within an hour of Manchester

[momwhereismy]

Hi
We have an opportunity to move to near Manchester.
Can anyone recommend a village or small, small town within an hour or so of Manchester. We want to live a bit rural and will be renting at first
Thanks :-)

Up north near Bury? I'm a big fan of Ramsbottom. Very pretty, very villagey and rural, but still well connected with buses for DCs and motorways for us.

Some great schools that way too.

I was actually looking at ramsbottom! Sounds nice. Is it hard to get into the schools there? (Primary)
Thanks for your reply

Actually, an hour from Manchester is a huge search area. You're looking at Liverpool to Leeds from west to east, then maybe Preston to north wales / staffordshire / derbyshire / sheffield etc north to south. And obviously everywhere in between. I think you probably need to list other criteria to narrow it down a little.

Ramsbottom, Saddleworth villages, going south to Poington and villages around there. Will you be driv

Oops.... Driving in?

If you are after rural try Knutsford, Nantwich, Sandbach or Holmes Chapel

We walked past the most idyllic property for sale at the bottom of Kinder Scout, near Hayfield. Tunstead Farm I think it was called. If you've got a spare £750 000 I genuinely can't think of a much more idyllic place to live

Sadly I live the other end of the country but was just musing with DH while staying in the Peak District how nice it would be to live near Manchester and be able to access the Peak District for walks.

yy to Ramsbottom. I really like it -thinking of moving there when less dependent on getting back from Manchester in time for childcare pickups.

a word of caution though - on these threads people will always mention places really far out, where you can technically get a train to Manchester Piccadilly on the train in a hour. But if you're looking for a door-to-door commute of one hour, at peak times, you probably need to be inside the M60, or very near to a station indeed. A colleague who commutes from Middlewich often finds it takes 90min+ to get in to work in the morning.

Haha i didnt want to make a list cause i thought thast would make me look picky!!
I'm just saying an hour so that it gives a bit of stretch, Leeds and Liverpool would be out as they are main towns.
Really just want a nice village, shop, supermarkets (within 20 minute), school and maybe somewhere for a beverage of a night ;-)
Meant to also say has to be on the train line to Piccadilly. I can drive but won't be driving dh in! Thanks for all the options
Not asking for much am I?!

Waves from Saddleworth

We are less than an hour.

And very pretty.

Sure I've enough to buy two at that price doyouthink ;-)
Thanks for that Barbara, that would probably be the ideal situation within 60 minutes :-\

As others have said - Ramsbottom is fab. Marple is worth a look on the Peak District side.

Saddleworth looks fabulous!
The other thing I should have said was rent would have to be reasonable (I am going off to search these places now)
Thanks ladies :-)

What do you consider reasonable rent? People living in London think £1500 for a house is a bargain, us up north think it's a fortune!

You might find it harder to find good quality rentals in rural locations. Renting is more common in big cities than villages.

Saddleworth is full of places to rent.

Around 700£ mark

How about something like this and its close to the mainline

Lots of people inexplicably like Glossop.

Saddleworth and Ramsbottom are out it you want a train to Piccadilly. Saddleworth has a train station in greenfield but it goes to Victoria (other side of city centre). Rams bottom has no direct train into Manchester- I think it's the steam train to bury then a tram in. Littleborough has a train although not sure if that goes to Victoria or Piccadilly.

Appley Bridge, Parbold or possibly Burscough if you want more information you can always ask over here local.mumsnet.com/Talk/local_lancashire especially if you have rightmove links!

Bollington?

Bollington, Marple, Whaley Bridge, Hayfield? Poynton, Disley, Woodford? Wilmslow, Alderley Edge? Mobberley at a push. (nice place but commute might be too far.)

The Heatons are more suburban but lovely.

I love Knutsford but there are a lot of planes and again it might be too far out for you.

Just go north. All those Cheshire places are pointlessly expensive.

The Heatons lovely? Yeah for suburbia.

What about the Pennine villages of Littleborough, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge. They are all stops on the main railway line (Leeds- Manchester), between 20 -30 minutes into Manchester.

The houses are far cheaper than South manchester, some good schools, fantastic scenery, good links by road as well - easy access to M62.

Broadbottom is lovely and has everything you need.