Copthorne, West Sussex

Copthorne is the village people buy near Gatwick and then spend years insisting they bought for the common. It has always suited people with one eye on the exit: smugglers stashed their goods in these woods because a single step over the Surrey border lost the constable, and the modern equivalent is a detached house with the departures board a short drive away. Locals are still called Yellowbellies, the best story being charcoal burners whose skin turned yellow in the smoke, which is more candour than any estate agent has ever managed about living next to an airport. The prize fighters who once bare-knuckled it out on the common would recognise the deal: take the hit, keep the house.