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Looking at moving up to Stoke/Staffordshire. Affordable stuff can be found in and around the Southern suburbs of Stoke. Where should we look & where should we avoid? Unfortunately we can't afford nice stuff in Stone, Gnosall and the like
The best thing about the Potteries is all the roads leading out ..
Lived there for a year
( sorry - it was 35 years ago. You may love it. There are plenty of nice places around , not far from the Peaks, and Cannock Chase)
I was unfortunate enough to spend the first 28 years of my life there. Parents and sister still live there....
DON'T DO IT!
Everything about the place is ****ing shit. As a city collectively there is just one huge lack of hope.
Fairly sure that by certain metrics it was the fifth most deprived place in the UK.
Biddulph is slightly less shit, Leek is alright.
^ so it wasn't just me then ! 🙂
Newcastle under Lyme is slightly better but more expensive. Went to Keele and spent a year in Stoke city, it's not a great place.
Whoops, weird double post.
Yeah but waterworld is mint.
Can't really disagree with the negative sentiment above, I voted with my feet and moved out at 19. However in the interests of being useful I guess I would recommend Penkhull. Kinda leafy suburban, sandwiched in between stoke town itself and Newcastle, therefore both within walking distance as is the train station. Get as close as you can to Penkhull church for the most well to do bit, also has a few pubs.
Even the wallabies have gone https://www.ft.com/content/d2973e88-658f-4cb2-85ae-a3317f67e854
Living in Stoke on Trent – where’s good
Literally everywhere else is better.
A city with a soul made of asbestos and clay. Very depressing place.
stoke is the arsehole of the world, if you have to move there, look at newcaste under lyme,westlands, penkhull, or trentham
avoid anything actually in stoke as its grim, the people are ignorant, racist buggers and there is no joy or soul to the place. it does have a lovely collection of junkies and spiceheads havinga crisis or fight in the middle of the day though, so thats nice.
Doesn’t it have the accolade of the most Brexity place in Britain? Every time the BBC needed some mad, toothless market stall holder banging on about bendy bananas they always ended up in Stoke
Cant add anything to that as to me it’s just a motorway sign on the M6 when I’m heading south.
Christ what a load of crap.
I live in stoke and I kinda like it. The people are friendly. The housing is cheap. There is plenty of work. Travel connections are brilliant. You get shit parts of citys wherever you go.
What it also has is a very close proximity to lots of lovely countryside.
Iive in the south of the city in Trentham and I can cycle just ten minutes and be surrounded by tons of lovely woods and fields, try doing that in Manc, Brum or London. It's also got a thriving cycling scene, both roadie and mtbing are very popular in the city. We have our own woods where trails are built, Hanchurch.
Good bits to live are Trentham, Hanford, Newcastle under Lyme and maybe Meir.
Avoid the north of the city but there's nice housing inbetween all over.
DM if you like and when you get here I'll show you around on bikes if you like.
Furthermore: 45 mins drive to the south Peak District. 40 minutes to Cannock. 1.5hrs to degla. 1.5hrs to church Stretton.
Stoke's great for loads of reasons.
meir.....christ on a bike no.....!
and hanchurch/swynerton old woods is a small muddy puddle with a bit of gnarr built by the spokes lads
employment is terrible unless you want to workin a bargin booze,nisa or be slave labour for the bamfords making yellow diggers in uttoxeter
have alook at the crimerate stats,stoke is the most dangerous city in staffordshire and in the top 20 country wide, rife with drugs, violence, anti social behaviour and robbery.
when i went to uni there in 93 it was a rough working area, but lots of employment with pits, potteries and associated trade.(good punk and alt music scene at the time) loss of industries and lack of funding killed the area.
we have an office in stoke and lived in an around the area for years. it really is awful.
Meir?!
Do not move to Meir ffs!
Binners, yep over 75% voted leave....casual racism is very prevalent. I agree with you Jekkyl that a lot of locals are very friendly. There's a good reason why housing is cheap though, and I doubt very much that it's due to the huge range of employment opportunities.
Meh! You get out what you put in. You two can can go and wallow in your shit if you like, if you don't like it tazz go and fo somewhere else then. 🥳
If you lived east of Stoke perhaps Leek, then you have access to the Peak District with awesome mtb and road riding options. If it was me I’d live east along the a50 and commute into Stoke if you have work there. Stoke is a very deprived area.
Keele alumni here too. When I graduated in 2000 I found a job and a nice flat in NuL when my girlfriend at the time said "don't be ****ing stupid, we're moving to Dublin". She was right.
Spent 5 years working up there, mainly on the ex coal board estates. This was 5-10 years ago.
The vast majority of people were poor, had little to look forward to and it showed. But they were overwhelmingly friendly and kind and caring. The whole place feels run down and grey. I was on the street where they sold houses for £1 on the day it was announced, funnily enough.
