The 'places to live' ranking that lists all 1,429 towns, cities and large villages in England and Wales — and the surprise at the top of the list
Britain's largest property buying agent has launched an exhaustive list ranking every large village, town and city in England and Wales. But who comes out on top?

We're all looking for the best place to live; finding it can be another matter. So time to give thanks for property buying agents Garrington, who have tried to help out by putting together their latest detailed report on the best places to live in England and Wales.
The company has been producing this research for several years now, and for the latest edition they've ranked some 1,429 villages, towns and cities according to 18 different criteria, from natural beauty and heritage to broadband speed and pollution levels.
Anyway — we won't keep you in suspense any longer: the overall winner is Twyford, in Berkshire.
It might come as something of a surprise due to its obscurity, but this village to the east of Reading fitted Garrington's criteria perfectly, scoring particularly well for excellent schools and connectivity, wellbeing, and housing.
Number two on the list is the beautiful cathedral city of St Albans, an ancient Roman settlement that scores understandably well for heritage; while Epsom — the Surrey town that's home to the racecourse that hosts the Derby — is third. Here's the rest of the top 10:
1. Twyford, Berkshire 2. St Albans, Hertfordshire 3. Epsom, Surrey 4. New Mills, Derbyshire 5. Bowdon, Greater Manchester 6. Godalming, Surrey 7. Tring, Hertfordshire 8. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire 9. Farncombe, Surrey 10. Henley, Oxfordshire
Rather unusually — and generously — Garrington have created a tool on their website to let you look up any given place to live and see where it comes in the rankings on the various criteria.
You can also pick a region and scroll through towns out from the alphabetical list, allowing you to compare places easily — and notice, for example, that the Hampshire seaside town of Barton-on-Sea comes 1,202nd out of 1,429, a couple of hundred places worse than Basingstoke (973).
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
That little anomaly leads us to some of the inevitable caveats that all such lists like this demand.
One is that the 18 categories are mushed together into five over-arching areas: natural environment; wellbeing; heritage and culture; schools, employment and connectivity; and quality/value of the housing stock. Here's the full list of criteria:
- Natural environment: proportion of open green space, distance to a natural beauty area (ie AONB, Heritage Coast), Flood risk
- Wellbeing: air quality, % homes with a 1ha of accessible open space within 300m, crime ranking
- Heritage/culture: % listed buildings, % pre-1900s homes, number of museums, galleries and theatres within 5 miles, number of restaurants within 5 miles
- Schools, employment and connectivity: Growth in number of high-tech jobs within the travel to work area, overall jobs growth, homes with ultrafast broadband, outstanding schools, homes within 200m of bus stop/rail station,
- Quality/value: change in average sales prices, incomes relative to regional average, sales prices per square foot relative to regional average.
That throws up a few questionmarks. Take natural environment, for example, which includes green space and proximity to natural beauty areas such as AONBs, but also includes flood risk. Thus a place such as Richmond-upon-Thames — usually highly-placed in these sorts of rankings — comes a solid but-not-stellar 177th, most crucially let down by its ranking of 948th for 'natural environment'. The latter score is a surprise for such a famously-pretty spot that's full of green space (not least Richmond Park itself); presumably The Thames flowing through the borough meant it had a higher 'flood risk' rating.
We were also curious which settlements were included in the list of 1,429 places to live. It turns out that the answer appears to be 'all of them', at least based on the ONS figures we saw. Garrington confirmed that their list includes '52 very large towns and cities with a population of over 200,000, 92 towns with a population between 75,000 and 200,000, 353 medium towns with a population between 20,000 and 75,000, and 921 small towns/large villages with a population between 5,000 and 20,000.'
So, yes, that's pretty much all of the settlements in England and Wales with populations of over 5,000. London is subdivided into boroughs, but other than that you can happily compare Bristol (population 467,099) with Battle (population 6,764), or Newcastle (population 829,000) with New Mills (9,197).
