Elsenham

Elsenham used to sell its jam as the most expensive in the world, and then the jam moved to Wales, which tells you roughly how loyal luxury is. What stayed is a village that gets its post from Hertfordshire, its holidays from the runway down the road and its trains to London on the half hour if you're lucky. In 2008 the government looked at all those fields and pencilled in an eco-town, and the village has eyed every surveyor in a hi-vis jacket ever since.