Knutsford

[Guillemot01]

Good morning!

I'm a first-time poster and just managed to delete my first post so please bear with me!

We're looking at moving to Knutsford from Buxton this summer - plan was Wilmslow but too pricey. I'm returning to work in Manchester. I have a couple of questions that I hope you wise folk might be able to help with.

My first question is commuting: my commute from Buxton was soul-destroying (minging slow noisy trains). Having looked into Knutsford it seems that they have these same trains but only hourly at peak times - don't know if I can face it all again! Do locals have a better way of getting into town (bus to wilmslow or tram stop for instance) or should I just suck it up and get a car? Have seen that there are buses but wondered what the reality was.

My second question is probably more difficult to answer - we are a mixed race family and I find Buxton quite backwards with regard to some things. Until recently some shops sold golliwogs and none of the NCTers I hung around with seemed to think this was a big deal...also I keep getting mistaken for the only other Asian girl in the town! We liked Wilmslow for this reason, seemed a bit more mixed, easy to get to town for international food shops etc. Knutsford looks beautiful but I am wondering whether there will be that rural market town mentality there, just don't want to bring my daughter up in the same environment that I grew up in in the 80s....I'm really sorry if this post offends anyone!

Thanks for reading and sorry it's so long.

Are you set on living in Knutsford?

Not particularly helpful (sorry) but I just moved from South London to Hale. I can easily get to the tram in Altrincham and it takes 25 minutes into the city centre. We also looked at Knutsford but the train times put us off.

Have you tried posting this in one of the local forums?

Hi, I came from that part of the world originally. I dislike both Wilmslow and Knutsford, though I can see Wilmslow is better in commuting terms. I think there'd be more cultural diversity in some of the other affluent suburbs which have stations. (So I don't think you're missing out, by it being out of your price range.) Bramhall, Poynton, Cheadle Hulme. Cheadle Hulme is much more mixed, and not rural - but has the best connections to the city. It was not terribly diverse when I grew up, but has become a lot more so. People feel that there's a good choice of schools - well-regarded State ones, plus independents if that's your thing. (I'd imagine that any place in Cheshire from where people commute to Manchester we'd be more mixed culturally than Buxton. But that actual Manchester suburbia will be better than rural commuter towns.)

Hi Zampa, thanks for replying!

Hmmm, well Knutsford seemed a lot cheaper than Wilmslow and looked quite nice to hang around in. I hadn't considered Hale, actually, thought it might be more expensive? We have 300k max for a house so aware it won't go that far!

I moved up from South London too so sending you a virtual fist bump!

I will post this on the local forum too once I've worked out how :-)

Hurrah for the Transpontine crew!

Hale is super expensive in parts. As you move further towards Altrincham and then up the tram line (Navigation Road, Timperley, Sale) it gets cheaper. You are a little further away from the countryside though, which may be important to you. Trafford is pretty top knotch for schools which helps drive prices.

I much prefer Altrincham to Hale. There's more going on, it's laid back and has useful shops and a market.

Hi Marianne,

Hadn't considered Cheadle Hulme either! I think Wilmslow seemed very convenient rather than a nice place to hang around in. My DH LOVED Knutsford but I think he likes places that are a bit more well-heeled. We looked at Poynton but wasn't convinced by the high street :-)

Hi Zampa,

One of the other reasons we are moving from Buxton is that we have kind of gone off the countryside after living here for 5 years!! I like countryside that is accessible by concrete :-)

Me too! I'm such a city girl!

DP also loves the well heeled places so can empathise.

Have PM'd you on your other question. Assumed you were from Manchester so apologies for that!

We love Wilmslow, it's so safe, and you can get to beautiful parts of countryside and cycle path networks within a 5 minute walk. Train commute and to London great too (here to London in 1 hour 50). I don't think there is a massive difference between here and Knutsford in terms of price (second Poynton as another option for slightly cheaper houses). Local schools great in Wilmslow too.

What I don't like about Wilmslow. (A bit irrelevant as you won't be going there.)

Incredible materialism. Shops that are full of luxury goods, but nowhere apart from a couple of pricey supermarkets to buy fruit and veg.

A discontented look on people's faces. Bored teenagers. It's a feeling of there being everything - in consumer terms - and nothing.

The edge at Alderley Edge is attractive. But I think after Derbyshire it's very much commuter countryside - mostly rather flat - with quite a lot of plane noises in places near the airport.

Hideous brash gated footballers' homes in what used to be pleasant villages. (Think of farmhouses being bulldozed.)

I always suspect that if you brought up kids there, they'd think poverty was not having a Jag and a swimming pool. (Actually there's quite a bit of unemployment in nearby Handforth. And a foodbank.)

Probably it feels safe if you feel threatened by more edgy urban areas. Though I suspect there'd be quite a few burglaries.

Neil Hamilton used to be MP. (Wilmslow is in the Knutsford consitutency.) Now it's George Osborne. What can I say?

We've got Graham Brady as our MP, Marianne. Voted against equal marriage and to reduce the abortion time limit to 12 weeks. What a charmer.

I'm from the same area as Zampa but have very good friends that live in Knutsford. You are right in that the commute isn't great from Knutsford into Manchester, although the train is OK. I know my friend drives into Altrincham, parks & gets on the tram. Not necessarily massively quicker if you add on the drive (maybe 15 mins via the back roads, then 25 mins on the tram) but the trams are every 6 mins so just more flexible than the train times.

I think Knutsford as a whole is cheaper than Hale - but you're paying for the schools in Hale which are much better than Knutsford. Knutsford high street is lovely though, fab to be so close to Tatton Park, larger than Hale and probably more relaxed. I'm not sure £300k will get you very much in either places to be honest, you might need to compromise.

I think Hale is definitely more culturally diverse, but I know Hale better than Knutsford on that front.

