriages!). If you can get over that (I couldn't) then Mobberley has a lot going for it - green space, slightly cheaper than it would be without the planes, Knutsford on the doorstep, decent primary, train into Manchester.

Not a fan of Lymm (sorry to all Lymm-ites). Really like the centre but there are so many modern build estates that the centre's character is drowned for me. V convenient location though, attractive centre, good schools. Too big for you though based on what you've said.

I've not found a great version of this tool yet (this isn't all that comprehensive or accurate), but it's worth a play;

www.freemaptools.com/how-far-can-i-travel.htm

I err on the side of caution so put in an average speed of 40mph and a driving distance duration of 20 minutes.

High Legh, Chelford, Over Peover, Prestbury, Mottram, Alderley Edge, Dunham Town (but almost all National Trust so difficult to find), Antrobus, Great Budsworth are all places that could suit you (vastly different though from the bling of alderley, prestbury & mottram to the farming industry of Antrobus, Chelford and the Peovers).

Thank you everyone, it looks like Antrobus and Chelford would be the sort of places I'm looking for. I've also had some useful feedback on Whitley so I think I might base my visit around these areas. Still vv sad at the thought of having to take my DC away from a great school/Pre school and all of their friends.

We live on the outskirts of chester and DH works at the airport. Christleton, waverton, Guilden sutton, Barrow and Mickle Trafford all have access to good primary schools. Good secondary schools locally too. Good luck!

another vote here for bollington, pott shrigley and rainow - I used to live in Bolligton (pre-kids but always thought it would be a lovely place to bring children up in).

Could someone also tell me how easy/difficult t is to get into a CofE school? My boys were baptized RC, but we are by no means active church goers. Should I be writing off villages with CofE primary's because there is no way we'd get in if we didn't go to the local church (which happens where I am originally from in Bournemouth)?

My daughter will be starting a c of e school in congleton on tuesday.i dont go to church and she is not christened.was not planning on sending her to a c of e school but it is a v short walk from the house we r buying and when I went round the school I absolutely loved it!

You can't write off CofE schools as that's the most common type of primary in Cheshire! Particularly if looking at villages with only a single school.

You can look at the individual admissions criteria, but assume you will fall down the list behind CoE child, family actively involved in church/CoE child/lapsed CoE family/etc... That's not necessarily a problem of course - it depends how much demand there is locally.

I remember years ago looking at a CofE school in Didsbury which had a good rep and a place would have been highly unlikely for us, but I've spoken to other schools where they've had places the last few years so would be ok. Will depend on the school.

I don't know Antrobus and the closest towns (Warrington/Northwich) very well.

I do know Chelford. You'd drive into Chelford and think it has nothing really going for it and one downside (it straddles a main road). However I do like it - it has a well regarded primary, good doctors surgery, post office/corner shop/home baked stuff/cooked breakfast sandwiches(!), Newsagents, corner shop, v good butchers, think still a (rarely open) bank, Chelford Market, trainline to Manchester (hourly, 35 mins), good road to airport, good links to M6 for north/south road, 20 min drive into Macc for mainline rail to London, 10 min drive to Knutsford for main local town.