Lucky old Boulmer, living next to the best place in the country1
Must have improved. Mind you, the second hand bookshop in the old station is good; and you can do a fair old pub crawl.
The Times:
Alnwick hailed as best place to live
By Patrick Barkham
IT WAS once a violent border town with impoverished citizens and poor sanitation. But stunning scenery, clean air, low house prices and a bustling centre — not to mention the “Hogwarts” castle of Harry Potter fame — now make Alnwick, Northumberland, the best place to live in Britain.
While most Britons must cope with congested cities and characterless suburbs, the good life is to be found in country towns, according to a survey by Country Life magazine.
It rated Midhurst in West Sussex as second best.
Clive Aslet, the editor of the magazine, said they had assessed measurable criteria such as pollution, crime rates and local amenities. “I don’t think many people would be particularly surprised to find no cities on the list,” he said.
London scored highly in terms of entertainment and culture, but dismally on traffic, noise and light pollution. Many villages lacked crucial services, while towns in southern England fell short because of soaring house prices.
“We did think it important for it to be a real community. Some places in the South are now one-class ghettos because of the high house prices.”
Alnwick has a rush hour which lasts from 5.01pm to 5.09pm, but the judges ruled that it was “no chocolate-box fantasy of rural living”. Although not rich, it has a thriving local economy and good transport links.
It was not always so. Charles Hindley, the 19th-century social reformer, described the town as lacking in sanitation and full of uncouth “feudal customs”, including “stocks, bull-baiting, cock-fighting (and) the kicking of football in the open streets”.
But the present Mayor, Ken Gray, 65, said: “Alnwick is everything a person could want, a beautiful place to live.”
The one downside? Gus Odlin, landlord of the John Bull pub, said: “It does have its fair share of rain.”