Woodstock, Oxfordshire

Woodstock is the bit of Blenheim Palace the Duke lets people live in. The town has spent three centuries polishing its old stone frontages for his visitors, so the locals get a high street that photographs well and a coach party standing between them and the shops. Princess Elizabeth was held here under guard for most of a year and wrote a sulky poem about it. Modern residents mostly just complain about the parking, which counts as progress.