Future house move to Lancaster and surrounding!

[miracle0812]

Hey!
Anyone on here who lives in Lancaster and/or within 20 mile radius? Wether you have moved there or lived there all your life.. we are considering moving there in the future! There’s a number of places that we are considering but this place does seem to keep sticking out in my mind!
We have three children aged 12,7 and 1 we currently live in Kent and pay ridiculous house prices compared to further north places obviously due to the fact we are closer to London but we don’t need to be near London.
We really want to be able to enjoy life a bit more without the financial burden of over priced rent!
If anyone has any info that might help then I would really appreciate it 😊
My job is in social care so I’m confident I will manage to find work! Any areas in particular to stay away from would be great!
Thank you 😊

I relocated from Kent to Lancaster five years ago to raise my daughter :) Never looked back!

@CoronaIsComing thank you that’s reassuring! 😊 I did the postcode police check thing online and got a little worried when I compared our current postcode! You’ve eased my mind!

@BirdieDance Thank you! 😊

@lolo14 Oh yay! I would love to hear more from you please 😊 whereabouts in Kent did you move from and where in Lancaster did you move to? Inbox if you would prefer! Thank you 😊

Yes we're glad we moved!

Ripley, Central and Our Lady's all have their pros and cons and aren't dire

My DD is at Girls Grammar, it is very pressurised, lots have been through 2/3 years of classes to pass the test... basically as there aren't private schools around here it's kind of like the "free" private...

@DrFoxtrot wow lots to think about 😅 thank you! Sounds like both places are a hit for you! I’m 32 so great to hear perspective from someone not much older too! 😊

Glad to hear it @RandomMess well done to your daughter! I don’t see the point in private schools my friend sent her two to a private school here costing £4000 per term per child she then moved them to a “normal” school because she didn’t think the private was up to scratch 😳

What about Clitheroe? Ribble
Valley is lovely and there is a fantastic grammar school.

I grew up in the Forest of Bowland. Beautiful but a windy road up the trough road to Lancaster. Takes longer than you would think on a map .

Which postcode did you put in, I suppose that makes a difference! The worst thing that’s happened near me is that some joker made a ‘bomb’ and then went and died. The council found it when they cleared out his house but it turned out to be an orange juice carton with a cheap mobile phone attached to it 🤔😂. It provided an evening of drama though when I couldn’t get to my house!

I was going to suggest QES as an alternative to the Lancaster grammar but beaten to it. I really like Lancaster and get a good feel about it. If I moved to a city again it would be there. I like Kirkby Lonsdale too but it's very touristy. Holme looks like a nice village if that's a better suit size-wise.

@olympicsrock yes those places have looked like areas of interest when looking on the map previously and google! 😊

@Anotherthink Thank you 😊 I’m in a village now but it’s very remote and dire public transport! I drive but don’t want to be a taxi service when the kids get older 😁

@CoronaIsComing 😂 that did make me Lol! Orange juice carton 😅 I can’t remember now I was looking on rightmove then getting postcodes from google then putting into the checker 😅 full time job this relocation thing!

@CoronaIsComing just seen your schools recommendations thank you! Are they close together or quite far apart like down here? I drive a huge amount for school run 😅 my younger one goes 7 miles away in one direction and eldest 20 miles in opposite direction 😬
Hope your son is excited to start 😊

Hello again so can't seem to message privately :) Won't be specific about where I moved from in Kent but I can tell you that I've been incredibly happy in Lancaster :) Real community spirit here, such a friendly city. A previous poster has mentioned the Southern part of the city and this is my preference, it's lovely. Rent wise I'm paying much less here than I would in the town in Kent I lived and for somewhere comparable.

Morecambe and Heysham have lovely sea fronts and there's usually a festival of some sort going on locally throughout the year.

None of the villages have decent bus services anymore

North of the river only the 100 and it's either the 1 or 1A buses (same route) run past 7pm...

Downside of Garstang is no train station. Last train to Lancaster from Manchester is 10.15 which is annoying!!!

@RandomMess Ripley and Our Lady's are now oversubscribed thanks to BLA and MBA being in a sorry state, Our Lady's now has a supplementary form too. It's not impossible to get a place if you're high on the waiting list or win an appeal but it is worth a call to them before deciding on an area. Dallam and QES both fantastic schools just over the Cumbria border, lots from Torrisholme and Bare travel to those but people in Heysham struggle as @CoronaIsComing says.

@RandomMess don’t mind not being in a village I’ve done village life a lot and it’s not the main thing for me when my car broke down two days before Xmas it was a nightmare! I like having shops nearby 😊

I suspect the postcodes you used were in a dodgy area! The school postcode for Halton is LA36QE so that’ll give you an idea, I suspect all the surrounding villages are similar.

There are plenty of nearby primary schools wherever you choose and your oldest would be able to get a school bus to QES or a public bus in to Lancaster if they go to one of the Lancaster schools. It’s not a long journey at all.

Not Georgian or Victorian but this is lovely... would be about £1400+ here! www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-79239604.html

@MustDust quite a few of DS’s friends have got into Dallam for September from Heysham but none got QES 🙁.

@LoLo2020 thank you 😊 I’ll try and message you! Have you found it easy to make friends? How old is your little girl? Thank you 😁

@MustDust I moved from somewhere where pupils didn't get reception of year 7 places in any school and the dire schools were far more dire than the schools in Morecambe...

It's all relative to comparisons, I find that people in Lancaster say not getting their 1st choice is "abnormal" in London/Surrey you put down the schools you are likely to get into plus your 1st choice but with little expectation of getting it.

I live in a village a bit north of Preston. You've had lots of good recommendations already - parts of Preston are pleasant, penwortham is nice, good parks. In normal times we go to Lancaster quite a lot - DD went to the girls' grammar there (she did well enough on their 11+ to get a 'residual place', one of the ones getting the school bus or regular normal stagecoach bus up the A6). She absolutely loved that school, didn't find it pressurised. But afaik there were not many places opening up after the yr 7 intake, essentially depends on a pupil moving away. So that's not something that could be counted on.

I'd check current school place availability for both primaries and secondaries quite carefully as there seems to be a heck of a lot of new houses being built but not sure there are any more schools being built or expansions to existing ones.