Ashwell (above)
Commute: Ashwell & Morden (London Kings Cross, 43 minutes). Drive to station: about 6 minutes (there is also a minibus). Frequency of trains: 3 per hour (peak). First train: 5.21am; last train home: 1.06am. Annual season ticket: £4,208. Annual car-park ticket: £698.
The Country Life verdict: A village that has it all: an award-winning butcher, a deli, pubs, a post office and a shop plus an art gallery. It also runs a country fair and a popular music festival.
Best addresses: Ashwell Bury and Elbrook House.
Alternatives: Kelshall, Therfield, Guilden Morden.
Barley
Commute: Royston (London Kings Cross, 38 minutes). Drive to station: about 12 minutes. Frequency of trains: 7 per hour (peak). First train in: 5.16am; last train home: 12.04am. Annual season ticket: £4,536. Annual car-park ticket: £1085.
The Country Life verdict: Known for its excellent pub, The Fox and Hounds, this village also boasts a fantastic wine-and-cheese shop (The Cheddar Vine) and two cricket teams. Look for peculiarities such as the dentures and cherubs embedded in the flint walls of the houses.
Best address: Burloes Hall.
Alternatives: Barkway and Bassingbourn.
Much Hadham
Commute: Bishops Stortford (London Liverpool Street, 38 minutes). Drive to station: 15 minutes. Frequency of trains: 8 per hour (peak). First train in: 5.16am; last train home: 11.58pm. Annual season ticket: £3,972. Annual car-park ticket: £1334.10.
The Country Life verdict: One of the county's oldest and most picturesque villages, which boasts an unusually large number of impressive country houses and an excellent primary school.
Best address: The Lordship, a beautiful period property with lots of land, says Justin Godfrey of Savills Bishop's Stortford.
Alternatives: Little Hadham, Stocking Pelham.
Harpenden
Commute: (London St Pancras, 39 minutes). Frequency of trains: 7 per hour (peak). Trains run every hour through the night between 12.15am and 4.15am. Annual season ticket: £3,620. Annual car-park ticket: £1085.
The Country Life verdict: Between the motorways that slice through this county lies a sylvan oasis with plenty of grand Elizabethan and Jacobean houses-the rich and powerful chose this area for its proximity to London and the good hunting to be had in the forests that once covered the county. This is one of the area's best villages, with an active extracurricular calendar (two cricket clubs, an amateur-dramatic society and an indoor swimming pool).
Best address: Grade I-listed Mackerye End.
Alternatives: Redbourn, Flamstead, Wheathampstead, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden.
Aldbury
Commute: Tring (London Euston, 37 minutes). Drive to station: about 3 minutes. Frequency of trains: 4 per hour (peak). First train in: 4.54am; last train home: 12.34am. Annual season ticket: £3,988. Annual carpark ticket: £855.
The Country Life verdict: A classic English village - so classic, in fact, that it's provided many of the backdrops for ITV's popular Midsomer Murders.
Best address: Stocks House - which has a colourful history (in the 1970s, it was used as a training camp for Playboy bunnies).
Alternative: Little Gaddesden.
** Read our whole list of the best places to live near London
