Northam, Devon

Northam is a market town that has spent a thousand years being the bit next to somewhere else. It repelled a Viking, buried him at a junction now called Bloody Corner, then got on with hosting England's oldest golf course and letting the beach resort next door take the credit for the coastline. The church tower is the tallest thing anyone here has argued about in a century, and that argument was resolved in 1951 by giving it a listing. This is a place where the sea is close, the drama is over, and nobody is pretending otherwise.