Moving to Halifax/Huddlesfield area, PLEASE help!!

I have a new job offer in centre of Halifax which would mean relocating as I live in London.

I visited last week, the job is a good fit but I am struggling with potential areas to live. I have done a fair amount of Internet searching and Sowerby Bridge and Ripponden look very nice and might fit the bill, centre of Halifax wasn’t my cup of tea as an area to live though (no offence intended).

I would love to hear your thoughts on the surrounding areas please, based on a few requirements below.

Prerequisites for location are a nice area which is safe and not chavy, half an hour commute to centre of Halifax, good transport links into Halifax by train would be fantastic but not a deal breaker, good local amenities such as a supermarket, good pubs, friendly enough locals and some good cycling/mountain bike trails within easy reach. No kids so don’t have to worry about proximity to schools, a good local golf course would be a welcome bonus.

Ideally looking for a 3 bed house/apartment that isn’t in a flood prone area.

Any help and advice would be gratefully received!

dat moon on a stick..

Sowerby Bridge would be my suggestion as it is a lovely place but of course (as you clearly know) it is very prone to flooding.

Unfortunately that area of West Yorkshire is a bit short on really nice places to live. We had friends who lived in Cullingworth for a while and that seemed okay – not sure if the commute might be a little long though as it seems to take an age to get to anywhere from anywhere else around there.

How about Haworth?

Hebden also a good shout (as below) but also prone to flooding.

I assume anything with a ‘Bridge’ in the place name should be avoided as they will be on a river….

I would look at Hebden Bridge and anywhere between there and Halifax. HB is a trendy town and is surrounded by some of the best mountain biking in Britain. It also has a fascinating industrial history and superb fells all around. Access to the motorway network isn’t bad, in both directions.

The valleys are very deep and my biggest concern would actually be in finding a house that wasn’t so deep in a valley that it was in shadow for 4 months of the year.

If you want advice from a cyclist, talk with @ColinJ on Cycle Chat as he lives in HB and loves the area. Don’t let him get started on his health problems though….!

I went to school in Sowerby, (not sowerby bridge) and all the posh kids came from Ripponden, Barkisland, rishworth, mill bank sort of areas. If I was moving back to Halifax i’d probably look over that way.

Most of Halifax centre is shit (apart from Saville Park) I lived in Boothtown(!) and most places around Halifax are decent and surrounded by hills.

Heb is nice, not all of it is a flood zone, Sowerby is nice also, good train links from both to Halifax

SB has some good boozers 🙂

friendly enough locals

You know you’ll be in West Yorkshire, right?

Halifax can be good and bad, mostly the latter if near to town centre.
If you want access to countryside/bridleways from your front door, try Ripponden, Rishworth, Barkisland, Stainland etc. Parts of Southowram are good too.
Don’t discount places like Rastrick, Hipperholme, Mirfield and Brighouse as they can be quite nice too (the last two are on the train line). Also, on the other side of the M62 you have Golcar and Slaithwaite which are mostly very nice.
If you can commute by car, bike or bus you have a lot more options as the trains don’t go to every village.

Given it’s Calderdale you need to know that in winter the people in the deep valleys are in permanent gloom due to the steep sided valley and the shadows from the dark satanic mills. The people who live in the villages up the hill get more daylight, when it’s not p1ss1ng down, but feel the full force of the Pennine weather. (We’re in Stainland and all the trees grow at 45 degrees – nothing grows unless it is fully hardy).
The hydrologists always live at the top of the hill as they are doom merchants but not everywhere floods. I’ll wager if you’re 10m above the rivers you’ll never get wet feet.

Contact me if you need more input (email in profile)
good luck

There are lots of little places you won’t see by having a drive through.

I’m in Ripponden. It ticks all of your boxes apart from the train links (you’d have to drive/ride to Sowerby Bridge station).

If you’re eyeing up the Ryburn Valley, as well as Ripponden I would be looking at all of the surrounding villages and hamlets: Greetland, Stainland, Barkisland, Soyland, Sowerby village, even parts of Elland.

Calder Valley-wise, your money goes MUCH further in Todmorden. There are lots of nice properties out of town and up the valley sides. See also Harvelin Park, Lumbutts and Mankinholes. Mytholmyroyd and Luddenden Foot too are all cheaper than the Ryburn Valley; cheaper than Hebden too. If you are loaded, look at Midgeley and Booth.

As for Hebden itself, well, I lived there for 15ish years. Let’s just say the traffic, the parking and the antisocial yoofs get you down after a while 😉 If you want peace, quiet and space, then look a bit further afield.

Todmorden? Bit further from Halifax, but should be a fair bit cheaper than the hip and trendy Hebden Bridge.

