London to Holmes Chapel & Brontë Country

I am not familiar with Holmes Chapel or Cheshire East so have no comment on them. I have been twice to Manchester and if you have one full day there, Rabbie’s has a day tour called Brontë Country that we enjoyed last year, which visits Haworth and other places in the Yorkshire Dales. Their tours — there are others such as Lake District and north Wales also — leave in the morning from a spot near Piccadilly Station in central Manchester. Would I make my jet lagged way from Heathrow to Manchester, a considerable journey, spend the night (in the city, not wherever else you planned in “Manchester area”), do that tour, and then rush back to London the following day? I would not, but I think it is possible. There wouldn’t be time for anything else other than maybe a brief look at Manchester itself, which is a worthy destination.

It is technically possible, but you will be jet lagged.

There are three fast trains an hour from London Euston to Crewe taking around 95 minutes then two stopping trains an hour from Crewe to Manchester which call at Holmes Chapel- one continues direct to Manchester, the other routes via Manchester Airport.
The easiest way from Manchester to Bronte Country independently is the hourly train from Manchester Victoria to Hebden Bridge, then the hourly bus B3 from the station to Haworth and Oxenhope.
Cheshire East is an area, not a place and is South of Manchester, so it isn't clear where you are staying.
But in general terms it certainly works.

I assume you have family reasons to go to Holmes Chapel.

Are you just intending a walk around the centre of Holmes Chapel? It's a small Cheshire town, nice enough, but I live about 25 miles away and have been once in my 70 years, not much to see. Unless of course you are Harry Styles fans or have connections there.
If you take the train from London to Manchester you will pass very close to Holmes Chapel without stopping. It might be easier to get off the train at Crewe, then take a local train towards Manchester Piccadilly for the short trip to Holmes Chapel, where you can have a look around. Then get back on the train towards Manchester Piccadilly. Of course you could use the same train for the reverse trip if staying in the centre of Manchester.
Be aware that the term "Cheshire East" may result in a few puzzled looks. You only hear it used in connection with local government. The term "East Cheshire" is more likely to be used.

isn31c offers sound advice.

To get from London to Holmes Chapel, take the train from London Euston to Crewe. Avanti West Coast offers frequent services, with a journey time of typically 1hr 40 mins. Then take a local train from Crewe that gets to Holmes Chapel in just over 10 minutes.

Alternatively, you could fly from Heathrow to Manchester on British Airways, and take the train from Manchester Airport station down to Holmes Chapel—a direct service that takes less than half an hour.

For train tickets, you could use Trainline, https://www.thetrainline.com

As your other recent post in this forum refers to a Harry Styles concert, I would guess that he is possibly the link to your visit to Holmes Chapel. If you do intend to stay in the Cheshire East area, I'd advise against Crewe itself, as it's not renowned as a tourist destination. You could look at Nantwich (an attractive market town) near Crewe, or Sandbach, which is also not too far—or north of Holmes Chapel towards Manchester, at places such as Alderley Edge or Knutsford.

If ever you take the train from Holmes Chapel towards Manchester, face forward on the right hand side. Before you get to Alderley Edge, you'll get the very best view of the Jodrell Bank Observatory's radio telescopes, one of which was the largest in the world from 1957 to 1973. (The observatory also has an interesting so-called 'discovery centre'.)

I might have known, Harry Styles tourism!! Which is responsible for the vandalism of a Grade 2 historic structure in Holmes Chapel.

The walk round the village takes less than an hour, the viaduct is further away and often a muddy walk. Do not bring paint! It's not really worth staying one night - and there doesn't seem to be anywhere to leave luggage - but since you are coming off a plane you need to stay somewhere.

