Milford

MILFORD has been carved up by main roads, including the A3, but there are compensations in the surrounding rambling-and-riding countryside. The village sprawls around the church and shops and is renowned for the Secretts Farm shop selling fresh local produce. There is a broad range of properties. You might pay around £200,000 for a two-bedroom ex-council house; £250,000 for a Thirties’ three-bedroom semi; £325,000 for a modern three-bedroom semi; £500,000 and over for a four- to five-bedroom Victorian or Edwardian family home.

Elstead, three miles to the west, is more rural, with bracken-covered Surrey commons within walking distance. Sir Edwin Lutyens spent the early part of his career working in the area, which contains a large number of his houses. The 21-acre gardens of Fulbrook House were designed by Gertrude Jekyll. The village has a pretty watermill, now a pub and restaurant, a 12th-century bridge and a green, but the fight is on for traffic calming on the B3001. It is a thriving village with lots of young families. There is a popular primary school, post office and lively sports and social scene with football, cricket and a tennis club. A one-bedroom flat in a converted Edwardian house will cost just over £150,000; a Victorian two-up two-down terrace or a two-bedroom Thirties’ semi, £250,000. A large detached house, built in the early part of this century and backing on to the commons, will cost £600,000 upwards.