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.

Knutsford can feel like planes are landing in your garden. If you are going to SGS look at cheadle Hulme and the Heatons as well as bramhall

Mandy - I think I could cope with the planes - better than the thousands of cement wagons that judder through Buxton every day and night spewing diesel everywhere. I think the air quality's probably worse here than some parts of London!!

I would have had knutsford and wilmslow as white MC

I think it is very much about knowing places. I grew up in Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme - went to school in the latter place. I think both places are okay. Bramhall Park is lovely. Plenty of decent houses, usually from about the 1920s onwards. Good countryside not a million miles away. A close relative has gone to live in sheltered housing in Wilmslow so I do visit very regularly, but feel it has simultaneously gone upmarket and downhill...

Good point re flight path. If looking at wilmslow, mobberley, Ashley or cheadle it pays to spend some time there under different wind conditions. Even moving a few streets in a given direction can make a big difference.

If suburbia is OK then my personal favourite is bramhall - we nearly moved there at one point. Would make sense for school too. Fast train into Manchester, easy access to green areas towards poynton, easy access to a34 and John Lewis/sains, good park, very family area so lots of activities, little centre - almost wondering why we didn't end up there ;)

Surely everyone has missed the best reason to move to knutsford - booths for those who can't move to lancs or Cumbria! (Although hale barns now also has one of course)

Oooh I've heard about Booths! Is it as good as they say it is RCheshire?

I am intrigued by the planes! DH's friend lives in Mobberley and reckons I could drive to central Manc in 35 mins but I think he's just trying to get DH to live near him.

Marianne I did enjoy Wilmslow when we've been there but it didn't appear to have much...soul, if that makes sense. For all its foibles, Buxton does have a decent sense of community. Even when we've said to people that we were looking at the area between Handforth and Wilmslow (which was nice and quiet and leafy), they've been quite snobby about the fact it was "Handforth"

Maybe we should look round Bramhall too...

We had picked SGS because originally we were going to still be living in Buxton...which now brings me onto my next question...schools! Are there decent schools in knutsford? Has anyone heard good things about Yorston Lodge?

You can do mobberley to central Manchester in 35 mins but not at peak rush hour. I'm actually a big fan of mobberley but you need to be on the eastern side or the plane noise is just silly.

Yorston looks great - looked a while back but no places and massive waiting list at the time. State primary in bramhall (having a blank on the name) gets raved about. I wouldn't go sgs unless living in bramhall, poynton or around - otherwise the driving plus work commute will be hard to impossible

If independent schools are being looked at Cheadle Hulme School supposedly has a good reputation. Certainly the current Head is felt to be doing a good job.

I had a look around Poynton RG...not sure what it was but wasn't that keen.

I think we need to take a long drive around one day. Need to be open minded here...beggars can't be choosers!

I think most of the schools are decent in those areas. They are generally relatively expensive areas so good catchments etc Mobberley is lovely but people have triple glazing for good reason.

Yes, I'm not terribly clear why a private primary school is automatically high on the agenda for someone moving to NE Cheshire. If you're ultra-rich, I suppose it's taken as read that you do private everything. But if you're just averagely well-off and there's no reason why your children wouldn't flourish in a State School, you can deal with your wish for them to have a good start by browsing through a few Ofsted reports online as part of your general research before settling on where you want to live.

I suppose this sounds a bit hostile about private education. But if I was making the financial choices, I'd go for a house I liked in an area I wanted to live in and sending my child to a state school that was friendly and happy and inclusive. (Perhaps children's happiness is linked to some sense of a larger community, places to play, a bit of room and space, friends who live nearby?) I wouldn't commit myself to years and years of school fees, and having to live in an area that wasn't really what I wanted because that's all I could manage with the money that was left.

Yes, I'm not terribly clear why a private primary school is automatically high on the agenda for someone moving to NE Cheshire.

Well that's ok. Providing you with clarification of her motives probably isn't the OP's primary concern.

Well it's a thread about choices. I know NE Cheshire quite well - geographically, educationally etc. I named an independent school above that I have personal knowledge of. But moving is fundamentally about money and planning. One or two of us are pointing out that if someone who doesn't know the area at all well is assuming private primary education is a 'must', they may not know that there are very well-regarded primary schools in the areas she is considering. Choosing one out of a range of two good local school may make all sorts of issues to do with commuting, childcare easier - rather than everything revolving round planning journeys around an independent school that is distant from both the home and the workplace.

If someone says what their priorities are, then they'll be given better targeted help and advice.

I am struggling to see how getting your DC to SGS would viable living in Knutsford but working in Manc. I live close to SGS and traffic round here is horrific - yes I know the trains are crap too. In your situation I'd be looking again at bramhall/poynton/cheadle.

I think commuting to Manchester by car has always been pretty bad. My father used to refer to 'the Cheadle crawl.' I suppose some people avoid the worst of it by going in ultra-early - but that isn't compatible with school drop-offs.

