Watlington, Oxfordshire

Watlington lost its railway in the fifties and most of its buses since, and carried on being a market town anyway, which takes a certain stubbornness. A Victorian Methodist once bought six of its pubs purely to shut them, and that is still the boldest piece of town planning the place has seen. The Chilterns rise behind the high street and the motorway is a short drive off. Everyone here owns a car and a firm opinion about the one bus to Oxford.