LondonNurse

I suggest Warwickshire, Worcestershire or Shropshire. I think you'd love the Malvern Hills. Nearest big towns would be Brum/Worcester/Stratford Upon Avon.

About a 2 hour journey to London. Loads of beautiful countryside and character. Cheaper than the S.E.

If you could afford it South Warwickshire is beautiful near Stratford. Look @ Shipston on Stour.

Siobhan

dotty

Thanks to eveyone who replied to this, there are some places I had not given even the remotest thought to but seem interesting to us. Over the next four weeks I hope to get to most of them. This forum really is the most useful thing.

Its funny a couple of people suggested Worcestershire areas, just before those posts came up we booked a really lovely house there for a week, for some time out and as it seemed to have a lot of what we want, plus a good base for looking around up that way. Spooky that Malvern Hills look out we are on our way!

booboo1

malvern hills are great

Hubby proposed to me on top of them.. we climbed all the way up to the top thinking no one else will be there. Freezing cold mid Feb. Just us two we thought. Got to the very top and low and behold there were a great bunch of peeps up there.
Too late hubby had to get on one knee infront of them all.
aawwwww.......

16 years later, still together....

I love the malvern hills

booboo

AndrewR

Yeah the Malverns are a great area...(relatively) unknown as well, compared to some other area's. Two and a half hours on the train to London, and lots of other nice areas within striking distance...Bath, Cotswolds, Brecon beacons...its a top area. Not as expensive as places like the Cotswolds either.
One of the great things about the hills is that even on busy days when lots of people are around you can still find really secluded areas where you can walk in solitude. We're back in the UK for christmas, and will probably head over there on boxing day for a walk and then a couple of bevies in the pub next to the British camp section. Heaven!

koala_mac

Hi Dotty - you crossed my mind when I was checking my emails this morning. There's a good website at www.primelocation.com which is an aggregator for various UK regional estate agents - you can pick your counties and price range and they'll email you daily with a list of any new properties posted that match your selections.

Hope you enjoy your trip

K_M

SmilerJen

Malvern Hills

Can't believe how many people have been there and know about it???

I used to live near Upton On Severn which is another beautiful part of that area, very close to the Malvern Hills and Worcester.

Also Cheltenham is gorgeous which is about 15-20 miles from the Malvern Hills, very cosmo and expensive (unfortunately) but very beautiful

All these places have everything that you want the City life but also being able to relax and take it easy and go for long walks with your dog on a Sunday afternoon.

Hope you find what you are looking for
good luck
Smiler

sundarize

Vee

Try the Forest of Dean. Lovely, lovely area.

josiejo1974

Hi Dotty

Have you considered Oxfordshire? We live in Witney and have a lovely 3 bed Town House for sale!

Oxfordshire is lovely, Oxford has lots of nice bars and restaurants, the Cotswolds is on the doorstep for walking etc and the M40 and M4 to London, The North and the West is a stones throw away, so ideal.

The following agents are local to Oxfordshire:

thomas merrifield
Andrews
Allen and Harris
Buckell and Ballard

Good Luck with the move, when do you envisage returning to the UK? We aim to be in Brisbane August time.

Jo

Fuzzyness

i was going to say oxfordshire along with places like Stratford, warwick or leamington. all those are within 2 hours of london and with birmingham less than an hour away.

WBB

i would like to be at least an hour from birmingham too

Jan Alaska

Dotty hope you've got your cheque book handy .. the prices for houseing anywhere within the 'commuter belt' are astronomical !1
I visited mum in Oxford recently and was shocked at the house prices .. 2 bed bug-hut with a paved yard not a garden for $300,000 !!!

All the best with your move

Jan

dotty

I should update how we went over there. We thought the best value stuff was the bigger houses on acre or two, these in Worcestershire were about 400k and some in the SE but only on half acreish around the 500K, compared to a doggy box for 300k there is real value. Main problem is really we did not want a big house! This is expensive but a house on 2 acres where we are in OZ would easily be in the $800,000 for a nice area so its not as bad as you first think.

I am still overwhelmed by the amount of choice of areas that meet our requirements, how we will ever narrrow it down is really worrying me? Think the SE will win tho as my sister lives in there and we get on like a house on fire and I'd love to be near her. My husband loves Herefordshire tho! I'm still a bit nervous about the sheep side of things but we found a lovely 3 acres with a slum on it for 200K. Gawd nows where we will end up then, we have decided to sell up here first, so knowing my luck property prices in the UK will double or something in the next few months then

So if we sell the houses, sell the business, the dollar stays strong, the pound dont fly, the OZ market keeps booming and the Pom one stays still I could be leaving this year.

Bald Badger

jeez Dotty haven't you gone yet