We’re surveying the best counties to live in with easy access to London for those of you who have grown tired of the ol’ smog during this period of lockdown. Last time we took a look at what Kent has to offer – everything from genteel seaside towns to a strong mid-century housing stock – and this time we’re turning our attention northwards, to discover the best places to live in Oxfordshire.

The first thing to note is that Oxfordshire is remarkably well-positioned. Trains from Didcot Parkway, Oxford and northward stations in the Cotswolds run into Paddington, with services from the former two taking less than an hour. Other lines run up to Manchester via Birmingham, and down to Bournemouth via Reading and Southampton. A bus service runs for Heathrow and Gatwick to Oxford and operates 24 hours, every day of the year. Then there’s the M40 that makes its way up through the eastern edge of the county, linking with the M25 to the south and offering access to northward-running routes further up.

If that all makes the county sound like a busy transport hub, its three Areas of Outstanding National Beauty disprove that. The country stretches over the Cotswolds to the west, and the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs to the south, meaning that almost anywhere you can live in Oxfordshire you’ll have access to beautiful countryside for walks, cycles or whatever else you like to get up to en plein air.

The honey-coloured cottages and bucolic scenes of the Cotswolds aren’t a hard sell, of course, but you can find just as pretty villages, country pubs and beautiful scenery to the south, with the added bonus of being nearer to Didcot for easier run-ins to London. Consider the Vale of White Horse district (yes, its real name), which stretches south-west from Oxford into the pretty countryside of the North Wessex Downs. This late 1930s house exemplifies the area’s attraction perfectly, being in a secluded, rural plot of seven acres, but also only ten miles west of Oxford and only a 15 minute drive from Didcot Parkway – making the capital only an hour and a half away when you factor in parking and a cup of tea at the station. Other nearby spots, like the historic village of Childrey are worth consideration too.

Then, of course, there’s Oxford, the tourist-drawing university town that demands a second look beyond its colleges and pretty cobbled lanes. A little outside the city are leafy neighbourhoods like Headington, where independent shops, cafes and eateries create a village vibe, despite its position three miles from the centre. The area is ideal for working parents, being well-positioned for access to the University departments and the city’s John Radcliffe, Manor and Nuffield Hospitals. The kids are sorted too, given the position inside the catchment areas for several private and state schools including Headington, Magdalen College School, Rye St Antony and the Ofsted ranked ‘Outstanding’, Windmill Primary.

This 1937 modernist masterpiece by Godfrey Samuel and Valentine Harding, meanwhile, offers much the same on the other side of the city.

North Oxford is where you’ll find the quietly monied, laid-back areas of Summerton and Jericho, the city’s most desirable postcodes. Both areas run parallel to Port Meadow, a 440-acre ancient grazing land that butts up to the River Thames on its western side and today makes for a beautiful place to walk, followed by a tipple at either the 17th-century tavern The Perch, or the charming Trout Inn with its riverside terrace frequented by peacocks. This substantial Edwardian house, built by the great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, has been given a modern going over and extension to offer both period character and the practicality of modern living spaces in one. It’s all within a mile of Oxford’s city centre, where the Covered Market, Botanical Gardens, Ashmolean Museum and Modern Art Oxford all make for fine places to while away a Saturday.