hello everyone, hope you're all well
My DP and I are looking to move out of London this year and would love to find somewhere to finally settle. 
We will still be commuting into London for work so would be after a place that has decent transport links and hopefully not too expensive yearly travel
We are also looking for places that has a nice 'villagey feel', places to go eat/drink/grab a coffee/visit a pottery class/yoga/creative etc.. and also meet other families. We are currently in south east London and would like to find something north of London that would mean about an hour or under into London for work.
We are also after a place that has lots of green space, character, we love period victorian houses, safe areas. We are also looking to start a family at some point soon, so would be great to be close by to good nurseries, schools for later down the line.
Sorry, I know it seems like a lot to ask but we haven't had any luck so far in finding anywhere (we have looked at Hitchin, Ware, Tring, Berkhamstead.. all quite pricey and not in our budget and also the houses are quite small. We have also looked at Bedford, but couldn't find anything decent in the nice parts of it)
Any advice and tips and recommendations would be most helpful to us, thanks so much in advance 