Where to live in Lancashire

[Southerngirl123]

Hey, my husband, myself and our 8 year old daughter live down on the South Coast. Last summer we travelled upto the Lake District and fell in love and loved Kendal also.
We have friends who live in Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire so we will be back up this summer to investigate more.
We are toying with the idea of a possible move and financially housewise we are so outpriced here to move on from our flat and could afford a stunning 3 bed house up North and would like to know the real truths on some places. At present we live in a decent size town with amenities nearby and the beach a 10 min drive away. I don't drive so good public transport is a must, good schools, amenities etc etc. Thinking we should then also only be about an hour away from the Lakes as we love walking/hiking with the dog & paddleboarding and half an hour ish from good size cities and the coast.
I work in retail & hospitality so I'm guessing I will be able to pick up work in most places? And my husband is an electronics engineer.
Thoughts and truths please on
Lancaster
Preston (& suburbs)
Oswaldtwistle
Padiham
Clitheroe
Ramsbottom
Southport

Obviously everywhere has there good and bad areas but please also feel free to add anymore good ones to the list for us to look at.
Look forward to some answers 😁😊

Fair enough, RandomMess, I skim-read!

Family friends had twins one of whom got into Clitheroe grammar and the other didn’t. Hence the caution.

Padiham is a bit on the up at the moment, money being spent on the centre of town to brush it up. It has a good few shops of various sorts, opticians, art gallery, cafes, etc. If you're careful where you buy and avoid the rougher bits, you'd get more space for your money than most of the other places on your list. And you can walk off into the countryside form any part of it.

Clitheroe- expensive. I'm not enamoured, but I really couldn't say why, it has decent shops etc. Barnoldswick, very dependent on Rolls Royce, which is shrinking its operations there, but well placed for the countryside. Colne is a typical small Northern town and rather nice in a quirky way, but slow traffic on North Valley Road to the motorway junction is an issue at times. If you're going North, you can take the pretty way to the Lakes and points NW via the Dales to Kendal instead. Villages all around the valley, from Padiham to Colne, lots of choice, but depends whether you want a shop, as some have none.

As a PP said BLACKPOOL has ‘some lovely suburbs’. And, the third lowest houses prices in the UK. You get a LOT of ‘bang for your buck’. SOUTHPORT has lots (and lots!) of beach, but NO SEA, or promenade.

EG. The Blackpool border goes within 300 yds of Cleveleys town centre. Lots of folk there say they live in Cleveleys (Blackpool tower is 5 miles away). They pay their Council Tax to Blackpool council !

Lancashire is a great place to live...apart from any towns that are adjacent to the M65. Very run down, but in lovely countryside, but still run down. Don't go there.

My favourite towns close to the area you’re looking at are fence (really lovely little village), higham - again really lovely but both would be reliant on transport into bigger towns for shopping. There is public transport but I’m not sure how regular it is.
I live in padiham and although it has a bad reputation there are some really lovely areas here.
Stick to the newer built estates or properties towards the Blackburn side rather than the burnley side.
It’s very accessible for the countryside, it is literally on your doorstep wherever in the town you are, there are some lovely little independent shops in the centre (which as a previous poster pointed out is being refurbed massively at the minute), primary and secondary schools a plenty most of which are really good schools, it has a big Tesco supermarket and will also have a Lidl early next year. Padiham’s biggest asset though are it’s people. I have never lived in a friendlier town. Oh and public transport is regular and reliable with train stations in both Hapton and Burnley to take you further afield.

@RubyReigns

My favourite towns close to the area you’re looking at are fence (really lovely little village), higham - again really lovely but both would be reliant on transport into bigger towns for shopping. There is public transport but I’m not sure how regular it is. I live in padiham and although it has a bad reputation there are some really lovely areas here. Stick to the newer built estates or properties towards the Blackburn side rather than the burnley side. It’s very accessible for the countryside, it is literally on your doorstep wherever in the town you are, there are some lovely little independent shops in the centre (which as a previous poster pointed out is being refurbed massively at the minute), primary and secondary schools a plenty most of which are really good schools, it has a big Tesco supermarket and will also have a Lidl early next year. Padiham’s biggest asset though are it’s people. I have never lived in a friendlier town. Oh and public transport is regular and reliable with train stations in both Hapton and Burnley to take you further afield.

