Just wondering… whats Glossop and its surrounding areas like? Might consider a move over the Pennines away from my beloved Yorkshire if its nice to be nearer my new job and as a result be able to spend an extra hour a day with my newest addition to the family which is due soon.

So, in order of importance:
– whats the riding like from 'the door' in the area?
– what are the places to avoid like the plague and places centre a search on? I'd want an older 'character' house (like early 1900s big townhouse or nice country cottage kinda thing, with biggish gardens and ideally off-street parking and/or garage etc).
– any other comments about the area? Despite being a massive Leeds fan, I quite like Manc for shopping etc and being closer to the velodrome might be cool too!

Ta
Dave

It's local, for local people.

It's quite old fashioned, so I should imagine the crimerate is low.
Good local shops and some decent eating places.
Surrounded by hills and open country side.
Road riding is good.
House prices aren't too bad.
Not sure about the actual 'step out of your door' mtbing. There is a steepish road (Tunel) which leads you out to the Peaks proper, filled with loads of trails.
There are a few locals on here, no doubt they'll pop up soon with some suggestions.

grew up in godley nr hyde in between glossop and manchester, some bits are nice some bits like beirut depends what you can afford, riding is endless, glossop (if a bit sheep shaggy) is nice apart from gamesley and the farther north towards manchester the more run down it gets (with exceptions) and we do a fine line in serial killers!

I live in Glossop, the riding on your doorstep is decent – some neat stuff on the Hollingworth side that's less well known – you can look up from the station and see hills on three sides of you and Hayfield, which has classic Peak riding is around ten minutes of road spinning over the hill. Good road riding as well – Snake, Holme Moss and the surrounding stuff etc. Nice running too and the likes of Ladybower are around 20 minutes or so away.

Glossop itself is kind of pleasant, no-frills industrial northern town. It's not twee like Hayfield or grim like Todmorden, just sort of normal and pretty friendly. The inbred thing is a bit out of date, lots of quite normal folk living here now 😉

There are plenty of shops – a big Tesco, medium Co-Op, a Lidl, or is it an Aldi, a good local butcher, loads of pubs, though only two or three good ones, and a few restaurants worth going to. No cinema, but Manchester is around 35 minutes away by train and compensates for Glossop's cultural desert feel…

The downsides? It's not particularly posh or arty, though there are bits of that around if you look for it. Road links are fine out to the east and south, via the Peak, and decent via Chesterfield to the M1 and London. If you have to commut by road though, there's a proper bottleneck on the A57 up Mottram Moor where it's single carriageway and takes all the traffic from the Snake and the Woodhead via a traffic light controlled junction at the top of a hill. Not good if you need to head that way by car in rush hour conditions.

The houses you describe are around, but you may have to wait until the right one comes out, mostly stuff is two-up, two-down or new build suburban horrors. Places to avoid? Gamesley, I'd say, Hadfield is where they filmed League of Gentlmen, Tintwistle is neatly bisected by the Woodhead Pass and massive lorries…

Hayfield is nice, if pricey and a little twee, New Mills has teen issues but seems okay, Glossop does me fine.

What else? Er, the whole area is in the rain shadow of the Pennines, so you do get more than your fair share of rain. It's got a decent LBS in the form of High Peak Cycles. I don't know much about the areas further in. Boradbottom has a ridiculous name and seems a bit small to me, Hyde is rough – I used to live there – Marple gets a good press (see Bunnyhop and NBT), but personally I'd rather live further out and have better riding closer by. I guess if you're minted and time rich, you could always live further out in the Peak or check out some of the villages around Chinley and Chapel. Whaley Bridge maybe 🙂

Cheers all. Might wanna look for a smaller village 'community' feel place. Village pub and not a lot else kinda place. Anywhere like that which may be worth looking at which is not far from the M60?

stay on the path and you"ll be fine, 😉

Maybe look at stuff around the Diggle, Delph, Saddleworth end of things? Where are you working?

Village pub and not a lot else kinda place.

The trouble is, the North West of England is jammed up woth people, so it requires a reasonable effort to obtain this sort of thing, and then it costs of a fortune to live there.

BWD – Knutsford so M60 and then south a bit. Will be commuting for the time being from Halifax so a good hour in the car each way. Just wondering if/when I decide to, whether there is anywhere to rival Calderdale nearer to Cheshire without paying footballers house prices!

