capital. The artist Sir Stanley
Spencer’s “village in heaven”
is almost as charming today as
it was when Kenneth Grahame
first imagined Ratty and Mole
messing about on its
riverbanks, yet you are a few
miles from two motorways
and Maidenhead station with
ultrafast trains to London.
To get a sense of life in this
well-heeled Thames-side
backwater you just need to
look at the evolution of its
period properties. The
16th-century Old Forge
building, which formerly
hammered out horseshoes, is
now Spice Merchant, an
Indian restaurant, while the
old butcher’s shop, with its
traditional glazed tiles, is the
Old Butcher’s Wine Cellar
(bottles of red start at £7.99).
The only tradition that hasn’t
changed? The royal Swan
Upping ceremony in July.
Cookham comes in three
parts: a triptych if you will.
Cookham Village is the pick,
close to the river, with a pretty
high street and the Stanley
Spencer Gallery. Cookham
Rise is a workaday collection
of houses and shops around
the station, and beyond that is
blissfully bucolic Cookham
Dean, with no shops but a
brace of fine pubs. There are
half a dozen pubs in all, just
one sign of a community that’s
unusually convivial for such
an upmarket, commutable
location, plus there are clubs
for everything from cricket to
meditation, so you can feel as
serene as your surroundings.
Best place to live if...
You want to live like
riverside royalty.
Best address Riverside.
£936,000DEAL, KENT C
When Samuel Pepys, the
diarist, visited this Cinque
Port where the North Sea
meets the Channel, in 1660 he
declared it “pitiful”; today it is
a perfect place to make a
home. Where else do
residents grow hops in 265
gardens and allotments,
which are then turned
into beer by the local Time
& Tide brewery?
Health goes with happiness
here, along with bucket-loads
of history. Once England’s
busiest port, there are three
Tudor castles, a former Royal
Marine barracks, and there’s a
fine view of the multicoloured
Georgian seafront from the
brutalist pier.(membership £15 a year) and
bring your own wine — or
community-grown beer.
You’ll love it here if... Hoppy
days are happy days.
Best address The Middle
Street conservation area.
£363,000ENGLEFIELD GREEN, SURREY D
A forest-fringed sward where
dogs run free, families play
and cricketers scurry for
singles: the green in this
northwest Surrey village is a
scene that’s barely seen any
drama — save for the fateful
afternoon in 1852 when a
blood-drenched Frenchman
was hauled to the pub to meet
his maker after losing the last
fatal duel in England on
nearby Priest Hill. There’s no
escaping history: the sacrifice
of the Few is honoured at the
Air Forces Memorial, from
where you can see Windsor
Castle, the Thames and the
site where King John sealed
Magna Carta in 1215. A
weekend walk or bike ride in
4,800 acres of Windsor Great
Park, followed by
refreshments at the Fox &
Hounds, is a rite of passage.
After 63 years without a
local cinema, there’s a buzz
about the opening later this“It’s all about people
coming together to do good
things, and have a good time
in the process,” says Stephen
Wakeford, a co-ordinator for
Deal With It, which oversees
beach cleans and community
gardens. “People are good at
getting things done.”
Deal’s gleaners are reviving
the old tradition of gathering
unharvested crops from
the fields. All 340 kilos of
spuds and 50 of broccoli
were donated to local food
charities. Sustainability is to
the fore. Cars are few and far
between, plastic-free refills of
almost everything are
available at the Village Indoor
Market, and the Black Pig
butcher won a BBC Food and
Farming award. The best thing
about the high street, though,
is that everybody uses it: both
the high-falutin’ types who
come down from London (St
Pancras in 1 hour 25 minutes)
to browse the vintage
furniture and sip negronis at
the Rose hotel, and the old
Deal-ites who mutter about
their town’s new popularity as
as they pick up provisions
from the fishmonger, bakery
and greengrocers. Even the
weather is good — it’s one of
the 20 sunniest places in the
UK. Join the Deal Dining Clubhas five entries in The
Sunday Times Parent Power
guide, including three state
primaries; mixed secondary
Sevenoaks School (fees
from £8,340), now ranks
tenth nationally, plus
selective grammars.
Cultural clout is offered
by numerous festivals, and
the Stag, an arts centre with
a 450-seat theatre and two
cinema screens. Reuthe’s,
an 11-acre woodland puts
on jazz nights and forest
bathing. There are delis
(and Deliveroo) for every
diet, but what the place
lacks in a fine-dining scene
or wild nightlife it makes up
for with a chatty community
and an exhausting sporting
scene from bootcamps,
yoga classes, hockey,
cricket, rugby, golf and
football to the state-of-the-
art Sencio leisure centre.
Amid the chains — Oliver
Bonas, Neal’s Yard, you
know the drill — you’ll find
gems such as Scandi
lifestyle store Danish
Collection and Sevenoaks
Bookshop, named
independent bookshop of
the year 2021.
“People here are proud of
the independent shops and
are really supportive,” says
Fleur Sinclair, the store’s
owner. “Sevenoaks is a
friendly place with a great
community spirit.”
Locals such as Roxanne
Foster, who lives here with
her husband and toddler
son, enjoy the 1,000-acre
Knole deer park in the town
centre. “It’s such a great
place to go for a walk or a
run,” says Foster, who
co-runs Floral Findings
floristry. “It was such an
asset during lockdowns and
every time I go I am so
grateful that it’s here.”
Join the National Trust
and you’ll get to enjoy
Jacobean Knole House, as
well as Ightham Mote,
Quebec House, Chartwell
and Chiddingstone village,
all within a half-hour drive.
Best place to live if...
You want to raise a high-
achieving family and to be
rural yet connected.
Best address Marlborough
Crescent or Lyndhurst
Drive, and surrounding
villages, especially Otford
and Ide Hill.
£685,500➤ Continued from p7Best Places to Live 2022 Southeast
STUART MCKEOWN; DYLAN GARCIA; IAN GOODRICK; GREG BALFOUR EVANS/ALAMY; KLAUS VEDFELT/GETTY IMAGES8 April 10, 2022