Obscure and fascinating ancient hamlets/villages in England?
 

Dear fellow Fodorites,
I am an unabashed anglophile, planning our next trip back to England and would love to hear from those of you who have experienced some of the more obscure, out-of-the-way hamlets and villages in England. Doesn't matter if the location is in the north, south, east or west of England, it's the history, folklore, people, architecture, old shops, pubs and, of course, a great B&B close by that will influence our itinerary. We'd like to take off in the spring of 2005.
Many thanks, and cheers!

topping

Why, Ira? How can a village be obscure,out of the way, etc. and still have enough visitors and/or residents to support shops, pubs & B&Bs, and wealth to maintain ancient buildings?

HI--this may not count, but I will tell you of our experience in case you have not been here.....When we went to Salisbury, and stayed at the King's Arms Hotel, we did not see a lot of tourists in the small city. While it is very close (~30 min) to Stonehenge, it seems that when we were there in May we saw few, if any, tourists in the city/town itself. It seems that the tourists tend more to go to Stonehenge as a day trip and not to actually stay in Salisbury. We saw all locals at the pubs. As for history, the hotel pub predates the cathedral there. Workers who built the cathedral used to drink at that pub and that was around the years 1200-1400. The cathedral and its beautiful grounds were among the most impressive we have ever seen anywhere in Europe and again for some reason, we saw few other tourists, making it feel even more idyllic.

I stayed in a B&B some ten years or so ago in Evenload (sp?) in the Cotswolds. It was in striking distance of some great sites and was near several neat villages with good pubs (Lower Compton being the one I can remember off the top of my head). I also like Devizes near Bath for the same reasons. I cannot remejmber the B&Bs, but I do rememeber how much we enjoyed both.

Bowen

You could try Rutland. There is a bit of tourism in the area, but in general it is off the main tourist routes.

Have a look at http://www.rutnet.co.uk which gives a basic map of the area. Click on the village names to look at photo's etc.

One village stands out that may meet your requirement is Exton. Have a look on the website above and look at the photos.

Depending on when you go, usually on one of the May bank holidays, the village has a street market, in which the whole village is turned over to all sorts of stalls selling antiques / junk / contents of peoples attics it gets very busy, but is a good day out.

There is also a lot of other nice places in the area as well.

You might actually want to try Northern Ireland, especially along the Antrim coast or County Fermanagh. You will find many little villages, with a great deal of history, and it is easy to get around. And, of course, it is still very British.

bowen, I'll skip over those obvious ones and give you a dozen or so of some of my many finds as "more obscure, out-of-the-way hamlets and villages"...

Much Wenlock, Shrop. - Great Budworth, Chest. - Pembridge & Ledbury, Heref. - Lacock & Castle Combe, Wilts. - Wootten Courtenay, Allerford & Dunster, Somers. - Sherborne, Dorset - Branscombe & Lustleigh, Devon - Cadgwith & Padstow, Cornw.

I share your enthusiasm for the "This Scept'red Isle"!

This is one of those posts where the difference between respondents who have visited the UK as a tourist, and those who actually live there, becomes apparent. I have often wondered which of the two is taken more seriously by American questioners. Ans have concluded that what people really want to hear is the often ill-informed opinion of their own countryfolk.

I were you I would acquire an Ordnance Survey map and look for places that you can only get to on the smallest roads. That is if you really want to make your own adventure. And if, when you get there, there isn't a pub - move on - and if there is, and the bathroom is down the hall - so what.

If the luxuriousness of where you can stay is paramount then I would stick to those old favourite areas - cotswolds, etc, etc. - and never, ever, venture on to a B road.

Having said that - try Dorset, North Yorks Dales and Northumberland. There are books - and doubtless on line too - which list B&Bs.

Thank you to each of you for your thoughtful and interesting replies. Ledbury was mentioned by TuckH and it was one of the most beautiful and memorable of our recents visits - we will take the advice of alice13 and stay away from the B roads in our quest to discover more "hidden gems". I will continue to take notes and do my homework.
Best wishes to all.

What about Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales? It is a nice town, not really that obscure, but usually off the tourist hordes paths. with several good restaurants and pubs, history (old castle and House of York/Richard III history. The town center is wonderful, people very friendly. Also plenty of beautiful countryside to explore.
Can't think of any B&Bs off-hand but there are severla hotels and self-catering cottages avaiable.
Recommend a car to get around though.

What are you trying to do here?

Let's suppose someone tells you all about horse painting at Hawick. Not a hamlet, not in England, but probably meeting your brief. Are you really going to sprint off to Home Depot, buy a gallon of white gloss, put on your overalls and sprint up to the Borders just on the off chance they might let you join in on one day in the year they do this? (For the uninitiated: this quaint Scottish ritual doesn't involve delicate acquatints OF the horses. It means slapping the paint ALL OVER the poor things)

Ditto the Pendle witches or the vicar of Stiffkey who turned into such a pleasant meal for the local lions. Ditto even all the Cheshire villages (or rather, former villages, now Manchester suburbs) and their cycle of well-dressing. Obscure places are, by definition, a long way from anywhere and rarely have enough of interest to justify 100 miles detour.