Cheshire East is not a place as such, it's an organisation of local government and covers quite a large area. There is limited accomodation in Holmes Chapel, and some places to eat including a chain pub whose management think is in Crewe, which says a lot about the management! Going to Manchester would be a bad idea from Heathrow, if you can't get a room in HC the best way to salvage this is to go to Crewe (first) to stay one night. You should reach the hotel early afternoon, and dump luggage. Then get local train to HC, which takes 11 minutes and on weekdays runs twice an hour. You can easily do the village walk and possibly have dinner there before returning to Crewe - service is 1 per hour after 20:00.

Hotels in Crewe:
Premier Inn CENTRAL (not the other PIs) - close to station, had good reputation but there is work ongoing to alter it. Now has no diner for evenings.
Crewe Arms Hotel (make sure it has CW2 6DN postcode, some sites mix up others of same name elsewhere). Recently reopened, not sure how refurbished since a lot of the new website is AI generated). Actually the worlds oldest purpose built railway station hotel - but still limited for evening meals. Might be keeping prices down to restart bookings.
Ibis Styles: 10 minute walk from station, reliable.
Crewe Hall, splendid! And expensive, plus it needs taxis to and from station so that's even more spending!

Holiday Inn Express had good reviews but dropped franchise and is now Belvilla with dreadful reviews and has used at least two fake names, avoid!

So, you would wake up in either Crewe or HC on 24th, get train to Manchester Piccadilly. Crewe might actually be easier and faster because it has 2 fast trains per hour as well as the 2 local trains. You need then to transfer across to Manchester Victoria by tram or one train per hour, from there you get another train to Hebden Bridge (Stuart is now checking this!) and catch Brontë Bus route 3 from the station forecourt, this runs hourly to Keighley but goes via all of the Brontë villages so you will probably get off before the end (max. fare is £3). Check prices of tickets Crewe-Manchester + Manchester-Hebden Bridge compared to Crewe-Hebden Bridge direct (the direct fare includes the hourly train transfer but not by tram, which is a lot more frequent). Stay in one of the villages that night and go via Bradford to London on the afternoon of 25th. This reduces the amount of travelling so gives more time actually seeing things.

I've given you duff information- Victoria to Hebden Bridge is half hourly- the stopping service from Victoria to Leeds at 57 minutes past the hour, and the Chester to Leeds limited stop at 21 minutes past the hour.
The 21 past call at HB at 49 past (28 minutes later) in good time for the 8 past the hour B3 bus.
West Yorkshire bus fares are £2.50 maximum or £6 for a day ticket.

The 21 past also connects at Victoria with the Airport to Scarborough train, departs Pic at 58, arrives Vic at 9 past - avoids taking tram or free bus across Manchester.
Avanti also run a fast train Crewe to Manchester hourly. as do Transport for Wales.

One definitely can learn a lot from this forum! I was led a bit astray by reference to Brontë country, as I’m familiar with them, whereas, as someone whose musical tastes were firmly established in the last century, I had never heard of Harry Styles and had to google who that is. So if seeing his home village is what you want to do, ignore what I said about Brontë tours from Manchester, as I’m sure you are, and follow the expert advice of our British friends. Who knows, perhaps this village of Holmes Chapel will develop into the new Liverpool with a successor to Beatles tourism …

Appreciate the replies. Honestly we may ditch the whole thing. I am definitely aware I will be jet lagged. Badly too, bc I can never sleep on the flight over. Yes, the entire trip over is to get to Harry’s London concert. My daughter had hoped to visit his “hometown.” We have accommodations in “Cheshire East.” That is the way the property is listed. I am totally unfamiliar with any of it. I’d hoped for Brontë Country as well. But with the Manchester flight cancelled and it seeming to be quite the journey to get to these 2 locations immediately after arrival in London, we may just stick to Kew Gardens and London until the concert. I just feel awful that we have not planned London better. We are a family of 5 arriving from different countries over 3 days to descend on Wembley Stadium. It is a long journey, so I had hoped to do more. Not go just for Harry (no offense to Mr. Styles). I was even looking into skipping Holmes Chapel and going from Heathrow to Brontë Country. But none of it feels convenient. We have planned very poorly so far. We basically have 5 nights in London, then we go on to Spain, Norway and Germany. I’ll be jet lagged for most of England.

