317 articles
Abingdon-on-Thames
Abingdon-on-Thames, also called Abingdon, is a market town in Oxfordshire, England, at the Ock–Thames confluence, claiming to be England's oldest continuously inhabited town, with a medieval abbey, County Hall, MG heritage, and no railway station.
Aldershot
Aldershot, Hampshire, England: garrison town known as the Home of the British Army since the 1854 founding of the British Army's first permanent training camp; also a Rushmoor borough town and parliamentary constituency.
Alresford
Alresford names two English places: Old and New Alresford in Hampshire, a bishop of Winchester's planned market town on the Winchester-London road, and a Tendring, Essex village with an 1885-excavated Roman villa (Pleiades 79291).
Altrincham
Altrincham is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, established by market charter in 1290 and known for its independent food scene and award-winning town-center regeneration.
Amersham
Amersham (Agnodesham in Domesday Book) is a Chilterns market town in Buckinghamshire with a 1200 King John market charter, a 1682 Market Hall, and the 1892 Metropolitan Railway that created Amersham-on-the-Hill and Metroland.
Andover, Hampshire
Andover, Hampshire: market town in the Test Valley on the River Anton, Saxon royal site from 950, Domesday six mills, home of the Museum of the Iron Age and Danebury finds.
Ashford, Kent
Ashford, England, is a market town and administrative center in Kent on the River Stour, with a market charter of 1243 and railway works from 1848.
Ashford, Surrey
Ashford, Surrey: a suburban town in Spelthorne on the River Ash, historically Middlesex, part of Surrey since 1965; Domesday Exeforde; distinct from Ashford, Kent; trains to London Waterloo.
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne, shortened to Ashton, is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, about six miles east of Manchester. Chartered 1284; cotton and coal mill town; population 8,000 in 1800, 36,000 by 1851.
Aylesbury
Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire, England, is a Domesday-recorded market town of over 90,000 people. Distinguished by its prescriptive medieval market, 1554 incorporation, 2017 Garden Town status, and a 16,000-home growth programme to 2033.
Banbury
Banbury is a market town in Cherwell district, northern Oxfordshire, England, the county's largest town with about 60,000 people. Known for Banbury Cross, Banbury cakes, the Oxford Canal, Tooley's Boatyard, and its Civil War castle sieges.
Barking
Barking is a town in eastern Greater London, England, on the River Roding about 7 miles east of central London, once a fishing port built around a medieval abbey.
Barnard Castle
Barnard Castle ('Barney') is a Teesdale market town in County Durham, England, named for the Norman Balliol castle above the River Tees; besieged in 1569, now an English Heritage ruin near the Bowes Museum.
Barnsley
Barnsley, South Yorkshire market town between Leeds and Sheffield, grew on the Barnsley coal seam with glass, linen and wire industries; now known for Glass Works regeneration, 9.3 million town centre visits, and Health on the High Street.
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a Cumbrian industrial town, home of BAE Systems' shipyard, the UK's sole nuclear submarine builder, and the focus of the £200m-plus Team Barrow regeneration programme.
Barton-in-Fabis
Barton-in-Fabis is a small Rushcliffe village in Nottinghamshire on the River Trent, six miles from Nottingham; Latin name means "in the beans"; features Grade I St George's church, a scheduled Roman villa, and a contested 2024 quarry application.
Basildon
Basildon is a town and borough in Essex, England, designated a New Town on 4 January 1949 under the New Towns Act 1946. Built around ten neighbourhoods and a pedestrianised town centre, it had 193,489 residents in 2025.
Basingstoke
Basingstoke, largest town in Hampshire, England, in the M3 corridor. Ancient market town recorded in Domesday Book 1086; cloth town, coaching hub, London overspill town from 1961, now a business center.
Bath, Somerset
Bath, Somerset: English spa city founded by the Romans as Aquae Sulis around the UK's hottest thermal springs (46 °C), famed for Georgian Palladian architecture; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 and Great Spa Town of Europe since 2021.
Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield (Beckenesfeld) is a Buckinghamshire market town about 23 miles west of London, named from Old English for beech. Old Town coaching stop, 1906 railway and New Town, Bekonscot model village (1929), twinned with Langres.
Beddingham
Beddingham, a village in the Ouse valley of East Sussex near Lewes, is the site of a Roman villa discovered in 1986 by aerial reconnaissance, excavated from 1987, with Bronze Age origins, infant burials, and post-Roman Saxon occupation.
Bedford
Bedford: county town of Bedfordshire and unitary authority (E06000055) in England's East of England; 185,225 residents (2021), River Great Ouse, large Italian community, directly elected mayor, and the planned Universal entertainment resort.
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed, also Berwick, is England's northernmost town, in Northumberland at the River Tweed mouth near the Scottish border. Contested 13–14 times until 1482, it retains unique Elizabethan bastioned ramparts begun in 1558.
Beverley
Beverley is a market town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, also called Beverley in Yorkshire, founded around the monastery of St John of Beverley, famed for its Gothic Minster, medieval sanctuary, Hanseatic wool trade, Westwood common, and 1690 racecourse.
Billingham
Billingham: town in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, Teesside; population 33,798 (2021 parish). Known for the ICI chemical works (from 1918), the 1967 town centre, Billingham Forum ice rink, and the International Folklore Festival.
Birkenhead
Birkenhead: town on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, opposite Liverpool. Known for Birkenhead Priory (1150), the world's first publicly funded park (1847), Cammell Laird shipbuilding, and the Birkenhead 2040 regeneration framework.
Birmingham
Birmingham, UK's second-largest city (population 1,176,960 in mid-2025), a West Midlands industrial hub founded as a Saxon settlement of Beorma, chartered 1166, historic metalworking and jewellery centre.
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland, County Durham market town, seat of the Bishops of Durham at Auckland Palace; railway and coal town, later Auckland Project heritage regeneration led by Jonathan Ruffer from 2012.
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a Hertfordshire market town on the Essex border, on the River Stort. Also called Esterteferd; known for Waytemore Castle, the 1769 Stort Navigation, Stansted Airport proximity, and its conservation area.
Blackburn
Blackburn, Lancashire town and seat of Blackburn with Darwen unitary borough; former world weaving capital with 29,000 weavers in 1920; borough population 163,801 (mid-2025), ranked 11th most deprived in England.