Spotlight on Bollington

WHERE: Sixteen miles south of Manchester, three from Macclesfield, on the edge of the Peak District.

WHY: One of the prettiest towns in Cheshire, quaint streets packed with stone cottages, some good new building, an interesting history and the sight of White Nancy up on Kerridge Ridge. This is a cotton town and at one time 13 mills thundered away here. The canal and its aqueduct were built to bring in coal from Poynton to power the machines. The mills are shut now but it has grown into a fair-sized town that snakes up the valley with its own community hall, library, medical centre and cricket ground.

WHO: Look on the internet and you will find that people born in Bollington remain incredibly loyal. Some tasteful new developments have brought an influx of new folk in the last five years, notably the very well done conversion of Clarence Mill into apartments with work units underneath and, next door, the redevelopment of Carterhouse into apartments. Originally the main preserve of families, more young professional couples are moving in to Bollington attracted by a town small enough to still have a character, but big enough to support 20 pubs and close to great countryside.

TRANSPORT: Trains from nearby Macclesfield station will get you into Manchester Piccadilly in 30 minutes otherwise driving commuters face a choice between Handforth and the A34 or Stockport and the A6. Both equally tortuous at rush hour when it can take an hour and a half.

SCHOOLS: Tytherington High in Macclesfield gets 66% of pupils through five or more GCSEs and All Hallows RC High 56%.

AGENT'S VIEW: Michael Kyte of Gascoigne Halman in Presbury said: "Bollington is actually a lot bigger than most people realise and it is hard to say exactly where the centre is but the end towards Pott Shrigley is seen as the most desirable. There is a very strong community here and great loyalty but the market has changed a lot in the last five years with a lot of new housing. Crosby built a very nice scheme out of stone but they were quite expensive and they lifted the price of everything else in the town. A two-bedroom cottage that would have been £80,000 three years ago has just sold for £120,000. The Clarence Mill conversion is huge, more than 150 units, but most are now sold.

"Quite a few went to investors which are now being rented out for about £700 a month, which in turn brings new faces into the town.
"It has a lot going for it, and despite the price rises of last year is still up and coming. To prove it we are now seeing a mass army of deportees from south Manchester who want to buy something trendy in Bollington."

RESIDENT'S VIEW: Ian Whitehurst "I have lived in Bollington 65 years so I have seen a lot of changes. I remember as a boy hearing the sound of the clogs on the street as people ran to work in the mills in the morning. It's grown into a town but you can still stop and have a chat to people on the street - you wouldn't do that in Manchester.

It has everything you need right here and we try and use local shops but I have to say that like many we go to Handforth Dean quite a lot. Prices of houses seem astronomical and people are desperate.

I live by the canal and often get complete strangers knocking on my door asking if we want to sell our home. Madness."

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