Places to live near Bracknell?

So, one possible place my husband may end up working is is Bracknell.  We don't want to live in London or the suburbs - so I'd like to know if anyone can tell me where a good place to live and commute would be.

We'd like to end up between Bracknell and Cannock because that's where his folks live. 
Any ideas? 

Also: is Oxford too far?  Is someplace like Redditch too far?

Thanks!

I guess it depends on what you consider "too far" but I would say both of those places are too far.  Oxford is a good hour away from Bracknell and Redditch is probably 2 hours!  I'd look into Reading if I were you.

Got it - They look so close to me (American map-reading I suppose).  Are those train times or driving times in your estimation?

If you don't want to live in the suburbs, do you mwan you want to live  in the country? or a provincial city? If it's a city you want, Reading is the nearest as mirrajay suggested. Otherwise there are lots of pretty little villages and hamlets in Berkshire.

Otherwise there are lots of pretty little villages and hamlets in Berkshire.

Yes please!  That's more like what I'm looking for.  We lived in Whiteparish near Salisbury in Wilts when we last live in the UK.  I'm looking for something that size or a little bigger.

Not familiar with Whiteparish, sorry, so not sure how big that is.  But some to check out would be Henley, Hurley, Hambledon, Littlewick Green, Cookham, Bray ... they are pretty pricey property wise though.

Yes please!  That's more like what I'm looking for.  We lived in Whiteparish near Salisbury in Wilts when we last live in the UK.  I'm looking for something that size or a little bigger.

Well you're in luck because that area is absolutely full of adorable little villages.

I'm pretty familiar with that area. Hubby worked in Bracknell. (There's even a Tex-Mex restaurant http://www.hardys-texmex.co.uk in Bagshot that's not too bad!)

We lived in Sonning. Loved it! I agree that Henley would fit your needs, though much further north wouldn't really be an easy commute. Anything up towards High Wycombe would be do-able and would give you the option of catching a train from High Wycome directly into Birmingham (if you didn't want to drive the M40) There's a lot of towns up that way such as Maidenhead or Marlow, but again they are not cheap since they are so commute-able to London. The further away from London you go, the more affordable housing is.

Unless your hubby doesn't mind a long commute every day, you probably don't want to stray too far from the Bracknell area though. Oxford would be a very long drive on busy roads - it takes about an hour on a weekend with little traffic.

The times I mentioned are driving times. 

I live just on the outskirts of Camberley, near Bagshot (and the infamous Hardys restaraunt, which IMO leaves much to be desired, but is nice when you are desperate) and am becoming more and more familiar with the area, which is quite close to Bracknell.

It looks like ideally you'd like to go north to be closer to the in-laws, BUT if its a village you are after, I would check out Windlesham (its just south east of Bracknell and is really lovely!)

Thanks all!  I will start looking at each of these places online to get an idea.  It's nice to know that there are some villages around the area.