Decide which side of the place you want to escape to then expect to pay for the privilege of living in those places.
But - Rourke Cycles.
My mum’s side of the family were from stoke. Her parents both worked in the potteries. Grandad put handles and spouts on tea pots. Granny packed the boxes on to canal boats at middle port. Mum went to school in Newcastle under Lyme. My sister went to uni at north staffs poly in the 90s. I’ve got some family still living in biddulph.
I think the last episode of question time was filmed in stoke. Watch it on iPlayer to see what local people are concerned about (I remember there being a lot of complaints about lack of infrastructure, buses etc)
Then move to leek.
I went to Rourke's a couple of weeks ago. The area looked dire but the nearest petrol station had the cheapest fuel I've seen for a year or two. So that's nice then... 🙂
Oh, and my local city is Peterborough so I feel your pain @jekkyl though I'm slighty less defensive of it as (thankfully) I don't live there <shudders>
@jekkyl ta duck, I did thankfully, still have to work in area though so I cam get my dose a casual racism and ignorance whenever i need a topup.
the only good bits of the bike scene in stoke, are alex and kev (jolly good chaps) at spokes if you like a big enduro gnarrsled
When I looked at leek it was pre pandemic, with more affordable houses in the town, the closer you get to the Roaches <3 the more expensive it gets.
I moved from Nottingham as my now wife was at Uni there, we lived in students ville, Shelton near the train station, then moved out to Hartshill, a nice bit near woods, but traffic is what I remember and lots of it.
We called the bridge that went to the train station pigeon poo bridge and still have fond memories of it 🤮.
The best part of Stoke, was getting out to the peaks, the hardest part was it took 8 years to leave!!!
If you have to move there look at Hartshill and Penkull, and Good Luck.
leek has/had a big drugs problem, like a lot of smaller towns, not much for the youth and easy for the manc dealers to get to. a few years ago heroin was the drug of choice over there it may have gentrified a bit now. did have some good pubs though and easy access to gritstone for climbing.
I had to go there quite frequently in the 90's when a GF and my best mate were at Keele and some random Poly respectively. My over-riding memory was of lovely folk who seemed content to live in a post-industrial concrete open air prison.
I haven't been back.
Ey up me ducks!
Like Jekkyl I also live in the area actually returning after 10 years in Sheffield ( mainly for babysitting reasons) and like all cities that were rooted in coal and steel its hit hard times but it does have some positives including cheap housing, access to the countryside as highlighted earlier and contrary to Taz's portrayal very friendly people as long as you don't want to wander around the town centre engaging with the dust monkeys. I don't go into the town centres so that doesn't bother me in the slightest tbh.
Areas to the south I would suggest are the Westlands, Clayton, Trentham. Penkhull, Hartshill and Barlaston. If you venture north east Endon, Brown Edge, Stockton Brook and Milton are pretty nice. Meir is grim but Meir Heath isnt bad for an estate type environment and is really good value. You may also want to look at Alsager/Church Lawton to the North.
grew up in Lightwood, mates still live in stone/leek, moved away for Uni and only go back to see family/mates, spent 20 years slagging the place off but must be ok if my mates/family stayed there? Agree there are some very shit places there but same could be said of most cities.
pop, trust you to be voice of reason 😉 bloody stokies, commin over here....with their reasoned arguments n that....just because you've got cheesy oatcakes it dunna make you special youth.
Stoke born and stoke bred, strong in arm and thick in 'ead.
Spent the first 20 years there, and the remaining 36 going back to visit family.
Don't listen to the haters, the people are great, despite the brexit monikers.
However, it is *very* deprived - was back there are the weekend and so much has been flattened and not been rebuilt. There are few job opportunities, and that breeds despair and crime.
There are plenty of places outside Stoke, but there is no where posh, except parts of Trentham. Traffic is always heavy. I personally would look to the countryside just outside, maybe south of trentham towards stafford for a special house, there is not going to be a special magic area. Maybe somewhere between Weston Coyney and Werrington or towards Leek, Wetley Rocks etc.
stoke is the most dangerous city in staffordshire
Are there any other cities in Staffordshire?
Yet another Keele Alumni here, spent a year in NuL and visiting Stoke. Wouldn't rush back, but then, I was a student visiting Student hovels.
Used to ride at Hanchurch woods a lot, and looking at the area someone already mentioned Hanford and Trentham - that's where I'd be looking. Or out towards the Peak but wouldn't know where to suggest.
I spent 10 months in Kidsgrove, Biddulph and Rode Heath back in 1984. I cannot recommend any of them as places to live.
Driving south into core of the Potteries was much grimmer.
Mow Cop is a good road climb though.
