The Forest of Dean just happens to be where a house we have seen is located, no real connection to the area. We are going to buy a house in either Somerset, Dorset or maybe Gloucestershire.
As i said we want 'relative' isolation, a village with basic amenities. I dont want to live in a cave on an island

Having lived in the Forest of Dean and travelled fairly extensively around Devon and Somerset (as well as having covered virtually every square inch of it on Rightmove!) I would suggest you would be better going for Somerset or the Cotswold type areas of Gloucs.

There are lots of nice small villages elsewhere(look at Bratton Fleming or Swimbridge in Devon or Porlock/Watchet/Blue Anchor in Somerset) .

Looking at House prices, there isn't a lot of difference. The F o D is very much more out of the way for travelling

Thanks, to be honest Somerset is easily at the top of our list and as you say the prices are very similar. I am really surprised by what we can get for our budget, detached, 4 beds, big garden etc. I think the house we saw in the FoD just had us looking elsewhere when we really shouldnt have

nimby hell!

Me!

I used to live the other side of the bridge in Almondsbury for a few years but used to travel up to Lydney fairly regularly, as I had two young sons at that time and the Forest of Dean railway was a major attraction.

Lovely part of the world and probably does tick all your boxes. Lydney itself isn't that much to write home about and if I had the choice I'd try and live closer to Chepstow than Lydney, but cost is obviously a factor.

I'd be more than happy to live in that general area.

Thanks, it has been more or less decided that Somerset might be a better choice. We would need good access to main roads and it might just be a little too much off the beaten track (relatively speaking of course). We have a budget of 250k plus and there seems to be no shortage of suitable places in most SW regions.
Thanks everyone.

Be wary of Watchet,not all is what it seems ! It looks picturesque to the visitor,but the houses are cheap for a reason. I lived there for a couple of years and it appears to be a dumping ground for society's unsavoury types. Asbo central as we nicknamed it. We had a loft conversion with velux windows and left them slightly open on a summers' evening - you could hear the cop cars circling around Watchet !!
We moved to Bishops Lydeard shortly after ...

What do you mean? Not in my back yard? in what way?

Chris, we looked into moving to The forest of Dean several years ago as we loved camping there. I found the schools to be shockingly poor and there seemed to be lots of social problems.

Of the areas you are considering, I would (and did) choose Dorset. Great schools, beautiful scenery, good weather compared to elsewhere in UK.

aaaahahaha I know the Forest very well. They don't take very kindly to outsiders. (I'm serious)

Thanks, yes i think we have come around to that way of thinking as well. I would love Dorset but my wife wants to be a little farther north, Somerset