Mere, Wiltshire

Mere sits at the exact spot where Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset can't quite be bothered to argue about it, which tells you most of what you need to know about the pace. The Earl of Cornwall built a castle on the hill above the town in the thirteenth century and everyone stopped maintaining it about a hundred years later, a decision the town has quietly stood by ever since: the earthworks are still there, still grassy, still nobody's problem. What Mere does have is the good sense not to pretend it's Bruton, which is a discipline half of Somerset has abandoned. It is a town where the loudest thing on a Tuesday is the A303 doing its impression of somewhere going places.