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@Calumonwheels
I'll never use a 1x for a bike I would road tour on again. Found out the hard way that a 1:1 gear just isn't low enough for getting up proper hills with all the gubbins, and a 1x system that allows a good cruising road speed with a decent bottom gear is prohibitively expensive because of how much of a premium is charged for wide range cassettes. In your position I'd get a shimano grx 46-30 double. That paired with an 11-42 or 46 cassette (available fairly economically these days if you shop around) would be pretty good.
The benefits of 1x system aside from admittedly being easier to set up and maintain is mostly about chain retention, but assuming you're not throwing yourself down actual downhill single track as fast as you can it will be perfectly fine.
The bike I gained this experience with was my midnight special. I did the caledonia way on it on which 42:42 was about doable (still pretty high) but later tried doing a tour around the north Yorkshire moors and spend half my time walking.
For the application in your OP (just flattish rides around the east of england) I think 1x would be fine though.