Before the Second World War, what we know as Basildon was a just a constellation of villages 30 miles east of central London. In the 1960s Basildon sprang up as a New Town, designed to ease overcrowding in London. If you have a taste for mid-century architecture you’ll be won over by St Martin’s Church …
In the Test Valley, Andover is a town that grew up around the woollen industry and became an important stop on the coaching road between London and Salisbury in the 18th century. To the west lies the chalk plateau of the Salisbury plain, which is the largest military training area in the UK, encompassing 150 …
This historic town rests on the west side of the Fowey Estuary, a flooded valley cut by meltwater after the last Ice Age. The safe waters allowed trade to prosper in Medieval times, and during the 100 Years’ War a band of privateers used this natural harbour as a base to steal French vessels. Guarding …
In the 14th century, the World Heritage town of Tavistock was appointed one of Devon’s four Stannary Towns by King Edward I. All drawing on the mineral-rich soils by the western edge of Dartmoor, these towns supplied tin to much of Europe. Metal mining was a way of life for hundreds of years, peaking in …
The market town of Amersham is in Buckinghamshire, couched in the undulating landscape of the Chiltern Hills. The modern settlement, Amersham on the Hill, is on a raised plateau while the quaint Old Amersham lies below, in the valley of the River Misbourne. The High Street in Old Amersham and its half-timbered Medieval houses, coaching …
The market town of Newton Abbot is on the River Teign, halfway between the South Devon coast and Dartmoor. The Teign, which widens into an estuary just after the town, was the export route for Newton Abbot’s ball clay, which is still quarried outside the town and now travels by road to the docks at …
A neat coastal town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Hornsea is a place to sample the simple joys of a day by the sea. There’s a sand and shingle beach walled by a big embankment with a promenade, gardens, cafes, a chippy and far-off vistas of the North Sea. Away from the beach and …
Peaceful and rural, Tiverton is in Mid Devon on the River Exe. The older part of town is on high ground on the east bank of the river, where you can visit Tiverton Castle, which has lots of Medieval vestiges, and St Peter’s Church, known for its richly ornamented south front. At the start of …
Seat of a Celtic kingdom in the Dark Ages, Tintagel is a place where history and legend merge. A wild, rocky peninsula has been pinpointed as the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur for hundreds of years, and the Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson lent extra weight to these claims with his “Idylls of the …
In the 17th century the Lowther family, who controlled coalmining in Cumberland, started building a port at Whitehaven to develop the industry. Over the next few decades the Lowthers would use their wealth to design one of the first post-Medieval planned towns in the country. Whitehaven remains a Georgian town, inspired by Sir Christopher Wren’s …