The issue with private primary school (certainly in NW Cheshire but NE Cheshire too to a lesser extent) is to do with securing a place at the state grammar schools in Trafford which are recognised as top schools nationally (widely recognised as as good as any of the local independents, but obviously free!). The prep schools pride themselves on the entrance exam prep that they do (because they are not aligned to the national curriculum) so their "results" are often better than the local state primary schools. Parents will commit to say 7 years of private primary schools fees to get that grammar school place, and not have to incur the private secondary school fees which are probably 50% more per year. Sorry going off at a tangent!

No that's interesting - it gives the whole thing some kind of rationale. And it makes me feel really depressed. Which is - perhaps - going off at a bigger tangent.

I know - the days of choosing a house just because it was a nice house in a nice area - and presuming school places would be there is long gone. Don't get me started on how far away some pupils come to go to the school on my doorstep just heard yesterday of one child who is going to commute from Huddersfield

I live in a city with grammar schools, but think the using prep school as a stepping stone thing - perhaps inevitably given the cost - is very much a minority pursuit. There are a handful of feepaying primary schools in the most affluent area South of the centre. But I think most parents are broadly happy with the existing primary school provision - or locate to an area where they're happy. There's a lot of private tutoring for grammar school entrance, but typically that wouldn't begin for a year or two before Y6. Most parents will want to work out first whether their kids would a) have a realistic chance of passing and b) be happy in that environment.

Am not entirely sure that you can map out children's future careers when they're 4 - though it doesn't stop people trying!

4??? Local prep here (admittedly limited places) had to change its waiting list policy because people were putting their names down as soon as they found out they were pregnant which meant that anyone with a due date late in the school year would never get a place. One good friend (with children at said school) told me said she planned conception so first baby would be born in September to maximise chance of place . Thankfully, she's mellowed now .

Hi everyone,

Sorry for coming back to this late - accepted an offer on our house, and sorting out disasters with our rented flat. Maybe it would be helpful if I set out clearly what our situ is (hopefully without drip feeding!). Sorry if this is long...

Background: me, off work on career break til September 2016, looking after DD, now 21 months. DH currently working at very high pressured academy in Manchester where they are sacking teachers on a monthly basis and he has to be at work by 6.30am every day doing his new SLT job and his old job.
So is leaving Buxton at 5am ish and not getting home til 9pm most days. I decide to go back to work early to take some financial pressure off the situation, then realise that I can't commute to Manchester from Buxton as nursery opening times/train times mean I won't be able to do enough hours to make it viable. We decide to move to Wilmslow, to make it more convenient. Can't afford Wilmslow!

Originally, had decided to send DD to Stockport Grammar as Buxton doesn't have very good state schools. I wasn't due back til next summer, thought I could get a car, drop her off every day and just drive into Manchester. Realised that's unfair on her and also DH seems very stressed out by living here (very bad winters, road closures in April due to snow etc). I'm getting a bit fed up with Buxton too for reasons outlined earlier in my first post and jump at the chance to leave. So we stick with the plan to move and for me to go to work.

DH gets offered new private sector job in Altricham but less money which we agree to accept, due to sign tomorrow. DH's boss called him in yesterday and has offered him a permanent assistant headship plus guaranteed pay rise for 5 years. I'm on crappy public sector wages which are very stagnant plus only doing 25 hrs initially so this would be welcome. DH will probably stay where he is as head has also started recruiting someone to do his old job and also has some more help.

Originally had thought we would still send DD to SGS but she will be assessed early next year. No idea if she would get in, she's very bright (well, I would say that) but not that well behaved (!) so lots of eggs in one basket. We had heard that Cheshire has very good state schools so were open to that too .

We just accepted an offer on our house, probably will have to be out by end June (end of chain relocating from London). Looking at a bungalow (!) in Knutsford on Sat, looks great inside and within our budget, apparently it is in the wrong catchment for the really good schools (Bexton, Edge something?) which are on the other side of town. This one is near a RC school and manor park or something similar.

Now wondering if we should try and rent while we house hunt, or just buy somewhere. Tied into a fixed rate mortgage until next summer so unless we "port it" on the day of completion we will get slapped with an early repayment charge which will really eat into our measly profit (accepted lower offer). Wondering now if we should just take the financial hit and pay the charge as we will most likely be able to get a cheaper deal somewhere else and interest rates going up soon. Will be expensive renting but maybe better in the long run.

I'm also being tested for diabetes at the moment so there are a lot of variables it seems.

So, that's where we are at the moment. Thank you if you are still reading! And I really appreciate all this information and your opinions. It's been invaluable to me, if I had all this kind of info/local knowledge before moving to Buxton then quite possibly we wouldn't have moved there :(

Guillemot

With that awful commute why not move closer to Manchester?? Great schools and lots of opportunities

Yeah Almostapril I am starting to think that too. Families based in London and Notts so worried about being too far away :(

It takes me 2.5 hours to get from home in Hale to Euston by train, via Stockport. Stockport and Wilmslow is better are even quicker as they are on the direct line but appreciate you've discounted these options.

Personally, I'd chose a smaller house in my preferred location (hence living in Hale rather than Timperley) but not sure if this is an option.

Renting will obviously give you a chance to get to know an area and if you like it and is cheaper than moving house twice if you pick the wrong place (depending on your penalty.

Good luck choosing!