The market town of Devizes may be small, but packs more than 500 listed buildings. Any visit has to begin with the large, crescent-shaped Market Place, still hosting an outdoor market on Thursdays. You can stand here and look up towards Wadworth’s Victorian tower brewery, and down to the Neoclassical town hall, completed in 1808. …
“Chippy” for short, Chipping Norton is a classic Cotswold market town, with monuments and houses made from the trademark yellowy limestone. The town has long ties to the woollen trade. The striking Church of St Mary is a wool church, reflecting the wealth of Medieval wool merchants whose memorials decorate the church’s north aisle. A …
In the 18th century Daventry, now just off the M1, was a thriving coaching town, but business dried up after the London and Birmingham Railway opened in 1838, bypassing Daventry. Grand Georgian coaching inns like the Dun Cow on Brook Street still contribute to Daventry’s townscape, where there’s also a rare Georgian Church and a …
The well-heeled Georgian town of Buckingham was declared Buckinghamshire’s county town by Alfred the Great as long ago as the 9th century. Buckingham lost that status to Aylesbury in the 16th century, not long before Mary Tudor granted it the right to a weekly market, which still trades on Tuesday and Saturday. Major attractions like …
Views don’t get much more beautiful than Burford, framed by the Cotswolds from the top of the High Street. This handsome street is like a timeline of English architecture, from slanting half-timbered houses to rustic stone cottages and refined Georgian townhouses. Nothing on the High Street is new, and everything has been meticulously preserved for …
After the Industrial Revolution, Bridgwater in the Somerset Levels emerged as a busy inland port, unloading coal from South Wales and exporting the town’s famous bricks and tiles. The West Quay on the River Parrett, as well as Castle Street and King Square, are all lined with flat-fronted Georgian townhouses from that time. Something else …
Folded into the steep Severn Valley, Bridgnorth is a historic market town with High and Low areas on the valley side. The Low Town is by the river, at the foot of a sandstone cliff while the once impenetrable High Town is crested by two churches and the ruins of Bridgnorth Castle. This was laid …
This suburban town is just outside the M25 ring road and many residents make the short commute from Brentwood to Canary Wharf and the City of London each day. But while the District Line’s eastern terminus is only a few miles away at Upminster, Brentwood has a rural feel for the open countryside, golf courses …
A thriving seaside resort with a fabulous Blue Flag Beach, South Shields is on the mouth of the Tyne facing North Shields across the river. Like all of Tyne and Wear, South Shields, which had long been a shipbuilding centre, was taken over by heavy industries like coalmining and glassmaking in the 19th century. In …
At the turn of the 19th century Birkenhead was a minor village on the Wirral bank of the Mersey, buffered from Liverpool’s heavy industry by the river. Things changed quickly over the next few decades, as the shipbuilder William Laird set up shop and laid out the monumental Hamilton Square. On the back of this …