Hi everyone - we currently live in West Essex in the Essex “Golden Triangle”. We have a detached house with a small garden and Epping Forest down our road. Tube 10 mins walk. Our prep school is walking distance and I grew up in the area so know it like the back of my hand. Sounds perfect right? Well I’m craving more of a rural existence - much bigger garden (an acre or more), village or strong community vibe. We need to be able to commute to London - though probably not every day post pandemic, and the biggest factor - we need EXCELLENT schools. We have been looking at villages to the west of Chelmsford (Danbury etc) but our budget (1-1.2m) doesn’t really stretch to the size of plot we’d ideally like. Query also whether we might want something a bit more rural and villagey. Ideally we would like to spend less and decrease our current ridiculously large mortgage. Does anyone have any suggestions of where would meet our criteria? We will be targeting the Essex grammar schools for secondary so need a primary that will get the children to the standard needed (open to private or state but DC1 is at a private prep at moment).