The chest freezer thing is great if you can do it. When I had a large house with wife and 4 children, we had room in the garage for a chest freezer and we'd stock it with things I'd get at Costco. However, that was a huge house by British standards (a similar house is worth £650K now). We were living like normal piggy Americans. Most British houses/flats in your price range are much smaller (my 2 bed place, renting for £1100 a month, is about 800 square feet or 59 square meters). There is no garage (I have my bike locked to the railing outside). Inside, there is almost no storage space: there are no closets or even a place to put the vacuum cleaner. The lack of storage space forces you to get rid of excess stuff, so thats good! For groceries, it is very difficult to stock up on anything because there is no place to put it when you bring it home. You will likely have a fridge about 1/3 the size of what you are used to (figure the kind of thing used for beer in a college dorm room..) and a tiny freezer. Hence, you are forced to shop several times a week. The lifestyle here is indeed very different from that in suburban (or even urban) N. America!
You might want to scope out the cost of getting essential furniture if you're not shipping it over. Of course, buy used! The UK equivalent to Craigslist is Gumtree. If you google "Gumtree Stroud", you can see what might be available. From what I can tell, even used furniture, though, is quite a bit more expensive than N. America. At the moment, antique furniture is pretty cheap. Oh, here's another pro-tip: if you have 110 volt power tools, bring them along and use a transformer when you get here. That's what many builders here do for safety reasons. I stupidly left all my power tools back in the US and had to buy new ones here (at twice the price). Don't bother bringing other appliances, however.
As others have commented, the dog may be a big issue. One thing I've noticed is that dogs in the UK tend to be VERY well-behaved. In 22 years, I have never had a dog be aggressive (or even bark!) towards me here. However, I spend a month every summer in the US and I invariably have an incident with a threatening dog (on hiking trails). I don't know why American dogs are often so uptight and aggressive. Anyways, they love dogs here, but it still will cause you a lot of trouble when finding a place to rent. When you rent a place, you'll probably have to pay extra for the deposit. Oh, by the way, be ready for the 1/2 month's rent in "letting fee" (non-refundable) along with the 1.5 month's rent as security deposit (refundable if you don't trash the place; you can take them to court if they don't refund it). If you can find a place without going through a letting agency (for example, directly with the landlord via Gumtree) then you will avoid the letting fee. However, you are also making yourself a bit vulnerable to unscrupulous landlords..It can work out great, but be very careful. Most places want you to sign a 6-12 month lease; getting a month-to-month arrangement is a bit harder. Stroud is off the beaten path, but it's not far enough north to be cheap; there is a real housing shortage in most of the UK.
The first few weeks in the UK will be VERY expensive. The cost of eating out and temporary accommodation will shock you (average AirBnB near Stroud is about £70 a day), so be prepared. It will be difficult, but once you get your infrastructure together, things will calm down financially quite a bit.
On the big plus side: you will never have to experience a hot, humid summer ever again! Also, it really doesn't get cold. It stopped snowing here a few years ago. When the sun actually comes out, southern England is like Palo Alto California in April. Perfect.
