Living and riding in South Manchester

Good point Nick 🙂

I wouldn’t ride round Sale Water Park on my own either though. Some right weirdos hang around there 😀

But not as bad as Chorlton Water Park believe me,Rusty!
If you ever head up to Scotlandshire drop me a line and we can meet up.Let you do a comparison between Alky Woods and Mugdock Park (just outside Glasgow)-you should be safe with me an honorary Glaswegian as a body (and bike) guard 🙂

Have you never heard my Chorlton water park corset story?

If you loved Edinburgh I recommend renting or buying stone NOT brick then you can’t go wrong.

binners – Member

Have you never heard my Chorlton water park corset story?

Do tell, I’m all ears:

harry – i’ll give you a shout once we’ve settled into the new house.
rusty – i’ll give you a shout also if you’re up for it so you can show us round the local trails. local knowledge is miles better than what you read on some route map!!

derek – you live in heaton park?
wow you must be rich…i’ve seen your house..it’s huge although i suppose those stone lions are a bit of an acquired taste…you should be able to build a really nice trail in your garden…it massive!! LOL!
but seriously i’ll be moving near there soon so i might call upon you to show me some of the local trails…

your a fool!

should have listened and come to Bolton 🙄

Garry_Lager – Member

Cycle commute to the uni from around Marple way seems doable looking at a map, not sure what the reality of it would be day in day out.

binners – Member

what the map doesn’t show you is that when the apocalypse comes, it will look like the A6 at 8.30 in the morning.

Been away for a few days, sorry. Binners has the right of it. It’s *AWFUL*. I commuted from Marple to Cheadle. I’d set out at 7am so that I could get down the A6 before things went mental, and once I’d moved from Hazel Grove to Marple sorted a route that meant I didn’t have to cycle along the A6 at all. People coming from our sister office in Ashbourne would go round via Stoke rather than coming up the A6. It’s only going to get worse as they’re building a new bloody car park entrance in the middle of Hazel Grove, that’ll proper stuff the traffic up.

I know Crazy Legs commutes in via the A6 from New Mills to East Manchester (near the velodrome), and Rod (posted further up this thread) from Heaton Chapel to the city centre, but personally, I’d not want to risk it, I feel bad enough when I go to volleyball training and have to drive down that way. Stanley’s just moved to Marple, his missus commutes in by train each day to work at the uni.

jules, what about the opposite direction? i may have an interview for a job in marple; will it kill me trying to get there if i get the job?

Firstly, thank you, STW wisdom. This has been most informative.

My Missus and I are moving to Southish Manchester – she’s working at the Wythenshawe hospital. I need to be able to get the train to Birmingham (but not as a regular commuter).

Has the STW Wisdom got more wisdom on living in such places as:
Wilmslow
Alderley Edge
Chelford

…WRT biking available – directly from the door or via short drive (<45 mins)?

Is Wythenshawe that bad – I lived in Leeds Headingly/Burley for about 8 years – is it a comparable experience?
What’s the opinion on Cheadle/Cheadle Hume?
We’re coming from Great Yarmouth. I’m very excited. 😀

From Bolton? It’ll be an hour’s journey or more, you;ll struggle round the motorway, it’ll be busy through Bredbury and so on. MLS or Arden?

alderley edge- are you a millionaire? if not, forget it.
wilmslow wishes it was alderley edge.

wythenshawe- if you would like to keep your bike(s), then you probably don’t want to live there.

you can pretty much get to hope valley/ladybower (in the peak district) in under 45 minutes from anywhere in south manchester. rivi etc is only about 20-40 minutes’ drive too.

arden j.
i’m not moved up that way yet; depending on how things with jobs go, i may stay in the south end for a bit.

Has the STW Wisdom got more wisdom on living in such places as:
Wilmslow
Alderley Edge
Chelford

Are you made of money? I don’t know how expensive Great Yarmouth is. I can’t afford Wilmslow, and only people who can’t afford Alderley Edge live in Wimlslow. We did look at a place in Chelford, but they have a MASSIVE car boot sale every sunday and the place is gridlocked.