I’m just down the road from Stainland in Holywell Green (just overlooking Orange Bikes)

Can vouch for a lot of what ElShalimo and Hebden says – lovely part of the world and if I wasn’t having to move for work, I’d be staying there for a while

Btw – the large 2 bed apartment we’re in will be going back on the market soon. I can put you in touch with the landlord if you’re interested.

Come to Brighouse, we’ll look after you 🙂

Train station, decent pubs, golf course(s), swimming pool, climbing wall, supermarkets etc etc.

There’s even some mountain biking 😉

Outlying districts of Halifax are great! (mostly) I Live in Barkisland, 3 miles out of town, great access to the countryside (I bike from the front door).

Look at Ripponden, Rishworth, Barkisland, Norland, Stainland, Soyland.
Some areas can be quite spendy though. (EDIT: i see now these have already been suggested 😳 )

Have a look here[/url]

EDIT: Plenty of golf round here too. Clubs and pay and play.

This isn’t a job in the field of IP is it?

In terms of towns, Huddersfield is a lot more lively than Halifax. Although that’s from a student’s perspective…many years ago.

I noticed your username, just make sure you remember what Rugby is in Hudds and Halifax…. although Huddersfield does have decent Union club.

Skircoat Green area and some of the streets just off the moor would be my preference.
You didn’t say if you would be renting or buying.
If you like terraced houses and don’t mind loads of day trippers every day of the week hebden is ok.

Luddendedenden Foot Foot

Im in Huddersfield Well on the border of hudds and Brighouse to be exact. Just to try and help.

These places are a bit backward, especially coming from london. I moved from barnsley to brighouse and it was like stepping back 15 years. Honestly!

As with most places there are some really good areas and some very bad ones. Around here these can be next door to each other. For example if i walk one mile in any direction from my house i can see properties ranging from close to 2M and down to 50K. For example i nearly purchased a lovely house, built by a carpenter massive gardens, teak floors amazing place. But 2 of the 3 pubs in the local were actually on fire! (this was lee mount in halifax)

Sowerby bridge is a good shout as you’ll get a lot of house for your money. Ripponden and some others are further afield. Im in “upper fartown” or if i call it “lower fixby” it adds 20k to my house! you know the score…..

Best bet would be to choose some areas and then ask for advice. Id suggest seeing if any of the following work for you? Fixby (hudds) Sowerby Bridge, Honley (fair way out).

Hope that helps and feel free to ask questions. Big question is budget though?

andybrad – Member

lee mount

Wrong side of Halifax! 😉

Trying to help, I live at the top end of Elland. I moved here 15 years ago and there is a huge variety of choice, it just depends if you can afford what you want.

Good cycling, amenities, shops…. are all easy in this area so can slip down your list of priorities, not chavy and good pubs will be more of a challenge dependant on your budget.

The A629 into Halifax is a big queue every morning and parking in the centre of town is an issue, this could influence the train commute option. If you drive from down the Calder Valley (from Todmorden, Hebden) then the road is ok but can’t be rushed.

No kids has made this easy as you can take schools out of the equation.

Having said all the above and you coming from London, what we call a busy commute could be like a Sunday to you so you will need to put it in perspective!

I would strongly recommend renting to find your feet, it will mean you have time to make a good choice.

Happy to help, keep posting.

Can’t really speak for Huddersfield but I do know the train service between there and the centre of Halifax is rubbish. 1 train an hour IIRC that goes via Deighton and Brighouse – it’d be quicker walking (or risking getting a disease on the 503 bus).

Halifax I do know about though. Moved here about 13 years ago from York and haven’t looked back. Its absolutely brilliant. OK, there are areas I personally wouldn’t want to live in but thats the same as anywhere else.

If I were you, I’d be looking at South Halifax out to the M62 and along the Calder Valley. And no, just because somewhere has “Bridge” in the name doesn’t mean you’re up to your neck in raw sewerage every time it rains.

From Brighouse through to parts of Elland and the villages between there and the M62 (Greetland, Stainland, Holywell Green etc), the Skircoat Green and Savile Park areas of Halifax, Copley (although not the old village – that is a bit that floods!), parts of Sowerby Bridge are ace and its a brill little town with a station with regular’ish trains into Halifax, Luddendenfoot (maybe, theres not a lot there and no station anymore), Mytholmroyd has some pretty nice areas and a railway station as well as a couple of little supermarkets etc and then Hebden etc. House prices in Hebden are a bit silly though for what you get – you can kiss goodbye to off road parking and a decent garden for anything sensible, I guess partly because flat land is at a premium. Then you’ve got the Ryburn Valley but theres the issue of transport – the road between Rishworth and Sowerby Bridge can be a nightmare.

Basically there is a LOT of choice. Decent priced housing, good transport links and best of all, the riding is epic. Very much under the radar vs Hebden etc and I’d say better for it.

