Cobham, Surrey

Cobham still calls itself a village, which is a brave word for a place where Chelsea train down the road and the school run looks like a motor show. In 1649 a band of Diggers tried farming the common land here for free, and the local landowners had them driven out within the year. Nobody has tried getting something for nothing in Cobham since. Barnes Wallis bounced prototype bombs across a lake up the road during the war, and that is still the cheapest thing anyone has done here.