Chocolate box pretty places to live - that are also family friendly, community friendly places?

[Whereto]

DH and I are moving with young children, and need to commute back into (or stay in?) london 2 days a week max.

We have no idea where to go!

So we wrote a list of criteria.

We both want pretty! Neither of us have lived in a “pretty” place before. But we also really want schools and community (places where the kids would be welcome to trick-or-treat on Halloween, and there’s a sweet local school, it’s still liberal, etc).

Please inspire me! Where can we start looking?

@Lampzade

These areas are not liberal though…,,

St Albans now has a Lib Dem MP - in fact she's currently Deputy Leader.

It's all relative. St Albans is fairly Liberal (particularly compared to where I live now). Expensive though.

If Victoria would work as a station for you (or London Bridge), I’d look at Lewes and it’s surrounds. Not sure how liberal it is but it’s got an independent vibe.

East Sussex and West Kent would have a lot of what you’re looking for - Sevenoaks, Tonbridge areas - but are pretty conservative in every sense of the word as far as I’m aware.

Maybe some parts of Surrey like around Dorking?

There are some nice villages in East Herts but you would need to drive to a station. Though to be fair, you’d probably need to do that from most villages.

Cotswolds or Wiltshire villages are very 'chocolate box' with stone roofs and thatched cottages. They are also around 90 mins from London on the train.

You could also look further north, north Nottinghamshire villages can be pretty and they are also on a direct train line to London

How about Kingham in Oxfordshire - only 90 mins by train to London
www.cotswolds.com/plan-your-trip/towns-and-villages/kingham-p2082483

We live in East Sussex. It's everything you want, apart from liberal!

Bath is Liberal - good train links and Wilts/Somerset villages around it are pretty

Nowt wrong with being a Tory!

I wouldn't consider moving to an area inhabited by a majority of Tories as my husband is a mixed-race Scot and my kids are dark-skinned.

A place which was liberal, friendly, tolerant and accepting was what we needed and fortunately, on the whole, we found it.

@ChocolateDeficitDisorder

Nowt wrong with being a Tory!

I wouldn't consider moving to an area inhabited by a majority of Tories as my husband is a mixed-race Scot and my kids are dark-skinned.

A place which was liberal, friendly, tolerant and accepting was what we needed and fortunately, on the whole, we found it.

@chocolatedeficitdisorder So you are basically saying all Tories are racist? Plenty of people of other races where I live and we are a Tory stronghold.

If you’re going to rule out Tory seats you’re not going to be left with much.

Eynsford or Shoreham in Kent. One has a Ford the other a river running under a bridge. Lots of pubs. School in each. Train station. Village shop. Pretty houses

@chocolatedeficitdisorder
Sorry but you sound completely ignorant. Do you seriously think that Tory voting areas (ie most of southern England) are racist or that your kids being mixed race would be a problem? No-one would care in the slightest and it wouldn't be uncommon. Anywhere that's vaguely commutable to London will always have a big metropolitan/liberal population.

Saffron Walden

@ThanksItHasPockets

If money is no object…

Beaconsfield (especially the old town)
Old Amersham
Gerrards Cross
Henley on Thames
Marlow
Oxford
Cambridge
Godalming

Did you miss the final sentence about "liberal"? Personally I wouldn't be moving to any of those true-blue starchy places if in search of liberal attitudes! Oxford and Cambridge excepted of course.

Thank you for these suggestions!

I suppose I do mean non-Tory . I have lived in a conservative place before (where I grew up) and I just didn’t feel comfortable around a lot of my neighbours. It’s not that I care what people’s politics are, or that they’re different to mine, it’s just that I am also mixed race and I got a lot of odd comments that wore me down.

Maybe it’s that beautiful places are conserved and kept that way, and are very expensive? I don’t know.

I am not one of those “I don’t like you if your politics aren’t the same as mine”, and I think that’s a dangerous way to be, but I also want to feel part of a community - and when you look “different” that doesn’t always fly in some areas, and those areas tend to be conservative... (Preparing to be flamed!)

I think Warwick and leamington voted remain and have a labour mp

Winchester
Stamford

Hebden Bridge. I know quite a few people who regularly travel to London for work from here. There are a few direct trains too.
Tory MP but Hebden Bridge is not reflective of that.
Locals are feeling a bit overwhelmed by people moving here though.

Agree re hebden bridge. The alternate vibe is wearing thin. Property prices reflect how much it has changed.

Did you miss the final sentence about "liberal"?

Yes, I did, @Woolver23, and you’ll see that I realised my mistake and posted about it a few posts further down.

@Charlieandlola

Bath is Liberal - good train links and Wilts/Somerset villages around it are pretty

Bath is liberal, but is surrounded by the constituency of Rees-Mogg and you can't get more Tory than that.

I've gone off the liberals right now too. Their sacred clan air zone has pushed the heavy traffic to the outskirts where we live and I can't open my front windows. You can smell the car fumes and it's triggered my lung issues. I'm not a happy bunny.

Sorry for the massive derail.

I'd say.... Canada.

@Effybriest

Bolton, nelson, jaywick.

Their sacred clan air zone has pushed the heavy traffic to the outskirts where we live and I can't open my front windows. You can smell the car fumes and it's triggered my lung issues. I'm not a happy bunny

That same thing has happened to me here! I don’t own a car - we just do occasional car clubs as we’re in the city - but pushing the traffic onto specific roads doesn’t work. It hasn’t stopped people driving from what I can see, it has just moved the problem off somewhere else. I know exactly what you’re going through! It’s awful! For the first time in my life I’m experiencing lung pain and I walk my kids down that horrible road every day because I have no choice. (And a big reason why we won’t miss our current place.)

What’s your budget and what do you need to get for it, OP?