Swindon

Swindon is the town every village around it uses as a warning. Its name means pig hill, it gave the country a working model for the national health service and got remembered for a roundabout instead, and it is still the biggest town in Britain without a university of its own. The villages on its edge spend their estate-agent blurbs insisting they aren't Swindon, then drive into it every morning for the salary. Swindon has stopped taking this personally, which is more grace than its neighbours manage.