We looked at all those places when we moved, in fact we spent two years scouring a large part of East CHeshire and East Manchester – from Chelford across to Bollington and as far north as Delph and Diggle. As a finger in the air example, 250k would buy you a one bed flat in Alderley edge, a tiny two bed semi in Wilmslow or a comfortable 3 bed place in Cheadle Hulme / Heaton Moor / Marple. You’ll find variations, like paying a little more for the more desirable streets and so on, but that’s not a bad guide.

As for riding, there’s a few bridleways out of Wilmslow to the south/west as its horsey country, but they’re flat, and if you’re into road riding you’ll be in heaven with the cheshire lanes, but for MTBing you’re looking at a 30 minute journey over towards Disley / Marple / New Mills.

CHealde Hulme is nicer than Cheadle, both are ok, neither has “from the door” riding. Consider The heatons as well, all trains stop at Stockport station but not many intercity trains stop at Chealde Hulme or Chelford, tbh.

Arden’s 10 minutes walk from my house, I sent them my CV and they liked it but couldn’t scrape the money together for me. Had an interview at MLS but it being the first in ten years had a total brain freeze and completely crapped out on the technical test.

Even from your current location, you’ll be looking at 40 minute journey, you;ll be able to use the A6 heading south a lot easier than the northbound traffic in the morning, but evening rush hour is terrible both ways.

Move to Marple and walk to work 🙂

I know Crazy Legs commutes in via the A6 from New Mills to East Manchester (near the velodrome),

Ideally I use the towpaths and cycle routes but if the weather has been shit it just turns to a mudbath so I resort to the A6 (or I drive!).

New Mills/Marple are really convenient for Manchester. Regular trains, easy access although as several people have mentioned, the A6 can be a total nightmare if you’re driving. New Mills to J1 of the M60 (about 9 miles) can take anything between 15 to 60 mins depending on time of day/roadworks.

250k would buy you a one bed flat

😯 Christ on a bike!

This missus will be on call (30 minutes response, I think) so we are a bit limited.

chorlton to wythenshawe hospital takes between 10-30 minutes depending on time of day.

Wythenshawe is accessible from the motorway so you could try the CHealde (hulme) or the Heatons.

Rightmove, propertysnake and the land registry website are your friends when trying to work out what you can afford…

Edit – marple’s out if you need to be in wythenshawe in 30 minutes. I htink there’s a website that will show you the areas you can drive to within a given timescale, get looking on google and allow for the fact that the M56 / M60 junction where you access wythenshawe can be horrendous in rush hour.

Sale FTW..

Just outside of the M60 so doesnt feel as busy and manic as Chorlton & Didsbury. Easy access to the motorway, can be in the lakes in an hour.

Quite a few STW’ers around here, and of course there’s the legendery South Manchester Massive 8)

Only downside is that I have bumped into Hora a few times in my local sainsburys 😆

chorlton to wythenshawe hospital takes between 10-30 minutes depending on time of day.

What on? The back of a snail? 😉 you could crawl there in half an hour.

Wilmslow? Hmmmmm used to work there. When I first started there we thought we’d go and get some bacon butties for breakfast. After trying everywhere we found somewhere that did a scrambled egg and pancetta pannini, That was as close as we were ever going to get. I wish i was joking but I’m not

High street doubles as a BMW X5 owners club meeting. And you can’t get in the pub for lunch because its full of ladies who….

Speaking of which…. I used to work with this huge, buff and very handsome black guy from our London office. We were out in Wilmslow after work and he actually feared for his life. He was terrified of the predatory divorcees, out spending their ex-husbands millions, propositioning him. And I really do mean Propositioning. One woman just walked up to him while he was chatting to us and said “my Mercs parked outside, fancy coming back and ****ing me?

You couldn’t make it up. Hideous place. Cheadles ok if you can afford it. Not cheap either. Though not in Wilslow price bracket

the m56 can be quite the car park between junctions 1-4 at times adam!

Thank you very much for taking the time to comment: most usefull!

OK, so Sale is a recommended?
When you say “Chorlton”, is that Chorlton Cum Hardy?

