Village Lifestyle within commuting distance to London

[Nix01]

Hi all,

So glad I found this forum.

We're looking for a village lifestyle within commuting distance to London.
Is it possible? Please tell me it is?

I haven't lived in England since I was a child so my memory of some area's is a bit skewed. My husband is the breadwinner and he'll probably need to commute to Canary Wharf side.

From the research we've done, we're loving the Chilterns area in Buckinghamshire and it seems to be commutable - he currently spends an hour in his car to work in the mornings, so being driven on a train is immensely preferable!

We also like some parts of Kent, Hertfordshire and some of Essex.

Please could you list lovely villages and towns below so that we can have a look? We have two small boys (ages 5 and 2 years old) as well so quality of education is very important.

Budget will be around 300 - 350k

PS, I came across a dreadful website called Chavtowns and it's put me off pretty much everywhere I've looked

Thanks in advance.

Harpenden
Redbourn
Wheathampstead
Markyate

Are all lovely and are probably commutable. Harpenden is a town but is a small one and is lovely.

What kind of facilities do you want your village to have?

Do you want it to be small and self-contained, but otherwise packed with bars and restaurants and things to do? Then you can go for somewhere like Chiswick or Richmond.

Do you want it to have the primary school, church, pub and village green, but not a lot else? Then somewhere like Taplow (with ML station between Maidenhead and Slough).

There are also place around Huntingdon if you are willing to move a bit further out. St Ives is lovely and from what I have seen of Huntingdon itself - it seems really nice. There is a village called Brampton that would be worth a look. Trains are straight into Kings Cross.

Thanks again everyone. I thought Bishops Stortford ticked all the boxes, but we're back to exploring our options.

I shall be Rightmoving and Offsted'ing all of the above shortly :D