I’m looking to relocate soonish and I still want to be south of Manchester, but I fancy some riding nearby – there is next to none at the moment in Didsbury. Poynton seems like a good compromise of everything at the moment. What’s the place like? Is there some decent mtbing in the hills nearby?

In between really, great access to the A6 so peaks stuff is only 10/15 drive max outside of rush hour – macc forest just up the road and 10 mins pedal to marple. Great lbs too!

Poynton is on the edge of three decent areas of riding:
to the North: Mellor/Roman Lakes and from there into Hayfield and all that flows from there
to the East: up though Lyme Park and through the Moorside Hotel to Whaley and then onto Chinley (and again the ‘Dark Peak’ proper)
to the South: again through Lyme Park and Bowstones/Bakestonedale/Kerridge and then maybe on to Macc Forest and beyond.

All of the above need a bit of road and/or ‘cheeky’ to link things together.

10 minutes pedal to Marple? On a pedal powered moped maybe and 10 to 15 minutes drive to the Peaks? You’d be rushing.
I don’t rate the place at all to be honest. It all seems a bit middle England and bland to me. Apart from Lyme Park which is a bit of a drag to get to from Poynton, it’s not a great place to go mountain biking from. Road riding on the other hand is another matter. The Cheshire lanes pretty much start from there.
Mr Nettles once confessed to being a native of Poynton. Fingers crossed he’ll pop in and talk you out of it.

Thanks for the pointers!

I think it would be a good spot – nothing amazing right on the doorstep AFAIK, but you’re that much closer to the Peak and ride out in several directions.
I think being on the edge of the countryside makes things feel a bit easier as well – Riding out Edale way, say, for the classic Dark Peak stuff would be no hardship from Poynton, even on a big bike.

Bump. Any other opinions?

New Mills?
Disley?

They’re both actually in the hills and not that much further away.

There are a few trails and the like on the door step, bits that you can piece together, the macc canal and middle wood way are accessible. A little way out is Macc forest and then not far from the peak etc. I live in bramhall which is down the road and I manage to find places to ride . The bad thing about Poynton is the dreaded ‘shared space’ road through the middle of the place. Causes carnage!

I came through there today. “Give Way To All”. More like give way to nobody. Horrible place. I’d rather live on Offerton Estate.

Your commute from Poynton will be a lot longer than 7.5 hours per week. Don’t say we didn’t warn you 🙄

We looked down there when we moved a few years ago but in the end decided to stay out on the edge of the Peak proper. Five minutes up the road from home and I am off up the Goyt valley. With long evenings, it’s easy to sneak out for an hour or so after work, whereas if I had to drive somewhere I suspect it would be too much faff.

A lot will depend on your working arrangements- where you have to get to and when? The A6 is an awful commute.

There would be no commute. I work in sales, so i often work from home, or out visiting customers

From a completely unfounded and probably cliched viewpoint, Poynton has always seemed to me like a place where people go to live because they can’t afford to live in Prestbury, Alderley Edge or Bollington. I may well be wrong though.

Drop me an email (address in profile) if you want some info about living in the Bleak Peak, as my brother in law calls it

I used to live in didsbury.now live in bramhall about 3 miles from poynton. I still have to drive to get to any decent mountain biking.

MTBing from there needs some road or canal/FP riding to make it work.
Road riding from there is great, loads of options.

I’d say New Mills, Disley, Marple (expensive) or Hayfield (also expensive) are better for direct from-the-door MTBing.

Not many people can afford to live in Alderly Edge or Prestbury, so Poynton is as good a place to live as anywhere. I grew up in Disley and went to school at Poynton. Not much in terms of off your doorstep MTB ing, but some great road riding with plenty of hills. Loads of excellent MTBing not too far a drive away.

I’d say go for it despite the sceptics. Yes, the shared space in frustrating – especially on the bike, but it’s got a few nice placed to eat and drink. Lyme park is on the doorstep and definitely not a drag – it’s just up the hill to the west gate. My CX spin takes me through poynton/Lyme park/disley/marple ridge/ strines/ roman lakes/middle wood way back towards Poynton. Mellor/rowarth easy to get to as well, all with no car. Great riding in spitting distance in the car too.

Go for a pint with Bryceland in the social club in winter as well!

I’d consider looking at the a555 route/plans and estimations of how traffic will be affected during/after the work though. Especially if buying towards hazel grove or woodford ends.

excellent chippy in Poynton

Sold!

Beagle – im aware of the A555 plans, not sure what this impact this will have on traffic around that area.

Thinking out loud, there isnt any reason why i have to move to south Manchester – Mrs Edward last night said lets move to the Lakes, then I thought why not move to Todmorden or something like that where there is biking is in abundance.

There’s some plans on line or on paper which colour code increases/decreases in traffic while the work is done and reductions (on the whole) post the work.

You’ve opened the floodgates with saying it doesn’t need to be south!!!!

If you don’t have to move to Poynton, don’t.

Mr Nettles once confessed to being a native of Poynton. Fingers crossed he’ll pop in and talk you out of it.

Hiya!

I grew up in Poynton, but moved away 20 years ago and my folks moved away 10 years ago, so some of my views may be a little out of date…

Riding – as others have said, easy enough to get to Lyme Park and/or the canal, and from there link to Marple, Hayfield etc etc. marple in 10mins is optimistic or, indeed, deeply impressive. Macc Forest and deepr into the Peaks not far by car, road riding in Cheshire is lovely.

Place itself – much more like many of the other South Manc suburbs (Bramhall, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme etc) now than the village that I lived in, but not bad for that if that’s what you’re after. Good train links into Manchester and Stockport and Macclesfield for main line and local services. Schools still pretty good I think.

As others have said, New Mills, Marple and Disley are better for out of the door MTBing, but all have their pros and cons. For amazing riding from the door, lovely village, pretty setting and decent train links into manchester, you can’t beat Whaley Bridge. It is a bit in the sticks though, and will probably add half an hour on any driving time (dependingwhere your customers are).

In short, I’d live in Poynton though, I doubt you’ll regret it.

Waitrose and Bollington Breweries pub (The Cask) too.

For amazing riding from the door, lovely village, pretty setting and decent train links into manchester, you can’t beat Whaley Bridge.

I like you

It is a bit in the sticks though….

Not sure I like you any more

Yey for The Cask too.