The 1960s houses in Padiham by the Gawthorpe drive are fine. It's a funny estate, never was 'fashionable' but a lot are on unusually big plots, and some have been extended- and plenty of scope for extending others. More bangs for your buck than up on the Arbories. Good access to the M65 but not close enough for it to be too close. When we moved (in my case back) up to Lancs, we looked at the villages, but not having shops was an issue for us, because we're longer in the tooth than the OP and plan not to move again. Padiham we had to rule out because we wanted an unusually large garden and nothing on the market there at the time had one. We eventually moved further up the valley, and we love it here. Public transport round here is far better than in the Midlands where we moved from. Rural buses, even!

We have just moved up to Cleveley's on the Fylde coast and absolutely love it. After 20 years in the South East and abroad, we both wish we had moved here sooner. I doubt we will ever leave.

Hello to the Padihamers. I grew up there and left in the mid '80s

MadameaaOvary81.........I moved to Cleveleys on June 1. Let’s keep it a secret !

@tanguero Haha, Yes, I take that back...it's rubbish up here, don't move to Fylde.

I hope you're settling in okay? We moved up in March, though it seems like a lifetime ago (in a good way!).

@BlueMongoose ah that is true I hadn't thought of that area. Although I had an email concerning break ins over night in that area today.
On the whole padiham is a nice place to live and I was very appreciative of its lovely countryside location during lockdown last year. We even have a little beach hidden at the back of the hall.

Maybe have look at the villages around Chorley, some lovely places to live. Excellent access to motorways and lots of lovely countryside too. Wheelton, Brinscall, Withnell, Whittle le Woods all nice places to live.

I live near Ramsbottom (Tottington) I moved here last year from South Manchester.

I wanted a house with a view and the cost of that where I used to live meant moving further into Cheshire and ££££.

There's a consensus that lots of inner city dwellers are moving north of Manchester and especially to North of Bury and immediate surrounding areas. So much more for your money compared to 15 miles south.

If you like the sea look at Ainsdale, hillside, Birkdale, Crosby lovely houses and close to loads of water activities
Also 15/20 mins to the fabulous Liverpool city centre by train.
Ormskirk is a university market town 8 miles from southport- still pricey but not by SE standard.
Great motorway links but semi rural and on the main Preston Liverpool train line

We moved from the SE with a view of maisonettes that could see in our dining room to a view of Morecambe Bay, The Lakes and Forest of Bowland 💕

We moved to Ashton in Preston last summer from the rural Yorkshire/Lancashire border... we got so much house for our money and the area is very leafy with enormous red brick houses. 20 min walk to the city centre and three glorious big parks in spitting distance. We adore it.

@RubyReigns I used to live in Padiham when I was younger, though I was in school in Burnley when we moved to Padiham from there and County decided I should stay in the Burnley system, so my mates were all from Burnley. I still have connections there. I like Padiham, we'd probably have bought there had we been able to find the right house at the time.

until two months ago we lived in a rural village in the catchment for the Clitheroe Grammar but the non-grammar options are dire around there tbh. Clitheroe is nice but wouldn't tick any of these boxes: I don't drive so good public transport is a must, good schools, amenities etc etc. Thinking we should then also only be about an hour away from the Lakes as we love walking/hiking with the dog & paddleboarding and half an hour ish from good size cities and the coast.

We've just moved to Lancaster and love it. Good options for non-grammar schools if needed and we go to the beach at least once/twice a week as it's only 15 mins drive from where we are (south of the city, near the university). The city is more like a town with tons to do although there is a lack of big shops, it does pride itself on having lots of independent shops though and is quirky and cultural. Also it isn't far from the Lakes, has really good public transport but lots of places are walkable if you need to get into the centre. Good train and motorway links too.

@Sparticle welcome to South Lancaster!

Thanks @RandomMess

Ramsbottom is lovely but you mentioned good public transport. There's no train or tram there, so you would be reliant on the bus. Traffic is OK most of the time but a PITA in rush hour.

Definitely recommend Garstang and Lancaster from 40 years' experience. Kirkby Lonsdale is very pretty too.
Personally not a fan of Preston. Lytham St Annes is very lovely.
Lancashire is a great place to live- very green, thanks to the epic amount of rain

Thankyou so much for all of your comments, this will be give my husband and I lots to look at, although Lancaster seems to be coming out top atm and we will be visiting there also in August 😁 I like the sound of it already and the location in regards to everything else, hopefully it will be easy to meet new people too, this seems a lot harder when you no longer have a baby.
For the price of our flat there we could have a very nice 3 bedroom house so that's a big thumbs up too.
Can't wait to explore and get a feel for these places.
The rain does worry me a little and flooding?? I mean tbh over the past few years it has been getting a lot lot wetter here too.
Xxx