Best Places to Live 2022 Midlands
Best address In town,
Church Hill, St John’s Hill,
Birch Road and Sandy Lane.
£258,000
HATHERSAGE, DERBYSHIRE C
It might be just a 20-minute
drive from Sheffield, but
walking boots are de rigueur
for all here, often accessorised
with a wagging spaniel to
enjoy the wooded hills and
craggy gritstone edges of the
local landscape that inspired
Charlotte Brontë (the village
of Morton in Jane Eyre was
based on Hathersage), or the
showier scenery of Dark Peak,
a short drive or bike ride away.
You may also spot a few
Dryrobes on the streets:
swimmers on their way to and
from the refurbished 30m
outdoor heated swimming
pool. Built in 1936 but
refurbished during the
pandemic, it’s always busy
with folk doing backstroke for
the best view of the hilltops.
“You’re surrounded by
countryside but it never feels
remote. There’s a proper
community and you know
everyone — there’s always
someone to talk to in the pub,”
says Abbie Hickinson, who
serves excellent coffee and
doorstep sandwiches in
Colemans Deli.
Outdoor shops keep
everyone in Gore-Tex and
Salomon, and the small but
well-stocked greengrocer,
butcher, and a couple of
convenience stores, mean
there’s no need to travel far
for supplies. Foodies can
sharpen their steel at the
David Mellor shop, café and
museum near the station, or
enjoy negronis and lobster
mac and cheese at Bank
House. The Scotsman’s Pack
pub is a local favourite,
especially on a Thursday
when it’s quiz and bingo night.
Starter for ten: what connects
S32 and a literary sister?
Best place to live if... You
want to live in Hope.
Best address Church Bank
and Jaggers Lane — or far
enough on the Sheffield side
of the village to get into
outstanding King Ecgbert
School in Dore.
£514,000
LINCOLN CLIFF VILLAGES,
LINCOLNSHIRE D
Five minutes and a pair of
flip-flops are all you need to
climb the 100 or so feet of
Lincoln Cliff. But the endless
views across Witham Valley,
especially at sunset, offer a
panoramic rebuff to those
who dismiss Lincolnshire as
flat and boring. It’s not just the
views that put the string of
villages dotted along this
straight, striking limestone
escarpment at the top of our
growing list of places where
you can live like you’re in
the Cotswolds, but for less
money and with fewer
irritants (see also: Rutland
and Northamptonshire).
These little clusters of
red-roofed rambling stone
cottages, often built around a
green or a handsome parish
church, are the picture of
timeless rustic charm, but
without a coach party or an
old-fashioned gift shop in
sight. The best stretch runs
south of Lincoln, where
villages such as Coleby,
Wellingore and Boothby
Graffoe are pretty as can
be, but well connected to the
rest of the East Midlands.
Navenby, biggest
and best served of
the cliff villages, is
where what
passes for the
action is.
Sleaford is a
20-minute
drive away, and
it’s 25 minutes
to Lincoln — an
increasingly
important
university and
business centre —
where you can catch
trains to Peterborough,
Doncaster and Leeds.
Navenby’s high street has
a top-flight butcher and
grocer in Odling’s, which
recently celebrated its
100th anniversary, and
Welbourne’s, a traditional
bakery where a loaf of
Lincolnshire plum bread costs
£3.75. It’s also where you’ll
find Mrs Smith’s Cottage, a
fascinating time capsule of a
museum, home of popular
villager Hilda Smith, who died
in 1995 aged 102. It’s a place
not only to admire layer upon
layer of wallpaper through the
ages and imagine life with no
mod cons, but also a hub for
the village, hosting plays,
clubs and other events, soon
to include a “be more Hilda”
campaign to encourage locals
to live more sustainably.
“There is an overall cliff
villages spirit, and everyone
works together, but each
village has its own community
and identity, often basedaround churches, pubs and
schools — things that they’re
lucky to have kept,” says
Emma Clark, who lives in
Waddington and is cliff village
born-and-bred. There’s hard
work involved, as well as luck.
Two of the best pubs are
owned and run by the
community. The Thorold
Arms, in Harmston, was kept
going in spirit(s) with bar
nights at the village hall while
a rescue plan was put into
action. And the villagers who
bought the Tempest Arms,
perched on the edge of the
cliff in Coleby, weren’t just
preserving their local, they
were rescuing one of the
country’s most scenic
spots for a pint.
Best place to live if...
You want to feel on top
of the world, without trying
too hard.
Best address Close to the
cliff, to make the most of the
views. Coleby, Welbourn and
Wellingore are particularly
well placed.
£354,000MELTON MOWBRAY,
LEICESTERSHIRE EThere’s absolutely —
wonderfully — nothing chichi
about Melton: if your idea of
country life is novelty wellies
and designer farm shops
selling sourdough loaves forShipston-
shape
The high street
in Shipston-on-
Stour, right.
Inset below: a
pop-up flower
shop at the Post
Office in
Leadenham,
Lincolnshire.
Below: St
Mary’s Church,
Melton
Mowbray.
Far right:
Hathersage in
Hope Valley28 April 10, 2022