Have you considered actually moving into central Manchester? (Admittedly I haven't looked at property prices. Or schools ...)

Just think how much easier life would be! Limitless possibilities on your doorstep (even without a car) and the countryside all around you.

Boils down to a balance between budget, acceptable commute and whether you want suburbia (alty, hale, cheadle, bramhall etc) or somewhere district (Macc, knutsford, wilmslow, I'd include knutsford in this). Knutsford is a slow non-electrified train line made worse as it was diverted to benefit the tram.

Whether car or bus is an option will depend where you work in Manchester, but if you're central then not appealing.

Surprised you've found knutsford notably cheaper than wilmslow. I'd expect similar. I've never been a big fan of wilmslow centre but it is a practical place with some v good primaries, well regarded and sporty secondary, and some good green space readily accessible - Carrs, styal park etc.

To improve significantly on knutsford's train time you'd need to consider either Macc (~24 minutes), bramhall/cheadle trains, or Altrincham inwards by tram. Generally speaking the suburbs mentioned are more diverse and have better schools.

Best to spend some time in each place if possible to form your own opinions. I assume you have children so I find local parks as good an indicator as any on the friendliness of a place. The most monied centres are hale/bowdon, Alderley, Prestbury, wilmslow and knutsford. Having spent a lot of time in all of them I would say they all have perfectly 'normal' families too.

Edit: ...whether you want suburbia (alty, hale, cheadle, bramhall etc) or somewhere distinct (Macc, knutsford, wilmslow, I'd include poynton in this).

It's also worth thinking about travel in a little more detail. Don't go purely off distance, e.g. Bramhall (train) is quicker to Manchester Piccadilly than Altrincham (tram). Macclesfield train (much further out) is v similar to Bramhall.

However consider where your work will be (assuming you know) as it may be closer to a tram stop than to Piccadilly. Or it may be by Oxford Road in which case different train lines or the bus out to Didsbury et al become more convenient.

Thanks so much for your helpful and detailed replies everyone. I really appreciate it! I'm going to come back in a couple of hours, just been at toddler group and now have to see my bank manager :-(

Bovnydazzler - agree about the parks in Wilmslow, really liked it around Styal/the Carrs

Marianne - totally forgot about the Hamiltons. He was a massive plonker wasn't he? But re bored teenagers - don't they just get the train into town for fun? Here in Buxton they just loiter about looking really bored.

Mandy - I had thought about driving to the tram stop but then it goes pretty slowly. Wondered if it's just quicker to drive in

RCheshire - there isn't a wild price difference between Knutsford and Wilmslow but the market seems to be very buoyant there and any houses priced at 300k have been snapped up in 2/3 days before I've even had time to arrange a viewing :(

Zero - my DH really hates suburbs and would rather move to a town in its own right. So doesn't want timperley etc. Although thinking we will have to compromise...

Re schools, we had actually registered our daughter with Stockport grammar kindergarten - really liked it. Was planning on taking her every day on the way to work but thought imposing my work commute on a 3 year old would be really harsh, hence the move! Looks like it might be a bit of a schlep from Knutsford though ...

Marianne We voted for Martin Bell in 1997 but promptly moved out of the area ... only election I've ever voted in where my vote counted!
A friend of mine from South Africa commented, when we lived in Wilmslow, that she hadn't seen more gold than was on display in Wilmslow since she moved from Jo'burg.
But the primary schools were good and there was easy access to the countryside and Peak District.
We did feel a little down at heel when we lived there as we didn't have a BMW.

Until you said your DH doesn't like suburbs I was going to suggest Davenport. Has it's own station, is a few minutes from Stockport Station - very handy for Stockport Grammar. Maybe Bramhall then?

The tram isn't that slow actually - it is 25 mins to St Peters Square (obviously very central) from Altrincham. If you're going into Piccadilly, you need to add on a few minutes.

Re driving into town - it depends on timings - you would probably need to leave by 7.30am at the latest to be at your desk in central Manchester for 9am. And thats going straight into town. If you're factoring in trying to drop off your DD at Stockport - from either Hale / Altrincham / Knutsford (anywhere to the south west of Manchester), I'd say would be a tall order. Would agree if you want to be logistically handy for Stockport Grammar would need to be looking at South West Manc - definitely that side.

We are in Greater Manchester on the lancs side OP.
They are building a huge bus route to linK to Manchester City. It is to take far less than the trains to get there, about 20 mins I'm told.
I wouldn't touch cheshire now, although at one time would loved to have moved back again.
Houses are cheaper too.

I think the (sub)urban sprawl around Manchester is pretty big. So if you want to get outside that to a 'proper town' surrounded by countryside, you have a fairly long commute. Which becomes more complicated if you're planning to drop young children to primary schools, kindergartens en route.

And presumably the less money spent on commuting, the more money is available towards paying off a mortgage.

I'm not sure that I regard any of the towns within a 20 mile radius as that attractive - though some are more upmarket and other more down-to-earth. For me I'd think it'd be more a matter of which suburb ticks enough of the right boxes. Some of them have more character/individual identity than others.

The other thing - Knutsford is directly under a flight path. You can tell when you visit who actually lives there, and who is visiting - all the locals don't bat an eyelid, everyone else stops and stares because its hard to believe you are that close to a plan that's just taken off. When we mention about going to Knutsford, my children say "can we go to the park and watch the planes" . I think it might take a bit of getting used to.

Bizarre because we are actually closer to the airport but are not on a flightpath.

Mandy124 It's odd isn't it, living very near the airport without hearing planes. Good for getaways but no noise pollution!

I'm really sorry, keep writing replies and then they keep disappearing!! I'll be back later to respond to you all! Thanks for all your advice, it really is so helpful. I don't know anyone who lives round that way "in real life."