Is anyone familiar with west Barnsley?

[NorthPolo]

We're going to move to be closer to family and are looking at villages west of Barnsley. Ideally it would be near a train station so Dodworth/Silkstone kind of area but there is so little to rent or buy at the moment that we're going to have to look at a wider area. Does anyone know what local schools are like or can recommend an area please? We don't have a big budget so can't look at anywhere like Cawthorne which I know is meant to be lovely.

Not sure about schools etc but Silkstone is nice. Not sure about Dodworth, think it's a bit more built up. I only ever drive through the more industrial part. Agree that Cawthorne is lovely but pricey.

Where do you need to be in close proximity off? Barnsley?
What about Penistone? Or over the border to the Barnsley side of West Yorkshire although I don't know if that would fit in to your budget.

Hopefully someone will be along who knows a bit more

Thanks Fatima, my parents and sister live near dodworth so it was that side of the m1 that we were looking at. I don't mind about built up as we live in the north east in a very urban area at the moment so dodworth seems positively leafy to me! Penistone seems nice but a bit further out if we only have one car to start with. I was wondering about Barugh Green as the school there seems good and it has lots of family houses but the electricity pylons are a bit off putting, I think we would need to go and have a drive round and see what it like in real life rather than good old street view.

Silkstone is probably my ideal but I've been watching rightmove for ages and barely anything comes up for sale so I'm trying to find some back up areas to keep an eye on too.

I think driving round sounds a good idea. Probably during the day and at night if you can.

Penistone is on the train line that goes through Silkstone and Dodworth to Barnsley if that helps? Will you be commuting to Barnsley for work?
I know what you mean about having one car.

If it helps I've just messaged a friend who is a teacher in that area to see if she has any advice wrt schools.

Oh thanks so much for helping with the schools bit, they all look to be good in that area but dodworth has one school which is voluntary aided, so we may not get in as we won't have been attending the church for very long beforehand, and the other is an improving school so would need to visit I suppose to see what it's like.

We'll be down in a few weeks so will have another good look round but I will be looking for a job once we move and DH will be keeping his job up here for now so that doesn't help the decision. I did feel that penistone was a little bit too far out for us though as my parents have kindly offered to help with childcare so we could do with being near them.

We are planning to rent at first so if we change our minds we could buy in a different area but dd1 starts school next year so I feel a bit stressed about getting it right for her so she has local friends.

Wakefield is more expensive. TBH, Barnsley schools are much of a muchness in terms of results so you need to go round some to see which you feel happiest with.

Thanks, I thought (hoped) that seemed to be the case which takes the pressure off a bit. I'll arrange to visit some of the schools and then it'll probably go on where something comes up to rent first.