To think you should actually be able to access the countryside by foot if you live in it?

[PickledPlums]

DH and I are at loggerheads about a house. We found a lovely large country house that ticks all the boxes except one big one. You can't actually walk anywhere as there are no pavements and no footpaths. It's on an A road so I can't imagine walking along there would be safe. We have dogs that we walk every day and we enjoy walking ourselves. In order to walk the dogs we will need to drive somewhere every day. We currently live in a city and just walk out the door and to the park/woods. AIBU to think this is a deal breaker? The house just seems a bit like an island.

We used to live in a lovely rural location with fabulous views but we couldn't walk anywhere apart from along a road with no footpath. The house was amazing but i hated not being able to go anywhere without getting in the car. After 3 years we moved a few miles to the outskirts of a lovely town and have places to walk all round. We then got a dog and i now love getting out for walks. We can also walk into the town if we want to. I say this house is not the house for you OP.

I've had a look on the OS map and the only path we could get to would mean walking along the A road for about 150 meters. There's very little verge and it's a steep bank not mention very windy. I certainly can't see using the buggy or even being able to scramble up the tiny verge with a baby in a sling, an elderly dog and a child in tow. I really want to move to the countryside to be able to experience it without driving. I don't care about driving to shops etc but it seems nuts to have to drive to walk the dog when living in a city we don't have to.

Do people have suggestions of where we should look? We have been looking in South Oxfordshire but can be anywhere really that has good schools and is under an hour to London. South Ox seemed to have a mix of lots of prep schools and decent state options.

Pangbourne? Beautiful river walks. Good schools in all sectors.

Not totally sure it meets the under an hour criteria.

I should also mention... shotgun cartridges everywhere
Electric fences
Have to drive to get to nearest public footpath
Have lovely local country pub.. in fact worked there for a while.. only 25 minutes walk if that was possible, but has to be driven as too dangerous. Road to it is lethal and no pavement and very very steep uneven verge. Cars speed like mad on that road. I tried to walk it once and DP went nuts and picked me up saying I could have been killed (as a few have) as there is no where to go if someone is speeding and too close to verge

No pavements and no lighting at all where we live. Which can be nice especially for seeing the stars. but there is no proper drive/ road where our house is and I tripped outside and broke shoulder last winter, stupidly as went out without torch to call cat in. My own fault of course.. constant power cuts too so torches are essential for indoors too.
Broadband awful, had to get Village net installed, which isn't great but better
Rarely get a mobile phone signal
I'm only 12 miles from a big town.. Milton Keynes..but it's like being on Mars here!

This sounds very, very similar to a house we lived in a rural Cambridgeshire village. It was such a pain not being able to walk anywhere, I found it very claustrophobic. We moved and now live in a very small town with loads and loads of places to walk rurally nearby. (In Essex).

Don't do it.