Name me the most beautiful and well equipped village/town/parish in United Kingdom?

[Iceberg]

I want a realistic setting for my Fantasy/Romance book based in UK, so please name me some you know and consider suited to above criteria.
Additional details would be more welcome
If not just give me names I'll research further.
At least it will give some direction, I'm tired of reckless searching without proper result, hope to here find one.
It is better if you live or have been to that place
Thanx and answer seriously

[Bambi_1]

That's quite a big question you are asking!

Do you live in the UK? If, as your question seems to suggest, you don't, then I really would think seriously about writing about places you don't yourself know. Not trying to be obstructive or anything, but I have read books by (particularly American) writers who appear, from the way they descibe their idyllic English villages etc., not to actually have been there. If you haven't visited the UK, it may not be convincing to the reader describing places you haven't even been to. Of course, if you are a UK resident, I apologise but then I also wonder why you need this information.

There are many beautiful places, but of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And what do you mean by Well Equipped? Many small villages are lucky nowadays to boast a decent pub, let alone a shop. There are some stunning villages in the Cotswolds, for example, but the prettiest and ones with the most facilities tend to be the tourist traps. Is that what you want? Many towns have attractive sides to them but also have council estates or other areas that are less than pretty.

Probably the best thing is to invent a place that fits all your criteria. It's been done before. Ruth Rendell bases her Wexford novels in a fictitious area. Midsummer Murders on the television is also in an invented place (not that I'd choose to live there with the high murder count, but that's another thing!). The main thing, though, is to make it convincingly English (or Scottish or Welsh or Northern Irish if you like), and that can only be done if you know the UK personally.

I know I haven't answered your question as you may like, but I hope I have at least been of a little help.

[Canary42]

Bourton-on-the-Water

[Count-A-Strong]

Do I take it that English is not your first language?

[factor-fiction]

Have a look at some of these for starters
Gislingham
Rumburgh
Athelington
Verwood
Yateley

[tigerlelly]

Verwood? You cannot be serious!

[mr_doubtfire]

As bambi says, be very careful if you intend to use a 'real' town, village or place. There'll always be a resident from the area who'll pick up on the slightest discrepancy and complain. In my first novel I "invented" a town and a village based on ones I had visited on my travels and picked their best features, then I came up with names that didn't already exist (a Tom Tom's good for that), I also researched for a non-existent post-code as I had to address a letter to a police officer and I needed one that was fictitious. Ignore my advice by all means, but take it from me, use your imagination that way your readers will do the same.

[Prudie]

ditto Verwood??? pmsl as they say!

[dotty.]

Mytholmroyd

[tastymorsel]

Never heard of Verwood before tonight but have googled it and if it is in beautiful Dorset what can possibly be wrong with it ????

[tigerlelly]

Verwood used to be a pleasant enough village, although not a patch on the typical Dorset village I suspect most of you are thinking of. In the last 20 years it has been 'got at' by developers and is surrounded by housing estates and quite a few of the big, old Edwardian and Victorian houses have been turned into flats. It is a dormitory for Bournemouth.