Just outside of London and the major urban centers, life flows quietly, far from the buzz and confusion. In recent years, I have had the opportunity to explore rural England, coming across fairy-tale villages and picturesque corners.
I’ll start this list with a classic: the pretty village of Bibury.
With its stone buildings lining the banks of a picturesque river, it’s easy to see why many people call Bibury “the prettiest village in England.”
The houses in this village were originally built in the 14th century for the wool trade and they were later converted into homes for weavers.
Today, the quaint stone cottages are inhabited by lucky and rich tenants even though there is one for rent for guests.
Probably one of the most photographed corners of England is Castle Combe, a place so perfect that it is hard to believe it is real and what the English call “a chocolate box village”.
The village is very small with just a few hundreds inhabitants and it consists of a handful of brown-coloured stone cottages, a picturesque stone bridge, a couple of cosy pubs, a church and a tea-room. The village is almost entirely on a single road, known simply as The Street.
However, it is one of the most visited places in England and, furthermore, the village is often used for filming thanks to the traditional architecture and the total lack of any modern commercial signs.
Castle Combe has a couple of excellent places where to stay.
It has a steep cobbled street and the view from the top of the street has been described as “one of the most romantic places in England”.
The view appears on the covers of many guides dedicated to rural England, as well as on boxes of chocolates and calendars.
The Shambles in Yorkshire is one of the best preserved medieval shopping streets in Europe.
It is one of the many streets that claims to have inspired JK Rowling when she imagined Diagon Alley. In reality, the writer recently seems to have denied this source of inspiration.
However, this does not detract from the beauty of the place, which integrates perfectly with the atmosphere of the Harry Potter novels.
The street, home to butchers in medieval times, is particularly narrow: this was necessary to keep the meat, which at that time was kept hanging outside the shops, away from direct sunlight.
Today there are no more butchers but the beautiful half-timbered facades remain.
The beautiful old buildings have been restored and are home to cheerful cafes, bizarre boutiques, characteristic pubs.
The unique beauty of The Shambles has been recognized and awarded the title of the most picturesque street in Great Britain.
Often cited as one of the most beautiful streets in England, Mermaid Street is located in Rye, a pretty village south of London as here you will find everything that is typically English: half-timbered houses, lush vegetation, delightful cottages overlooking a steep cobbled street.
If you’re in the area, I recommend a visit to the Mermaid Inn: one of the oldest pubs in England. Dating back to 1420, its rooms are an exquisite mix of rich wood-paneled walls, vast brick fireplaces and creaky floorboards.
There’s even a real secret passageway that leads to a priests’ hole (this was the name given to hiding places built in houses to protect Catholic priests who were being persecuted by English law in the Tudor period).
The pub was also known to be a favourite haunt of a notorious local smuggling gang.
Rye is less than two hours from London and can be a pleasant day trip from the English capital.