England's couple of thousand years of documented history mean that virtually anywhere that's been continuously inhabited has a gazillion stories, and some of them might even be true. It really is impossible to walk more than a mile or two without stumbling over acres of land in which STUFF has happened (though admittedly, Skelmersdale has a bit less than Burford).

Rather than getting the odd anecdote here - mostly, BTW, about places that can't possibly be described as "hamlets" - choose virtually anywhere. Then seriously research it: the relevant Victoria County History is the most reliable all-in-one place guide, and locally-printed guidebooks in the area will give you more colour.

In a place as small as this, nowhere's really obscure or out of the way. But equally, virtually nowhere (apart from the tourist traps so often touted on nthese boards, like Blenheim and Warwick Castle) is overrun by tourists. Walk a few yards from the honeypot (in the case of Warwick, away from the Mme Tussauds branch masquerading as a castle to its stunning centre ans spectacular parish church) and you'll find all the fascination you can want.

And - since this is all about what humans have done - most of it in places where there have been most humans. Towns.

I'd try East Anglia if I were you. There are many beautiful small towns and villages in Suffolk, e.g. Lavenham, Southwold etc. Many villages have huge mini cathedrals as churches, built when the area was rich from the wool trade. Blytheborough is a good example
Norfolk is another good county for picturesque villages.
Perhaps, it's the time I go, but I find that foreign tourists are fairly thin on the ground in the area. You tend to get visitors from the UK who go sailing, birdwatching and walking.

At the risk of being called ill-informed by alice13, I'll add Chagford to the list of suggestions. It's a town on the northeast edge of Dartmoor. Try the Bly House B&B.

actually I thought Alice13 was a little harsh. In my experience, it's often the frequent visitors, rather than the locals, who know more about where to find points of interest. I'm frequently amazed at the knowledge here of visitors to London about activities that I have no idea about. So I think all points are valid.

I think Sylvia's suggestion of Suffolk is a great one. A relatively under populated part of the country with immense history. It was one of this countries most wealthy areas at one time - as it's the gateway to Europe, and the birthplace of Constable, Cardinal Wolsey and plenty more. LOADS of quaint little villages. What's more, it's on the coast, so you have the advantage of both coastal and farming communities to explore.

Here I go again...

TorontoSteven: Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain. Hence, it is not British. United Kingdom of Great Britain AND Northern Ireland.

And unfortunately Ireland, north and south, does not have an overwhelming number of quaint villages (seems like everytime you turn around in England, you stumble across some quaint village), in large part because certain countries burned down much of Ireland in years past.

Have I got the perfect place for you? Try Monkton Farleigh and the b&b called Fern Cottage. This hamlet is one of those protected historic settlements (the title escapes me), and the location is wonderful if you're driving. We spent seven nights with Christopher and Jenny and daytripped up into the Cotswolds, west to Exmoor, and south to Lyme Regis. Monkton Farleigh is just outside of Bradford-on-Avon, which is a lovely town and hardly ever mentioned here. J.

It's kind of fun to go to places where you find ancient (and not so ancient) hill carvings. For example, by the neat little Cerne Abbas Village in Dorset (good country pub there), you can see the Cerne Giant; or in Wiltshire, the Westbury Whitehorse; or in East Sussex, the Long Man of Wilmington.

Although I don't want to accuse the OP of such leanings, I think it's important not to let romantic visions of English village life created by the media cloud one's vision.

As flanneruk says, many of the most picturesque small communities ("hamlet" is a play) now serve much different roles than they did in the past. Sadly, most of those thatched-roof cottages are occupied by past or present bankers, solicitors, or others with the financial resources needed to live the life. Miss Marple sold out and moved to the Dordogne years ago.

The twee shoppes exist only if they can attract tourists or locals who can't be bothered with going all the way to the Tesco or the IKEA. And as for grooving on local folklore at the pub, well, depends on the folk I suppose.

Note that there are millions of people in Britain too who are as taken with the vision as visitors. And why not? But recognise that what you see today is less "organic" than the product of rigid planning and development controls, and that the rural society that created these places over the centuries is much less in evidence, thanks to job relocation, personal mobility, EU policies and Easyjet.

Which is not to say that cruising the countryside looking at small towns, the architecture, historic sites (which don't have to be castles, but can be fields, bridges, factories, other things) isn't a fine way to spend a holiday. It is, and there are certainly areas where the density of attractive small communities is thicker than others. The Suffolk wolds (and East Anglia in general) are my favorite, but also areas in Yorkshire, the Welsh borders, the south-west of Scotland, East Lothian... plenty of choices. Go and enjoy.

But the chances of seeing spinsters on bicycles heading to Evensong - well, small chance.

BTW, the working definition of "hamlet" in British (apart from an indecisive Danish prince) is a community without a church, pub or post office.

Such communities don't attract romantic legends. They might, as Gardyloo says, attract a few affluent incomers to tittivate their houses in the more picturesque parts of the country, especially those close to railway lines or motorways.

Or in the getting on for remote bits of unfashionable counties like Lincolnshire, they attracted the local council to build a couple of desolate houses in the 1950s for agricultural labourers. The only fascination is why anyone would live there.