Our council had a list of nurseries, or you can do a search on the Ofsted website based around your post code (or any location you want)
We don't have any for under 2s within 4 miles, and those were in the oposite direction from DH's commute, so we looked along the routes he can take to work. I am split between offices 50 miles apart so it was less of a consideration.
We read the Ofsted reports for the 2 nurseries that were both about 10 miles away on that route, got the prospectus for one (one advertises heavily and has fab website- it's part of a chain of 3, the other has an ultra low profile), and arranged a visit.
Before visiting DH and I discussed what was important to us, including opening hours, and made a list of questions/ things we wanted to see.
I have to say that when people say that a huge part of it is instinct/ gut feeling it really is true. One just felt right, the other felt wrong although neither of us could tell you why.
I asked on here and netmums for anyone with experience, and as luck would have it met someone at a local group whose nieces had gone to the one we liked, and they loved it so much she was sending her twins there.
4 months on we are really happy, DD loves it and we are confident we made the right choice.