Recommend a market or small town please

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Fast forward five years, we can see ourselves moving, in the ideal world our final move. We do have a small town we like but it's very hilly and not sure that's great for old age with winter and health conditions, so it'd be nice to get a feel for one or two others.

We think we'd like a market or small town - can anyone recommend one please? Some good cafes/pubs/restaurants essential, as is an close supermarket, ok(ish) bus service, somewhere that's nice to potter around, food market would be nice and in the ideal world easy access to a hospital. Know we can't tick every box though. Guess England would be first choice for easier commute to rest of UK, but certainly not against Wales or southern Scotland.

Alresford in Hampshire. Just down the road from Winchester (for the hospital) and on the doorstep of the South Downs one way and the New Forest not too far the other. Plus the M3/A34 nearby for getting anywhere you want to go. Best of all worlds imo.

Bridport is a beautiful town with the sea a ten minute bus journey away, or a thirty minute walk. Lots of bungalows, regular markets Wednesday and Saturday, a market at the beach (west bay) on a Wednesday as well, and a vintage market on a Sunday. Lots of quirky shops, a lovely community and plenty of things to do to keep you busy when you retire.

Sudbury in Suffolk. Has Waitrose and Aldi in the town centre and Tesco and Sainsburys on the outskirts. Twice weekly market and monthly farmer's market. Hourly Bus service to Bury St Edmunds and Colchester but not Sundays!. Fairly flat.
Decent collection of eateries, pubs and small shops- mixture of independents and small branches of chains.
Gainsbourghs House, couple of NT properties nearish. Nearby Long Melford and LAvenham are lovely but pricy.
Maldon in Essex is nice but has the steepest hill in Essex and there are more commuters than you would expect, as you have to travel to a station.

Peterborough. Nice and flat.

Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Leamington Spa?

I thought of Stroud as I read your OP. You'll be hard pressed to find somewhere as nice, relatively unspoiled and affordable.

We settled in for a less bustling market town but would recommend Ledbury or Upton upon Severn.

Definitely not Peterborough, but Stamford or Oakham yes!

Stamford is lovely. Southwell in Nottinghamshire is also lovely but smaller.

Bakewell in Derbyshire

Nantwich in Cheshire. Take a look.

I'm intrigued that Hexham is cheaper than North Berwick these days since Hexham's not exactly cheap - but I guess the east coast of Scotland has always been relatively pricey compared to the west.

I personally prefer Ludlow to Shrewsbury, we found it quite a bit friendlier on a very recent visit (within the last month). Shrewsbury was very beautiful but knew it! It was much pricier and gentrified than my last visit (which was admittedly over ten years ago). Lovely architecture (as long as you don't want to go in to too many of the buildings, the Abbey excepted - definitely don't make the mistake of going anywhere near the town on a graduation day, as we did) and parks though.

Wells and Durham are both nice too; if you don't want to drive you do also need to think about public transport links, and of all of them where I know the public transport Durham probably has about the best links (it takes a long time to get to and from Wells by public transport and your nearest big hospital cluster is Bristol, with the General in Weston-super-Mare or the hospital in Taunton). We drove to Shrewsbury and Ludlow so I can't comment on the public transport. I also like a lot of the little towns round Worcester/Hereford/The Forest of Dean but I know economically many have been very hard hit this last nine years or so.

Beverley in East Yorkshire

Stamford, Oakham, Market Harborough, Quorn

Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley has a direct rail link to Manchester and beautiful countryside on the doorstep.

Rottingdean in Brighton

I live in stroud I love it! It is very hilly but we live on Lansdown so manage to avoid hills apart from on the school run 😬. We love being a few minutes walk from town but also so close to countryside. Buses are generally good apart from to Bussage and Chalford but they're not very central and on a hill so probably not a great option if you're avoiding hills! Slad is lovely and Nailsworth isn't far but not as lively as Stroud.

If you go to look at Market Harborough, also go to Oakham and Stamford

Love cowbridge was there in the summertime.
Tewkesbury was very nice a few years back
Stratford, Worcester, Ledbury
Glastonbury, if you like the unusual like me
Shaftesbury also nice
Thirsk, Northallerton, Easingwold, ripon all good. Pickering
I’ve never been but I’ve heard Beverly is lovely
Malton..a bit hilly..not too bad
Knaresborough
Durham very hilly.

How about Abergavenny . it's 20 years since I lived there but it had a nice food market and I believe it has become quite a foodie place. The town is flat although it is surround by hills. It does have a supermarket , Waitrose I believe, and the Nevill Hall Hospital is on the edge of Town.