Stoke was the only place I've seen bouncers on the door at McD's - although that was 20y ago as we'd drive through on the way to north wales
Stoke was the only place I’ve seen bouncers on the door at McD’s – although that was 20y ago as we’d drive through on the way to north wales
Ilkeston was apparently the first UK branch of McDonald's to have bouncers - funnily enough, another rundown former mining and steel town, though its recovered better than Stoke due to the proximity to Derby and Nottingham.
Why Staffordshire and why Stoke!?
And what's your budget - there [i]must[/i] be somewhere else! 🙂
And what’s your budget – there must be somewhere else!
£215k for 2 beds a garden and access to decent dog walks.....and preferably not mid-terrace for bike access
Does it need to be Stoke though?
3 Bed Semi in Hatton just down the A50...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117783617#/?channel=RES_BUY
Well under budget and you could trot to Tutbury! 🙂
£215k for 2 beds a garden and access to decent dog walks…..and preferably not mid-terrace for bike access
You'd get that in Northampton.
Ilkeston was apparently the first UK branch of McDonald’s to have bouncers – funnily enough, another rundown former mining and steel town, though its recovered better than Stoke due to the proximity to Derby and Nottingham.
Every day is a school day.
I try to avoid going Ilkeston unless on a tip recycling centre run
3 bed in stoke, £190k v nice too. Trent Vale is nice enough, it's under Newcastle borough. 10 minute drive to Hanchurch or 30 minute ride.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109103702#/?channel=RES_BUY
Plenty of elevation round here, loads of quiet rural lanes and bridleways out to the south, lots of up and down. But if you look at Burton or areas out that way, flat as King pancake.
I worked in the nightclubs of stoke back in the 90.s it was run down then and the traffic in the day was rubbish. The people where nice tbh just working class they all got shafted by lack of working opportunity in the area.
One guy I worked with commute was stoke to LE1 just because the work was non existent. I went back this year for work it's grey and still a bit run down but that's the area's my work takes me. I'd suggest it's no worse than Coventry, hull or any other forgotten city.
+Corby *shudders*
I try to avoid going Ilkeston unless on a tip recycling centre run
Ah, but we do have the Cycle Club of the Year, and if you are bored on Boxing Day, the hill climb event up Bath Street past the aforementioned but now relocated McDonald's 🤣
Are there any other cities in Staffordshire?
Lichfield, where everyone has a pet swan.
Trentham isn't in Stoke. Worlds apart. The people can be really kind in Stoke, but they can also be high as a kite on spice / ket or whatever. It a big shit hole.
Whilst not one of the 6 towns*, don't think you'd find anyone local who would argue against Trentham being part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, or at the very least a suburb of. One of the nicer suburbs for sure though.
*on which note, as far as I know the spice problem is fairly restricted to the city centre, Hanley, and not an issue in the town of Stoke.
You’d get that in Northampton.
Yeah but, Northampton. Like Choke on Stench without the charm...
Two pages - Christ!
Lived here all my life and it's not that bad. Some nice places, some not so nice - like most cities to be fair.
30 minutes of road riding and I can be in the Staffordshire Moorlands or Cheshire Plains.
I've had more hassle from down and outs in Manchester or Bristol than here. I've yet to be stabbed either!
My brother has drug issues (including dust) and he keeps himself to himself. He's hardly running around frothing at the mouth.
I think the fact that it's six towns rather than one city is what causes the traffic congestion.
When I worked at Halfords one of the delivery drivers came from Stoke on Trent. I got chatting to him whilst he was on his break and asked him how he liked Stoke. "It's OK I guess" he said, not very enthusiastically. "But it's a bit safer than where I was before".
"Where were you before then?" I asked.
The answer - Aleppo.
So in comparison to living in the most bombed city in the world in the last few years, Stoke on Trent is "OK". Take from that what you will.
Edit *dont need see a litany of racist and sexist abuse that my work colleagues suffer in stoke*
Oddly has one of the best skate facilities in the country.
I think it’s terrible and I grew up in West Yorkshire so my standards for alright places to live are very low to start with. When I moved to Macc a couple of work colleagues showed me the rough estates. Oh how I laughed at their definition of rough. There were houses with well kept gardens and new cars. New cars!
I worked in the nightclubs of stoke back in the 90.s
Any tall tales about Shelley's? It was like the holy land to us as yoofs. Slightly too young to actually go though 🙁 But wasn't Golden in Stoke too a bit later?
To be fair to Stoke I've heard lots of good things about the music scene there, Northern Soul springs to mind.
And Alton Towers is nearby so...
Golden was the one time people were impressed when you said you were from Stoke, good times.
My mates an ex heroin addict, divorced and no access to his kids. Says the worst part of his life is going to Stoke for Christmas to see his family.
It was the Golden Torch in Stoke that was the Northern Soul venue