Pyracantha has quite hard wood, and most kinds have nasty thorns, so can be hard work to prune.

I think some kinds of berberis make excellent hedges, evergreen, nice flowers, berries (which make nice jam if you can be bothered), and thin shoots for easy pruning with an electric hedge trimmer. You can successfully keep a hedge just a foot thick out of suitable varieties of berberis. You can even choose purple leaves if you want. You can choose your variety from the hedge specialists. To reduce the pruning effort, choose a small one like Nana, though that will mean it will take a few years to get to 5 ft. Very winter hardy in general too, so would be fine even in Buxton.