Wilder countryside within reach of London?!

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My husband and I both love Monmouthshire which we're keeping an eye on if can afford to move from central London and he thinks he could commute 3 days a week.

Does anyone have any experience of other areas to consider?
I'm open to anywhere we'd find a nice community and good state primaries but DH wants a house with high ceilings which I'm finding harder to work round! We should know later this month whether a move realistic so am only wondering idly for now...
thanks!

does he want the associated enormous heating bills too? Plenty of Victorian piles about in Surrey but good luck sorting out the windows, roof and those bills.

not as wild as Wales but lots of lovely places.

I love Monmouthshire too but would struggle to see how it's commutable 3 days a week. You'd have to drive through winding country roads to Newport/Cardiff, then 2+ hours on the train, then London at the other end so at least 3 to 4 hours each way. It would be more realistic if he drove down M4 and worked in West London.

Also properties tend to be cottagey proportions rather than high ceilings. What about Gloucestershire/Stroud? Train services better there.

Thanks. I do agree about heating bills and I'm quite hardy (as a child I remember my water glass once froze by my bed!) but he isn't and gets cold easily/ loves heating. From my childhood I don't mind a cold house at all as long as there's one warm corner eg with an energy-efficient electric heater as a freezing bathroom bothers even me.
I have just looked at Stroud area and looks lovely.
DH actually meant might stay in London 2 nights a week he's explained so I didn't mean commuting. That's a whole other question though as we'd need to think about selling our flat.

I also wonder whether we should move when so happy in London and nearly all our friends and family are here but having seen a friend move to Kent with their children I feel quite drawn to take the plunge while ours are young too. As you can see the question is keeping me up!!

Do think very carefully if most of your friends and family are in London and you have young children. I think alongside the idea of idyllic countryside and high ceilings you need to balance moving somewhere you won't have the same support network, so many amenities on your doorstep, an absent DH half the week ...

My parents had a holiday home near Monmouth specifically because it's not commutable from London (3-4 hours drive, similar train journey). Having driven to their place from London on a regular basis over the last 20 odd years I would certainly agree. It is a beautiful part of the world, but not wild really, just smaller scale farming than in the south.

I'd also be wary of moving to a part of the world where you have no links and where you may find it difficult to break into the local community network. I think that you'd need to really research it and think how to make friends otherwise you may end up isolated and lonely. Small children help, but if you are in an area where children go to school by bus then you may not have a very easy way in.

If your friends have moved to kent then why don't you visit them and consider kent? There's a lot of countryside in kent. There's also alot of coast. And big cities with enough happening!

Wow be really wary of moving to wild countryside if you're not really sure. It's a huge lifestyle change. I don't think there's any wild countryside in reach of London anyway, but we might have very different definitions of wild. I agree with the comment if you liked what your friend did re Kent, how about doing similar to that. That's not such a huge change.

I know people who do this (overnight stays in London). Do YOU actually want to live in the middle of Nowhere?

I would love the middle of nowhere as long as make friends locally- we both grew up in remote areas, nowhere near cities. I just spoke to a good friend about it and she feels a strong community here is a lot to give up; perhaps I'll just keep an eye on different areas and see if a certain house persuades us or not. We do have one very close relative in Monmouthshire.
Thanks again for your replies as helping me to sort my thoughts.

My MIL lives in Stroud in Gloucestershire. Look at living close by in stunning bumpy Chalford. Train to London takes 1.5 hours I think? Amazing schools both primary and secondary level.

Also Monmouth is about an hour and a half away or so. Great community Chalford way I'm told.

Haslemere, Midhurst and surrounding areas are lovely and are definitely commutable. Also some areas in Hampshire, maybe the villages around Hook and Alton.

Ooh thank you for all these brilliant places! Am getting increasingly excited country could become a real possibility. Will let you know eventually if we move!

Houses with high ceilings...definitely Haslemere/ Midhurst areas. Or go for somewhere commutable, but near countryside. Again Surrey/ Hampshire would fit the bill, and very good state schools in most areas.