There’s a series of acclimatisation/familiarisation films you might want to watch called Happy Valley. There’s an addendum available called The Moorside if you find yourself on the other side of the M62. Enjoy!

Oh and there’ll be Premier League football next season. Comeontown!

^^^^^^^ you’ve got to love an optimist!

I would strongly recommend renting to find your feet, it will mean you have time to make a good choice.

Having done a similar move in the past, this is good advice.

somewhere in The Valley today.

ton – that was filmed in the Colne valley, somewhere above Marsden
😉

Wow, thank you to all of you for the replies, very much appreciated!

Definitely going to rent for the first 6-12 months as I wouldn’t want to buy and get it completely wrong.

Sounds like there is a common theme in searching around the South & West of Halifax, lots for me to look into so I will get some more research done before asking more questions.

Thanks again all

Harden, Wilsden, Haworth, Oxenhope… All decent places and not too far. Golcar is a decent shout, along with plenty of other villages around Huddersfield.

Assuming you’re moving up to work at Lloyds?

In that case look at renting somewhere around Savile Park, or anywhere south of Free School lane. Plenty of flats you can rent and I know a few people who have places to rent on a short term basis (email in profile). 15/20 min walk into town.

You can get to know the area, as it’ll be a very different lifestyle to living in London.

Plenty of MTB and road clubs on your doorstep to help you settle in.

Another vote here for renting for a bit. I moved here from Edinburgh straight to buying in Hebden, because everywhere else seemed like a million miles from civilisation. And then you live here a bit and realise that lots of places aren’t so far from civilisation but get you a lot more house and daylight for your money. I’m now in Mytholmroyd – much better value for money, and not all of it ended up under water.

If you think that Sowerby Bridge looks quite nice after your brief visit, then you really need to come up and look around a bit more. I was told it was up and coming when I moved down here 10 years ago, and I’ve seen less improvement there than any of the other towns round about. It’s a bit of a traffic jam without a town centre. There’s loads of places hidden away, and renting will give you a chance to explore them on your bike, plus try out living on the tops, or the valley bottom, or the dark side, or wherever, before you commit to a location

But welcome to the north. I doubt you’ll regret moving here, no matter where you end up living.

Easy, Brighouse/Rastrick. Moved here 4 years ago, it’s great.

Good local MTB clubs, climbing wall, good beer, bank’s, shops etc. Great transport links.

OP – Your requirements are pretty much what describes where I moved to a couple years ago.

West side of Hudds has some real nice places like Slaithwaite/Holmfirth etc.

Great biking in the area and on the doorstep of the Peak District (plus real easy to get to Ladybower/Langsett), plenty of amenities, good broadband. Takes me 30 mins usual day to get to centre of Halifax by car, but theres either the Sheffield > Hudds line or the Manchester > Hudds line which you can get then hop onto train to Halifax.

New job happen to be working for Halifax/Lloyds per chance?

ton – that was filmed in the Colne valley, somewhere above Marsden

Thread shaping up nicely into a rate-my-valley thread – Calder Valley vs Colne Valley vs Holme Valley.

mickeylove is a typical pennine valley resident…..Fact

All pretty good advise , having worked at hbos nearly ten years ago the traffic between Huddersfield and Halifax can be horrendous, queues on Elland bypass and to the roundabout at ainley top , it may have got better with recent improvements..

Renting is the ideal, as others have said up north you can literally go from £2m houses to back to back terraces in a hundred yards, I’m just about to buy a house in mirfield, I can pickup the same house for nearly a 35% discount less
Than a mile and a half away, but tha area is bad. ..
It’s similar all over West Yorkshire. Clifton above brighouse is nice as are parts of hipperholme,
Get out on a push bike and explore. I.m always finding new areas and seeing plenty of houses that could feature in ideal homes

I’ve lived nowhere else apart from Halifax in my life – great place to live.

If I take the train link off your list of requirements, then you’ve loads to go at.

Southowram
Northowram
Lightcliffe
Blackley
Outlane (just over the Huddersfield border)
Lindley (as above)
Stainland
Barkisland
Shibden Valley
Clifton

Assuming you’re coming up to work at HBOS, then every one of those places is within a 30 minute cycle commute.

I’m over in Marsden (the colne valley) Halifax centre is 30mins drive away, but we have station with Leeds and Manchester 30 mins either way, so nice pubs and eating places but best of all is the location to jump on your bike and in 5 mins your out on the trails and there is literally loads of them, I can head one way over to do riding in the Calder valley and the other way into the Holme valley, miles and miles of good quality riding 🙂

Yeah, Marsden is nice. Saying all this, Skipton is commutable so why live anywhere else?

Oh and there’ll be Premier League football next season. Comeontown!

This man talks a great deal of sense.