Olney, Buckinghamshire

Olney is the stone market town that woke up inside Milton Keynes and has spent the years since politely acting as if it hadn't noticed. Amazing Grace was written here, yet the town saves its real devotion for a pancake race run in aprons from the market place to the church every Shrove Tuesday, and it keeps up a transatlantic rivalry with a town in Kansas with a completely straight face. Locals drop the L from the name, and it is about the only thing in Olney anyone is allowed to drop.