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Anybody from Doncaster?

R

rockafellar

Can't Remember
Hello
I’m looking to buy a small house somewhere in or around Doncaster (within a 10 mile radius of hatfield) and have no knowledge of the area as I live in Cardiff.
My children are being taken to Doncaster by their mum to live and the only way I can realistically continue to spend quality time with them is to investigate the possibility of a small house in that area.
I’m looking to drive up there sometime in the near future to just drive around and take in a feel of the local areas.
Can anybody recommend any nice, possibly semi-rural areas that I should take a look at whilst I am up there? Dont think I can afford much more than £55k on a small house and there seem to be quite a few houses on the market in that price range but I have no knowledge on what these areas are actually like.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I don't know the area that well but I live nearbyish in Leeds.

Donny itself is a standard issue northern town. Rather poor in parts. The surrounding areas are variable. The Hatfield side is part of Thorne Wastes - an area of flat, rather featureless agricultural land reclaimed from the sea some centuries ago. It's rural enough but as I say VERY empty. The other side of Donny, going towards Barnsley, varies between rather nice (Ackworth) and grim ex pit villages (South Elmsall, Goldthorpe, Wath) where your £55k goes quite a long way. However you can escape the grimness quite quickly, provided you avoid Barnsley. Apologies to anyone who lives in Barnsley but it is for the most part a complete sh*thole. I am qualified to say this because I've lived there.

Edit - consider Goole, Snaith, Gainsboro. I'd live in any of these before Donny itself and I wouldn't poke the Goldthorpes and Waths of this world with a long stick. They are f*ing awful places that were grim 30 years ago when they still had a pit. Then That Bloody Woman came along and shut the pits, may she forever rot in hell, and they have never since recovered.
 
Please note that the inhabitants of Goole are known locally as Goolies.

It is possible to commute to London from Doncaster (east coast main line) which pushed up house prices there for some time - no idea what it is like now though.
 
The other thing that you can do is look up crime rates by postcode. You can also use Google street view to take a stroll round.
 
I was born in Donny and live nearby. PM me and we can chat through what you're trying to achieve but I should warn you, there isn't much worth living in at £55k, even round here.
 
Wouldn't want to steal a native Donny lad's thunder, but I spent some time living in Donny in the very early 70s. Had a young lady friend from Hatfield for several years. I could still drive straight to her address.

I agree that you won't get much for £55k anywhere these days but given that it only used to take me about 50 minutes to drive from North Nottm, up the A614/A1/A1M and then through Donny to Hatfield, I'd be inclined to look wider than a 10 mile radius. South and east of Hatfield, or due east and south from Donny always struck me as pleasant looking areas.

All above said, I used to have another lady friend who lived in the Hexthorpe area of Donny. It was all terraced and then seen as very run down. A recent look around on Streetview, showed that many of those properties are still there and looking much tidier than of old. Just a thought.

Mull
 
I lived in Donny in the 1990s. The cheap centre is nowadays third world because the houses were cheap during 90's-00s. If it's 55k, that's the bit you would be in. Generally a friendly place full of smokers, but ugly landscape as said by others. Donny had good streetmarkets some indoor/outdoor. Bentley might be regenerated since it was flooded 3ft deep after heavy rains were about to collapse a dam 20 miles upstream and they opened the taps - it doesn't flood otherwise. Around Hatfield was nice, but there is very little facilities nearby. Connisboro, Tickhill, Bawtry Askern are villages, but you probably can't get anything for that price. You will miss city perks and the sea, and hills - it's flat. Scunthorpe is better than it sounds it will remind you of Swansea. The M180 is about 25 mins travel and is an empty motorway. Or I think it might have rail links. Sheffield might descend into a holy war soon.
 
Mullardman said:
...I spent some time living in Donny in the very early 70s. Had a young lady friend from Hatfield for several years. I could still drive straight to her address.
... I used to have another lady friend who lived in the Hexthorpe area of Donny.
Mull
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Eeh, they call him old "Shagger" Mull, eh?:D

demotivated said:
Generally a friendly place full of smokers,
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Yes, funny how it's become a social marker.

Scunthorpe is better than it sounds it will remind you of Swansea.
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WHAAATT? Really?

The M180 is about 25 mins travel and is an empty motorway.
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Yes but it's so bloody bleak there. I travel it regularly, it's utterly desolate. Some might like it but it's like a billiard table.
Sheffield might descend into a holy war soon.
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I bloody hope not, I live near Bradford and that will be ablaze long before similar bits of Sheffield. Worrying times.
 
He comes from Donny same as the Queen comes from the East End. He may have popped out in Donny Hospital but I think he actually grew up in one of the very desirable villages nearby. Certainly he didn't go to the local comp, he was privately educated somewhere. I doubt he could find his way across the centre of town without a map.

Back OT, I still think Selby or Goole offers a nicer environment than Donny even if it is a bit further to drive to from Cardiff. Having driven down from Leeds to Cardiff, Abergavenny etc many times, I don't envy you that drive.
 
That looks in good order for the money, remarkably so. The thing is with the pit villages that some are OK and others are shocking, you can't tell until you spend time there.
 
For background info on life in the low end of housing in the old pit villages, check out "Benefit Tenants" or similar that aired this week. It was all my part of the world - Leeds, Wakey, further south. One of the featured places was Goldthorpe, which is a pit village between Barnsley and Donny. You can apparently buy a 2 up 2 down terrace at auction for £15-16k. The BtL-ers love them because they let at £300-350pcm. Even if one tenant in 5 trashes the joint the returns are worth having. There was a letting agent working very hard to keep them in a reasonable, let condition. I doubt you'd want to live there though, even for £16k bought and (almost) inhabitable. It's a shame because it's a great location - commutable for Leeds, Sheffiled, Manch, halfway between the A1 and M1. It's a traveller's dream.
 
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