Ringwood, Hampshire

Ringwood has held a market since the thirteenth century and the single most consequential thing to happen to it in living memory was the cattle market becoming a Waitrose. The town sits on the edge of the New Forest, which means half the people here moved for the ponies and the other half moved because Bournemouth got expensive and they will tell you it was the ponies. The Avon runs through it, prettily, right up until the week it doesn't. It is a genuinely good place to live, provided nobody is claiming otherwise loudly enough to attract more of them.