Shefford, Bedfordshire

Shefford got its market charter in 1229 and its last passenger train in 1961, and has spent the decades since proving a town can run perfectly well on an hourly bus and a lot of driving. Its two rivers are called the Flit and the Hit, which sounds like a Saturday-morning cartoon double act and is the closest the place comes to showbusiness. The canal closed, the railway closed, and the Michaelmas street fair granted in 1312 still turns up every October as if nothing happened. Shefford holds on to whatever comes to visit and lets go of anything that might take you somewhere else.