Roydon, Essex

Roydon is where people live when they say "near Harlow" and need you to understand exactly how near. It has its own station on the line to Stratford, a conservation area wrapped round the old village and a cricket pitch at the end of Occupation Lane, so it never has to admit how much it uses the bigger town. Ray Winstone and David Gilmour have both called it home, which tells you it appeals to men who could live anywhere and picked the corner of Essex that is already halfway into Hertfordshire. The estate agents sell it as a village with excellent connections, and what they mean is a village that wants Harlow's supermarkets and hospital kept at a polite distance.