That leads to the one big omission: namely, that villages under 5,000 were not part of the analysis. Thus some delightful, beautiful, historic and perennially popular places aren't included from Ambleside (population 2,627) to Arundel (population 3,496).
Still, that's a minor gripe when you consider the wealth of information that's included here, and the cleverness of the widget which lets you build up a list of towns to compare — we can imagine the tongue-in-cheek bragging battles that will rage between residents of Harrogate (96th) and Haslemere (101st).
We'll leave the final word to Jonathan Hopper, Garrington's CEO, who is bullish at the property market's bright start to 2024.
'2023’s reset of prices redrew large swathes of the property map, with many highly desirable areas becoming better value as prices fell,' he says.
'Suddenly the market finds itself at an inflection point, with house prices stabilising just as mortgages become more affordable.
'This combination is already translating into a surge in interest from buyers who’ve decided to restart their previously paused moving plans. If this is you, our 2024 Best Places to Live guide can help you pinpoint locations with the optimum blend of natural beauty, quality of life and value for money.
'All of the 1400 cities, towns and villages selected for our ranking score well in at least one category, and you can use our fun, interactive tool to find places that offer more of the things that matter most to you.'
See the full report and search the listings at garrington.co.uk/best-places-to-live-2024.
Additional reporting: Annunciata Elwes
Credit: Strutt and Parker
Best country houses for sale this week
An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for
Toby Keel is Country Life's Digital Director, and has been running the website and social media channels since 2016. A former sports journalist, he writes about property, cars, lifestyle, travel, nature.
-
'I see my dream dying': How the best roads in Scotland are causing local people the biggest headaches
10 years after it was established, the North Coast 500 continues to divide opinion. More tourism means more money, but for those who live along the route, their peaceful lives have been turned upside down. Matthew MacConnell investigates.
By Matthew MacConnell Published
-
Bramham Park: A Palladian premonition
Bramham Park is one of the most original and idiosyncratic houses of early 18th-century Yorkshire. Richard Hewlings examines its history and origins, and offers a fresh analysis of its architecture. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
By Richard Hewlings Published
-
On Devon's Saunton Sands, the future is Ferndown
This modern masterpiece, for sale with Savills, boasts 12,000sq ft of luxury contemporary living with beach views.
By Penny Churchill Published
-
A fairytale castle peeking above the treetops of Cumbria is for sale at just £2 million
Augill Castle has a wonderful backstory and a lifestyle business attached. .Annunciata Elwes tells more.
By Annunciata Elwes Published
-
A Paragraph 80 house hidden in the rich woodlands of Wadebridge
By its very definition, Trehytte will be a five-bedroom home of 'exceptional quality' built to the 'highest architectural standards'. It could be yours.
By Penny Churchill Published
-
Interiors that inspire in a four-bedroom cottage in Hertfordshire
Come for the Grade II-listed family home an hour from Central London, stay for the interior-design inspiration.
By James Fisher Last updated
-
Dawn Chorus: The world's highest property has a fittingly sky-high price
Our daily round-up of news includes a flat that's 2,500 ft above the ground, our stop-you-in-your-tracks picture of the day, a chance to see two of Country Life's best-loved experts, and news about our Quiz of the Day.
By Toby Keel Published
-
A Georgian vicarage that blends idyllic seclusion, village life and a simple commute to the City
The Old Rectory in Hawkhurst, Kent, is a delightful home inside and out. Penny Churchill takes a look.
By Penny Churchill Published
-
The Catch-22 that's clogging up the housing market? The over-50s sitting in half-empty houses while young families struggle to find homes that are big enough
While the vast majority of empty nesters living in larger properties don’t intend to downsize, upsizers are struggling to climb up the housing ladder, says Regency Living.
By Annabel Dixon Published
-
The green Gable House: A family home in Hampshire that even we can't believe is only 15 years old
If the house isn't quite right, don't be afraid to build something new. The Gable House in Ashford Hill is a glorious example of a new home that looks like it's always been there.
By Penny Churchill Published