Essex mums - please help

[Benjy]

At the moment, DH, DD and I live in London. We have another baby due in August and are thinking of moving out of London. DH works in Canary Wharf so we are considering Essex as that gives him a relatively easy commute into Stratford on the mainline and then Jubilee line into work.

Chelmsford has a frequent service and is only just over half an hour into Stratford so we have looked at properties around this town on rightmove. We would both like somewhere more rural though but don't know the area. Could you suggest some nice villages around Chelmsford? (A little further north might also work as long as total commute is not much over an hour/hour and half).

Thanks.

Colchester is lovely - but I am bias .

Great/little Waltham or Danbury are also nice.

what about Witham? Still on the main line but bit smaller. Outskirts of Chelmsford might suit too. Broomfield still has villagey feel. Not familiar with other areas as not an Essex girl so to speak but moved to c'ford a number of years ago and have done the daily commute to London

Oh yes Danbury is nice but very ££££ believe the traffic into c'ford is a little difficult for station too.

How about Ingatestone or Mountnessing - between Chelmsford and Brentwood - or even Shenfield (not really a village tho')? All have good connnections to Stratford/ Liverpool St.

Thanks. Have seen a property we like which we are going to view on Saturday. It's on the outskirts of Chelmsford in Moulsham. Are any of you familiar with this area?

I'm not overly familiar despite living in Chelmsford myself . However there is a bit called Moulsham which is close to the town centre and then there is Old Moulsham which is further out. The former is, from my experience, lots of roads consisting of 1930s and older character properties which are quite close together. Typical town centre type arrangement. However I think, but don't know, that Old Moulsham is the older part of town and therefore more spacious etc. I really should get out and investigate!

Moulsham is close to city centre, i wouldn't describe it as outskirts. Chelsmford is good for grammar schools but very over subscribed, there are some nice independents as well.
Have you considered looking around Epping? There is a tube service direct into east london, also can travel from Loughton.
There are some lovely places in that area.

We lived in Danbury down near the Lakes area and it was fab. We could walk a path into the cemetary and church as well as park/playing fields and over the hill to a pub for sunday lunch. We often went to the lakes to walk around and feed the ducks with dd1. The church on the hill has a fab toddlers group that dd1 and I used to do to. There was a lot happening when we were there - great village feel. Pop into chelmsford or I used to pop along to tesco or sainsbury in Malden for a shop.

I loved Danbury and would move back there in a shot.

Dh used to work at Broomfield hospital and then moved to Witham. I was working in Basildon so not a bad commute for me. Dd1 went to a fab nursery in Chelmsford.

We have friends who lived ( and still do) in Little Waltham and they love it there.