Kirklees, Batley, Birstall what's it like there?

I have (another) job interview, this time in Batley – as a Community Nurse working in Kirklees. Anyone live around there, or had any experience of what it’d be like to live and work there? I’d be moving from the Wirral.

Ta

Batley aint great and Birstall is just commuter housing with a big shopping centre. Ossett is a nicer area, as is Gomersal (parts of it are lovely)
Robertown, Hartshead are small quiet commuter towns. Mirfield is fairly big with facilities but a little dull. Nowt wrong with dull.

It depends on what you want. If you want to walk 100m to a nice butchers, deli etc most of those towns won’t suit you.
What kind of area do you want to live in?Inner city, suburbs? Lively, quiet? Nice pubs/places to eat? etc etc

Worked for North Kirklees PCT, as a teacher in Batley, and for the Youth Offending Team in Dewsbury, with Birstall, Batley and Heckmondwyke all on my patch. As grim as grim can be. Live in Huddersfield, Mirfield or Morley if you want any chance of a normal life outside of work.

There’s loads of small villages outside Leeds, Hudds, Halifax etc which are really nice. Depends on how far you want to commute and by what means.

Work wise, as a community nurse what you might want to know about Kirklees:
High levels of poverty
High levels of social exclusion
Very ethnicially diverse – particularly large South Asian population
Very high levels of COPD, diabetes etc. (basically the full complement of health problems you might expect with the ethnic mix and the pockets of rampant poverty).

Living wise, as above basically, there’s some sh*tholes, but some nice places, in summary whatever you want / can afford, from really nice rural / semi-rural locations, vibrant urban, to ghettos and run down LA estates. Although comments above are right that Batley as a whole is a bit grim, there is a quite posh bit too though – think it’s called “Upper Batley”, mind you the house prices there are shocking so might not be relevant to a health worker unfortunately.

And the most important thing, that you strangely haven’t asked – there’s some hills, and riding to be had – more at the Huddersfield end of Kirklees than the Batley / Birstall end though.

Thanks for your responses. I don’t mind working in grimness, I’d just rather not live there. I like the idea of a nice little village, but also like a bit of hustle and bustle/cinema/butchers. Is Huddersfield OK? I’ve only been to the train station.

I’d prefer a cycle commute, also not averse to a short car journey as well.

Secondhand info, but mostly heard positive things about Huddersfield as a place to live. Pretty good culturally if that’s your bag, music, theatre and the like (well regarded music college IIRC). Might be a bit “studenty” (dunno if that’s a good or bad thing).

Mirfield will have most of the things you need but it might be inside your work “patch”. If it’s not got what you want there’s a decent train service to Leeds and Hudds. Birkenshaw is ok but no train. Morley might be a good place as its suburbs and not too expensive.
West Yorkshire towns are very mixed in housing stock/areas. If you’re in say Manchester or London, then the areas tend to be good, average or bad. In W-Yorks it seems that streets are good or bad within areas and in the smaller towns you get good and bad parts of streets. So its very mixed which can be great or awful. Depends on your attitude i suppose. (This is a vast simplification but you’ll get the gist).

It’s pretty hilly in those areas but wherever you are you can get out on in the fields/hills pretty quickly. Ossett or Mirfield might be good as work will be north of the house but nice rolling hills are south of the house. Look on Bing maps and add the OS layer

Hudds has some great real ale pubs
🙂

I lived in Batley for a while on the “Carlinghow” side of town. Grim doesn’t do it justice. I was lucky at 17 to escape to Bradford, if you get my drift 😉

As mentioned, Upper Batley is nicer but pricey; Soothill is ok too once you get over the lip of the hill. The surrounding towns of Morley, Heckmondwike, Dewsbury & Cleckheaton aren’t much better than Batley itself, while as mentioned Gomersal and to a degree Birkenshaw are ok. Don’t go too far up the hill though, or you’ll end up in Bradford. a little further afield takes on the northeast side takes you into East Ardsley or Wrenthorpe/Kirkhamgate, where I grew up – not bad, village feel. West Ardsley isn’t so good though. Tingley’s ok too (sorry Mum, can’t give it a higher mark as I’ve never lived there)

I can’t speak for the Huddersfield side other than to say it’s almost as hilly as Bradford.

how are your languages of the indian sub continent? i d suspect that they would have to be in the range of excellent to native speaker if you wish to communicate effecively with your clients.

