12 Prettiest Villages in England (That Tourists Haven't Ruined)

Bibury and Castle Combe are lovely, and they're full. So we skipped them. Here are twelve English villages that are just as pretty and still quiet: conservation areas full of listed buildings, mostly inside National Parks or National Landscapes, with narrow lanes and no coach park. From a Norfolk village laid out by a Norman lord to a Northumberland village made from an abbey, each one has a story, and a reason it survived. Which village did we miss? Tell us in the comments. How we chose: every village is a conservation area with many listed buildings for its size; most sit in a National Park or National Landscape (formerly AONB); each is small with no coach park. Every village passes at least three of those four tests, and we say on screen where one misses. CHAPTERS 0:00 Skipping the crowded ones 0:26 How we chose 0:51 #12 Castle Acre 1:39 #11 Great Tew 2:20 #10 Chiddingstone 3:15 #9 Troutbeck 4:09 #8 Teffont Evias 5:05 #7 Cadgwith 5:56 #6 Lustleigh 6:40 #5 Kersey 7:27 #4 Milton Abbas 8:16 #3 Arncliffe 9:02 #2 Stanton 9:50 #1 Blanchland 11:11 Subscribe Next: England's poorest towns. Shire & Stone: the stories behind Britain's villages, towns and cities. Subscribe for a new place every week. CREDITS Photos: Wikimedia Commons contributors. CC BY-SA 2.0: Colin Park, Marathon, Anthony Foster, Derek Harper, Derek Voller, Michael Dibb, David Smith, Michael Garlick, Richard Humphrey, Sandy Gerrard, Michael Trolove, Bill Boaden, Des Blenkinsopp, Julian P Guffogg, Ben Brooksbank, Michael Graham, Martin Dawes, Raymond Knapman, John Fielding, John Lucas, habiloid, Mark AC Photos, Ruth Sharville, Helen Steed, John Walton, Chris Holifield, Peter Moore, Gordon Hatton, Tim Heaton, Alan James, Roger Davies, Trevor Littlewood, Malcolm Neal, Philip Cornwall, Colin Smith | CC BY-SA 4.0: Tilman2007, HARTLEPOOLMARINA2014, Ethan Doyle White, Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., Richard Keatinge, Sumit Surai, PaleCloudedWhite, Rosser1954 | CC BY 2.0: www.mgaylard.co.uk and thanks for looking, Thomas Tolkien from Yorkshire, UK, Wapster, Marilyn Peddle from England | CC BY-SA 3.0: Saffron Blaze, Motacilla, Richard Cocks | CC BY 4.0: Antiquary Satellite imagery: Google, Imagery ©2026 Airbus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies. Music: original score. #Britain #History #ShireAndStone