Dave – mail me direct if you want – I live on the outskirts of Glossop.

Charlesworth (near me) might be an option if you want more of a village feel – it does have 2 pubs though and some of the people are a bit Royston Vasey – nice riding from there up around Lantern Pike – tends to be quieter than the other side of Hayfield.

However I'd echo what BWD said about traffic – a mate of mine has been commuting to Knutsford from Glossop for over a year and it's driven him mad – regularly taking 90 mins to 2 hours each way – bottlenecks out of Glossop then again on the M67, then on the M60 and finally on the M56.

Cheers James

BadlyWiredDog – Member

Maybe look at stuff around the Diggle, Delph, Saddleworth end of things? Where are you working?

I'll second that, although I may be a little biased, 🙂 Nice area, good pubs/countryside/riding. And if your new job is in manchester it's an easy 20-25mins on the train or 40mins by car commute.

If your job is in knutsford then you really need to avoid glossop and probably stockport as well, sorry, the bottlenecks are horrendous. No idea how bad it is getting to and from the motorway from the saddleworth area but I bet it's not too great. Maybe macclesfield might be an option – some nice riding, realistic house prices, trains into That Manchester?

Have a shufty of this thread for more choices

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/people-of-manchesterwhere-to-live

Glossop's like Stocksbridge without the glamour (or the bypass). Commuting by car into Manchester would be a nightmare, you could get to Sheffield quicker. Getting to north Cheshire / south Mcr / airport area is even worse.

Best thing would be to knock it down and finish the M67.

I was born in Glossop. However we moved to Poynton when I was one, and that was 34 years ago, so I can't really add much. As others have said though, it's not the place to be living if you're working in Kuntsford. Macc would be a much better option.

I'm entry number one on the High Peak birth register though, fact fans 🙂

Hiya Dave, Hayfield is fab.

Diggle, Uppermill, Saddleworth, Delph etc. are also nice places, some of the locals even think they're in Yorkshire.

Commuting might be a challenge though, unless you do v early starts?

**** it – I'll stay in Halifax by the sound of it and get closely aquainted with the M60.

Dave, I live in Marple and work right on J12 of the M60. Takes me 25 minutes to drive 6 miles to work. One of my former colleagues lived in Bradford and could get over the M60 on his motorbike in about 40 minutes..

Our office is moving to Warrington, and the Mrs' Job has moved to Macclesfield, so we are looking to move..

We've gone down the other side of the M6 near Davenham/ Northwich end..

– Only about 5 miles from Knutsford..

You could try somewhere like Horwich/Belmont/Adlington.
Small with nice pubs. much closer to Knutsford.
Or go the other way and try New Mills, Whalley Bridge, Macc.

All the best people come from New Mills.

Although to be fair, that sign is actually just outside of Marsden 🙂

A bit of a late add to this thread but…

If your based in Knutsford I'd go for Macclesfield or surrounding villages Bollington, Sutton or Langley. Sutton and Langley are on the road to Macc Forest.

I've been doing the commute upto Calderdale via Glossop from Chapel en le Frith a couple of times a week for the last year. Generally its taking about 1hr 20mins but I tend to go via Holme Moss and Marsden then dog leg round Nont Sarah's to Ripponden. I've been avoiding the road via Staley Bridge and Delph as Charlesworth (nr Glossop) accross the Woodhead Road can be a real ball ache. Worst trip was 2hrs to the M62 at White Hill mast.

Glossop / Hayfield to Chapel doesnt really get too bad first thing in the morning. Chapel / New Mills / Hayfield to Macc via Whaley is OK until you reach Macc, getting through the town to the otherside can take ages.

From Sutton / Langley you can back road it on the rat runs to the South of the Town. Got a mate who works at the Barclays site in Knutsford – bike commute doesnt seem to bad.

From Bollington you can back road it on the rat runs north of the town, just avoid Prestbury as that really snarls up as well. Sutton Langley is prob a shorter run.

Riding – best idea of Macc area is on http://www.bikemaps.co.uk maps for the area as they prity much sum everything up. From Bollington its a fairly easy cut through Lyme Park to get into the Goyt Valley / Hayfield Area