That sounds like a good decision. Northern England is great but you don’t have enough time for it, and way more than enough in the London area. I actually lived in Kew Gardens for a year as a child, 1971-72, a block or two from the entrance. I remember that admission was 2 pence! Now it’s twenty-something pounds.

Yes. We always try to cram too much into one trip. I would much prefer staying at one home base for longer.

If you want to post the link to the accommodation we might be able to give you more of an idea of where it is. Cheshire East is particularly vague and is a description usually only used to describe political boundaries in the county.

Given the frequency of the rail service Holmes Chapel really is an easy day trip from London.

I would be very wary of any accomodation that only lists as "Cheshire East", or indeed any third party site that thinks that is an adequate way to show locations!

Cheshire East is a local government administrative area that covers over 1,100 square kilometres and from Crewe to Macclesfield. Your planned accommodation could be anywhere in that area and whilst Holmes Chapel is in the area you could still be staying miles from the town.

Thanks all. I swear the accommodation is in Cheshire East, England. No problem though, because we’ll be sticking around London. Possibly around Richmond, if I want to be nearer Kew Gardens. I think that is better than staying near Wembley. Now I need to add the two nights to existing places in London. Or find whole new 5 night stay. I actually prefer having a home base and traveling from there. It will be better this way. Who knows, we might still catch a train from London and venture out for a day trip.

ann - I'm sure that whoever is advertising the accommodation has said it's in Cheshire East. Our point is that is incredibly vague, a very large area and the site could easily be 20 miles from Holmes Chapel. Anyway, it sounds like the trip has been abandoned? As Stuart says Holmes Chapel is very doable as a day trip by train from London if important enough.

For anyone who is now intrigued by this mythical place ‘Cheshire East’ here is more information including a map that shows just how big it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire_East

Posting this from the infinitely superior Cheshire West! :-)

Cheshire West??? Scousers with upmarket post codes!

When what is now The Bee Network (Greater Manchester buses, and now also trains) was formed as SELNEC in the late 60's I then lived in the even more amorphous North East Cheshire (the NEC in the name). That is now main!y in Tameside, Greater Manchester!!

As an aside my little part of SELNEC buses was always said to be the bus company with the longest name in the UK!!

acknowledging that you've changed plans, and also that me.crewe is what it says on the tin, I would have never suggested Crewe Arms Hotel. When I was working on the railway and was taking a course at Crewe I was billeted at the Crewe Arms Hotel. I had the misfortune of being on the platform side. All night, or a good portion of it, was constant Tannoy announcements which went straight through the walls and me. Not good nights of sleep.

Perhaps they have built a huge Cone of Silence around it? (Thanks to Get Smart).

what Nigel forgets is that there are no trains through the night at Crewe anymore, all those mail trains and medium distance sleepers have long since gone. There is a 4 hour gap without any passenger departures - and even those can't be guaranteed an announcement from the station staff! The hotel was provided with double glazing some year ago when some noisy engineering work was done outside.

Even the trucks from the M&S food distribution hub which used to rattle past outside after midnight have now got a better route.

But as I say, I'm waiting for genuine reviews of their new service before I recommend it.

The last departure from Crewe is a 0044 to Manchester Pic- until this week it terminated at the airport, but now Manchester Airport has hourly overnight trains to Manchester Pic
It connects with late trains from Euston and Birmingham.
There is then an 0122 arrival from Cardiff.
The first departure is a 0441 to Birmingham, then everything starts moving at 5am.
Apart from that it's freights passing through.

I have a meeting in mid July, rumoured to be in Liverpool (could be any where in the North of England). My plan is to stay the night before at Wigan or Chester, jf it is in Liverpool but l may choose the Crewe Arms instead.