Boreham

Henry VIII bought a palace here from Anne Boleyn's father, and Boreham has been somewhere important things pass through ever since. Bombers, racing drivers, Ford's test cars and the police helicopters have all had a go on the airfield, while the village grew a crop of 1970s semis and kept its head down beside the A12. Dick Turpin is supposed to have galloped down that road on his way to York, though historians now reckon the ride never happened, which makes him the only person on the A12 to have avoided the traffic. Now there is a station next door, so commuters finally have a reason to stop that isn't the McDonald's.