In a scene out of a 19th-century landscape painting, the town of Knaresborough clings to a steep gorge crossed by a railway viaduct. The riverside is as charming as it gets in summer, when you can idle at a cafe terrace by the water or hire a wooden rowboat. There are caves linked to a …
In the English industrial Midlands, Kidderminster is a town by the Severn Valley around 20 miles southwest of Birmingham. Weaving had been a way of life in this part of the country for centuries, but in the 18th century Kidderminster began to specialise in carpet-making, and became synonymous with this trade. Those old carpet factories …
On the North Devon coast, Ilfracombe is a pretty harbour town and seaside resort encircled by massive slate cliffs. The working harbour dates back to the 12th century and is protected by a hill capped with the oldest functioning lighthouse in the UK. Walkers can negotiate one of the trickiest but most spectacular stretches of …
A town on high chalk slopes in the Chilterns, Wycombe has some of South England’s prettiest countryside in its back garden. The National Trust owns big tracts of this land on former estates just outside town. One, West Wycombe Park was the 18th-century residence of Sir Francis Dashwood, and the meeting place of the notorious …
After the Second World War Hemel Hempstead was chosen as a New Town to answer the UK’s need for extra housing, and what was once a small settlement on the River Gade is now home to 90,000 people. The core of the New Town can be found at Marlowes on the east bank of the …
Where the Roman road Ermine Street crosses the third-longest river in England, Huntingdon is a small but charming town with a Market Square dating back to the 1100s. Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon in 1599, and on Market Square there is arguably England’s best museum for the Lord Protector housed in a 12th-century hospital …
Traditionally a shoemaking town, Kettering was given a shot in the arm when it was joined to England’s growing train network in 1857. Most of the town dates from after this period, and in the 21st century Kettering is going through another big expansion. On the leafy streets just south of the town centre sit …
On a bend in the River Orwell, Ipswich is one of the oldest towns in the United Kingdom. There was a settlement here in Roman times, but the origins of the modern town are Anglo-Saxon. Just ten miles out of Ipswich is Sutton Hoo where a rich Saxon ship burial was excavated in the 1930s. …
The cathedral city of Hereford is on the River Wye not far from the border with Wales. Hereford has a lovable old core, known as the High Town, with car-free streets and family businesses. All of Herefordshire’s rural industries converge in this city: The renowned Hereford Cattle Market was in the middle of town before …
Often named as one of the best and happiest places to live in England, Harrogate is a cultivated spa town in Yorkshire. From the 18th century Harrogate was frequented by aristocrats, industrialists and even a Tsarina, who came to take the waters, rich in sulphur, iron and salt. That posh clientele brought great wealth to …