Where to live in South Yorkshire or Notts

[needmysleep]

Thinking about how I can reduce the high mortgage and heading up to South Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire but I'm a bit lost on where to start! Originally from West London, not the friendliest place for me, and now living near Windsor. I like the North, but it's a big change, and have found a lot of really run down areas. I'm looking for a nice village location not too remote though with a good college for the kids (post GCSE)

My job's mostly at home but I'll need to be in London and Nottingham once a week. Have looked at Barnsley and surrounding areas (bit run down) and Retford and Newark so far ...
Budget is £550,000
I'm open to suggestions though as
still haven't found what I'm looking for Anyone know where's a nice place to settle....single mum with teens TIA

Look at Wickersley in Rotherham, granted Rotherham isn't a great town, but Wickersley village is a really nice area with a popular 'Sports Academy' (a.k.a. a comprehensive).
Sheffield is a half hour drive away for rail links.

Lots of lovely pretty villages in South Yorkshire. Bawtry is probably one of the better ones for teens as not too tiny and not long on the bus to Doncaster.

Thorpe Hesley and Wickersley in Rotherham. Some villages outside Doncaster such as Sprotborough or near Brodsworth. Also Silkstone in Barnsley. Sheffield also has some lovely villages: Dore, Totley, Stannington Village and close to the countryside. All these places have good commutes to M1 for travel.

Newark Northgate and Grantham have the electric line to London.

Barnsley college is rated outstanding and there are some lovely villages to the west - silkstone, Cawthorne, Penistone, Dodworth etc

https://www.rightcmove.co.uk/properties/133877921#/?channel=RES_BUY

Hoylandswaine is lovely

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144324992#/?channel=RES_BUY

Silkstone common is a nice village and has a railway station

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141263159#/?channel=RES_BUY

Oxspring - nearer Barnsley/Penistone than Sheffield

I agree with south Yorkshire villages being a great shout. Whiston, Wickersley, Bawtry.. there used to be (worth checking..) the fast train from Doncaster to London so that would be ideal for your London trips.

if your planning on getting the train being closer to Doncaster/retford/newark is better as the train is about an hour quicker (depending on where you get on) I’m based in Sheffield and travelled to London one day a week the train is around 2.5hrs and on an evening it rarely arrived back on time so used to push my travel to around 3 hours regularly. There’s loads of lovely villages around, granted the town centres can be a bit run down such as Rotherham but there are lot of alternatives such as Leeds and Manchester which aren’t awful to get to

Hmm I think I'd go a bit different and do leeds. Easy train to Nottingham and London, better social and cultural stuff and some great suburbs with good schools

Wickersley, Moorgate, Whiston, Aston and Treeton are very nice and safe areas to live in, east access to Sheffield and Meadow Hall.