Can’t believe nobody has mentioned the world famous Frontier yet. Reason alone to live in Batley. Best night club in the land by far. They do an amazing laser show and Shirley Bassey once played there you know…………..

the Frontier? I saw Bucks Fizz perform there, when that Van Day wierdo out of Dollar was in the line up. Not that I’m trying to put you off….

And you’re nice and close to Ton for collection once he starts selling bike parts again 😉

totalshell – Member
how are your languages of the indian sub continent? i d suspect that they would have to be in the range of excellent to native speaker if you wish to communicate effecively with your clients

Tool

PS the NHS has translators

Tool

PS the NHS has translators

i think you ll find that progressive NHS trusts ( like Pennine,) are actually helping health professionals develop thier own language skills and actively encourage applications from the bi or multi lingual

Tool 2

Try to stay away from Huddersfield – nothing going for it, too many “ganstaz” and not enough jobs. Leeds is nice, Batley has some chavy estates but its not too bad.

edit: working in Kirklees you may want to touch up on some Black vernacular.

There are plenty of nice places around Batley but as said the place itself is a toilet. As with all places it depends on your budget and what you can afford but even on a moderate income there is plenty out there.

totalshell – Member

I retract my “Tool” comment now as your in-depth knowledge of the Pennine NHS Trust clearly reduces the potential for your previous comment to be interpreted as a racist/xenophobic but jokey comment.

I can back up ElShalimo by confirming that the NHS does have access to a translation service, as well as sometimes using patients’ families (sons, daughters, grandkids can be handy).

The interview is next week, I guess I’ll drive and have a look at some of the villages around Batley. Mirfield looks nice on streetview.

Good luck with the interview

Batley is a sh1thole, ok to work there but don’t even consider living there, unless you can afford Upper Batley, Ossett is good and only 5 mins from Batley

Oh by the way, the A62 is an alternative route to the M62 between Huddersfield & Leeds.
When there’s a problem on the M62, which is very often (daily???), the traffic will use the A62 and A643 in particular, and all surrounding routes in general, as an alternative

I work in Birkenshaw and its a lovely village. Although it lacks a good pub.

I live in Mirfield and while there are some dodgy areas, most is ok. As said earlier there is easy access to the rolling hills to the south, Calderdale and the Pennines to the west.

Wife works in community mental health covering these areas. Lots of abuse (sexual and physical), lots of poverty, lots of big family’s having big family feuds. Some quite pretty old buildings, lots of drugs and alcohol abuse.

Grim place by all accounts IMO, but if you like challenging work then it’d be a good place for that!

For a bit of balance…!

Hud is ace. Great restaurants, good pubs, everything you need in a small space, amazing riding on the edge of the Peaks if you get up to Marsden/ Meltham/ Holmfirth. Golcar and Outlane are nice. The hill over towards Halifax is good too – loads of nice villages that way, eg Greetland.

Access to everywhere is good via the M62 (or M1 if you’re Holmfirth way)

We lived there as we have family in Manc/ Skipton and worked in Sheffield and Leeds. We were an hour’s drive from all of these.

We moved away last year and I still miss it.

I lived in Huddersfield for 3 years in the early 90’s absolutely hated the place! just felt odd.
I worked in Batley for a couple of years and it was very grim certainly wouldn’t want to live there. At least Birstall is close to the motorway!

I grew up in Mirfield and it’s ok.
Some nice parts, some not so nice, but nothing bad.
riding can be had from the doorstep both to the North via Roberttown, etc, to the South via Hopton, etc.

For a bigger place I’d suggest Mirfield, if you want something more rural check out the little places to the North of there, even out to brighouse / hipperhome and sort of between Halifax and Bradford area.

Try to stay away from Huddersfield – nothing going for it, too many “ganstaz” and not enough jobs. Leeds is nice, Batley has some chavy estates but its not too bad.

edit: working in Kirklees you may want to touch up on some Black vernacular.

What a load of absolute nonsense. I’ve lived and worked in the Huddersfield area since 1994 and have never felt the need to know any ‘black vernacular’ and I’m a secondary school teacher so I don’t live in a bubble.

Having grown up in Hong Kong, lived ‘down south’ for a few years, I’m more than happy to call Huddersfield home.