Cumbria
Grasmere
Wordsworth's village: Dove Cottage, a lake ringed by fells and gingerbread by the lychgate
Villages & Towns
Picturesque Villages & Towns of Britain
From the cobbled lanes of Rye to the harbour at Mousehole and the fells around Grasmere, Britain is full of villages and small towns that look as if time has stood still. Each of our guides digs deep into the history of the place: who built it, who lived there and what happened there. Then we show you what to see today, and link you to the gardens, countryside, antiques and interiors shops nearby from our Garden & Home Directory.
North
North Yorkshire
Robin Hood's Bay
Red roofs tumbling to the sea, smugglers' passages and a beach full of fossils
North Yorkshire
Whitby
A ruined abbey above the harbour, Captain Cook's town and the setting of Dracula
West Yorkshire
Haworth
The Brontë sisters' village: a cobbled hill, the Parsonage and the moors of Wuthering Heights
Northumberland
Bamburgh
A royal castle above a vast beach, St Aidan's church and the story of Grace Darling
East
Suffolk
Lavenham
The best-preserved medieval village in England, built on the wealth of the wool trade
Suffolk
Southwold
A lighthouse among the houses, colourful beach huts and greens left by a great fire
Norfolk
Burnham Market
A Georgian village green full of independent shops, close to Holkham and Nelson's birthplace
Norfolk
Blakeney
A flint harbour village on the salt marshes, with boat trips to the seals of Blakeney Point
Lincolnshire
Stamford
England's first conservation area: honey-coloured stone streets beside Burghley House
South
East Sussex
Rye
Cobbled Mermaid Street, a Cinque Port that lost its sea, and Henry James at Lamb House
East Sussex
Alfriston
A downland village with the National Trust's very first property and a church on the green
East Sussex
Winchelsea
A medieval new town laid out by Edward I, with ancient gates and a grand unfinished church
East Sussex
Ditchling
An arts and crafts village beneath Ditchling Beacon, home of Eric Gill and his Guild
East Sussex
Lewes
The county town of East Sussex: a Norman castle, steep twittens and antiques
West Sussex
Arundel
A castle town on the River Arun, home of the Dukes of Norfolk for centuries
West Sussex
Petworth
The antiques town of the South, at the gates of Petworth House and Turner's deer park
West Sussex
Steyning
A Saxon river port turned timber-framed market town at the foot of the Downs
West Sussex
Henfield
A Domesday village above the Adur, with one of the oldest cricket clubs in the world
West Sussex
Amberley
Thatched cottages, a bishop’s castle and the Wild Brooks at the foot of the Downs
West Sussex
Chichester
A small cathedral city with Roman walls, a Chagall window and a harbour
West Sussex
Bosham
A harbour village where the tide floods the road and King Harold set sail in the Bayeux Tapestry
Kent
Chilham
A perfect medieval square between a Jacobean castle and a 15th-century church
Kent
Tenterden
A wide, tree-lined High Street of weatherboarded houses, a steam railway and a Cinque Port inland
Kent
Sandwich
One of the best-preserved medieval towns in England, a Cinque Port left inland by the sea
Surrey
Shere
Surrey's prettiest village, on a chalk stream between the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge
Hampshire
Beaulieu
A New Forest village on its own river, with a 13th-century abbey and the Montagus' Palace House
Hampshire
Selborne
The village of Gilbert White, father of English natural history, beneath its beech hanger
Hampshire
Lymington
A Georgian harbour town between the New Forest and the Solent, once famous for salt
Oxfordshire
Burford
A steep High Street of golden stone running down to the River Windrush
West
Dorset
Corfe Castle
A grey Purbeck stone village beneath the most dramatic castle ruin in England
Dorset
Shaftesbury
Gold Hill, England's most famous cobbled street, in King Alfred's hilltop town
Wiltshire
Lacock
A whole National Trust village, the abbey cloisters and the birthplace of photography
Wiltshire
Castle Combe
Honey-coloured cottages by the By Brook, often called the prettiest village in England
The Cotswolds
Bibury
Arlington Row and the River Coln: William Morris's 'most beautiful village in England'
Devon
Clovelly
A privately owned fishing village where a cobbled street tumbles down a cliff to the sea
Cornwall
Mousehole
A granite fishing harbour on Mount’s Bay, famous for its Christmas lights
Cornwall
St Ives
Turquoise bays, a fishing harbour and a century of great art
Scotland
Fife
Culross
Scotland's most complete 17th-century burgh, with cobbled lanes and an ochre palace
Fife
Crail
A tiny harbour of red-roofed cottages, perhaps the most painted in Scotland
Highland
Plockton
A Highland village of whitewashed cottages and palm trees on the shore of Loch Carron
Isle of Mull
Tobermory
A harbour of brightly painted houses, the chief town of the Isle of Mull
Perthshire
Dunkeld
A cathedral on the River Tay, a little town of white houses and the woods of Macbeth
Wales
Gwynedd
Portmeirion
An Italianate dream of a village on a wooded headland above the Dwyryd estuary
Gwynedd
Beddgelert
A stone village where two rivers meet, with the legend of the faithful hound Gelert
Pembrokeshire
Tenby
Pastel houses above a harbour, medieval walls and three golden beaches
Pembrokeshire
St Davids
The UK's smallest city, with the cathedral of Wales's patron saint in a hidden valley
Powys
Hay-on-Wye
The Town of Books on the River Wye, with over twenty bookshops and the Hay Festival
Northern Ireland
County Antrim
Cushendun
A Cornish-style village by the architect of Portmeirion, at the foot of the Glens of Antrim
County Antrim
Ballintoy
A tiny harbour below a white church, close to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
County Antrim
Glenarm
A coastal village at the mouth of a glen, with the castle and walled garden of the Earls of Antrim
County Antrim
Carnlough
A little stone harbour on the Antrim coast, with a waterfall walk up the glen
County Down
Hillsborough
A Georgian village of fine houses beside Hillsborough Castle and its gardens
Facts checked October 2026. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each guide. See also: Beauty Spots.