How far north outside of London until you hit village life?

Posted by BrianShupe@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 195 comments

Question in title is vague I know. I am planning a 3 day trip to Wimbledon. I have planned two days. On the third day I would like to explore north of London to scout possible places to move to within the next 2 years. Ideally looking for the romantic village setting from Last Of The Summer Wine. However, I would like to balance that by being relatively close to St Pancras to access Eurostar. I know I can't have it both ways, but was wondering if anyone could advise me to forget it and instead spend the day hitting museums or other fun stuff in the city...or say yes you can find something close to that setting but take the Northwestern Railway not the East Midlands. I have no problem spending a day riding the railway through the countryside, but would like to see if I can gather any advice beforehand if it is obvious to people in the know that it would not bear fruit.