The missus is keen on biking to work if possible when not on call (which somewhat reduces the circle of commutable distance). Shall I worry this out of her or is it a valid (and not life threatening) option?

Sorry Andy. Didn’t read it properly. Christ! I wouldn’t drive! You could ride down. It’d probably be quicker

Forget all the above advice. Macclesfield is only 25 minutes on the train, and is rather nice.

Agreed, Macc is good.

^^^ Good choice, although I am biased.

Macc? Exporter of culture to the nation

I live on the Urmston side of Stretford, there’s some really nice streets and prices are a lot cheaper than the likes of Chorlton and Disdbury and it’s not as dodgy as people may think.

Right next to the M60 junction and on the tram line so transport’s good. Only thing it really lacks is any decent bars, restaurants etc. but it’s only a 20 minute walk to the middle of Chorlton.

BaronVonP7 – have you considered Gatley? It’s the posh end of Cheadle, good rail and motorway links, unfortunately very near Wythenshawe.

Macclesfield is no good for you, it’s just too far away from Wythenshawe

I really wouldn’t cycle through or near Wythenshawe as a single female, maybe in a group.

Binners- come on tell everyone the story of the corset 😯

Thank you Bunnyhop. Me Lady has read your comment and we’ll bear it in mind!

Very excited. Great Yarmouth is realy only near to Holland. With great respect to the folks in TIMBER who work on the Theford trails, Norfolk a bit of a biking desert.

Ah right, that’s where it is. I thought it was near the Isle of Wight for some reason.

You;re in for a shock when you get up here, we have these things called rocks and hills, often found together with one being made of the other. You’ll love it. Eventually.

There are no rocks and hills in Manchester. It’s flat as a pancake.

Only downside is that I have bumped into Hora a few times in my local sainsburys

Oi, its my local Sainsburys even if you technically live closer to it 😆

I was abit depressed when I moved to Manchester from London as its like a suburban village compared. Still, I spent many years here in the early 90’s so it felt like I was returning home 8)

Oh, go on then – I’ll trot out my corset story again

Once upon a time, one sunny weekday afternoon I was sat at my desk, distracted by the weather, so decided to nip out on the bike for a spin. So I headed down to the Mersey for a blat down to Didsbury. Near the afore-mentioned Sale Water Park there’s a spot of Singletrack nadgery through the trees.

Its generally known that it tends to be a bit dubious of an evening. Blokes of a certain disposition, wandering around the bushes like over-sexed zombies. Are they walking their dog? I can’t see any dog. Terrible sights have been reported. But on an early afternoon I thought I’d be safe. How wrong I was.

As I rounded a corner I was treated to a sight that will be seared into my memory forever. Like a Vietnam vet remembering the tet offensive, it’s likely to require couselling.

A bloke, 50 if he was a day, was blocking the path in front of me. Not quite dressed for dog walking to say the least. He was sporting full make up, a corset and….. erm….. no, that was the lot. We stopped and stared at each other for a second, then he moved aside and let me past. As if it was the most natural thing in the world to be wandering around like that on a midweek lunchtime. I carried on, wondering if I was having some kind of acid flashback. I wasn’t.

So… that’s Sale Water Park for you. You can imagine what its like at night 😯

What’s it like at night then?

I had an equally disturbing experience in those same woods on a Sunday afternoon, 2 chaps trying to give each other the kiss of life, only trouble was they were both at the wrong end :-0

never been back to cock sucker woods !, although I do ride down the river most days going to work.

I live in Sale, its okay I guess, town centre looking a bit run down these days but its good for getting into Manchester with the tram and Wythenshawe hospital is 15 mins drive at most.

Plenty of road riding from the door, an hour and half up the TPt and you are in the hills, 30 mins drive from Delamere, an hour and a half to northwales.

House prices are expensive I think, but then I bought my house in the late 80’s

Binner’s that’s an hilarious tale well told! Sounds like Sale WP should be nuked from orbit. Dorty !

It was an interesting afternoon Derek

Steve I notice you now call it cock sucker woods. We refer to it as bum-rape alley