Best places to live in the UK

Every place here is within an hour of a London terminus door-to-door — the peak train time plus the drive to the station, not just the timetable figure.

Retirement lists are usually opinion. This one is filtered on things you can check: recorded crime well below the national average, a GP practice and pharmacy within reach, green space on the doorstep, and a quieter village or market-town setting.

Filtered on what parents actually check first: a grammar school or an Outstanding-rated school nearby, nurseries in the area, recorded crime below average, and green space you can walk to.

Villages and large villages only. Each one has named pubs and named green spaces on file, so you can see what daily life actually looks like rather than guessing from a photo.

Market towns give you a high street, a station and a Saturday market without city prices. Each one below is profiled on the same measures, so they are genuinely comparable.