317 articles
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk coastal town and port on a Yare-North Sea peninsula; medieval Europe's largest herring port, walled by 1396, seaside resort since the 1700s, now offshore wind and £150m Quayside regeneration.
Grimsby
Grimsby, England: Humber Estuary port town in North East Lincolnshire, founded as Viking settlement Grimesbi, once the world's largest fishing port, now a major seafood processing and regeneration centre.
Guildford
Guildford: county town of Surrey, England, on the River Wey where it cuts the North Downs; borough population 143,649 (2021 Census), home to Guildford Castle, Guildford Cathedral, and the University of Surrey.
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax, West Yorkshire: Pennine market town in Calderdale, England, historically a woollen and worsted textile centre. Known for the Grade I listed 1779 Piece Hall, the only surviving Georgian cloth hall, Dean Clough mills, and ongoing town-centre regeneration.
Halstock
Halstock, Dorset village with a Romano-British villa (Halstock Roman Villa) excavated 1967–1985 by Ron Lucas, occupied c. AD 140–400; also St Juthware legend and 847 grant to Sherborne Abbey.
Hanley
Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent, is the city's commercial and cultural centre. Formerly a municipal borough (1857) and pottery town, it is now the largest retail destination in North Staffordshire and South Cheshire.
Harlow
Harlow, Essex: a British new town designated in 1947 to relieve overcrowding in north-east London, master-planned by Sir Frederick Gibberd with green wedges, neighbourhood units, The Lawn tower, and a major 2020s town centre regeneration.
Harrogate
Harrogate is a North Yorkshire spa town that grew around mineral springs discovered from 1571, with the Stray, Royal Pump Room, Royal Baths and Royal Hall, later reinvented as a conference and exhibition town.
Hartlepool
Hartlepool, England, is a coastal town and unitary borough on the North Sea coast of north-east England, founded in the 7th century around a monastery where St Hild was abbess.
Harwich
Harwich, Essex, England: historic North Sea port town at the Stour-Orwell mouth, home of Harwich International Port (Parkeston Quay, 1883), Stena Hook of Holland ferries, Harwich Haven Authority, Mayflower links, and the 1667 Treadwheel Crane.
Hastings, England
Hastings, England: seaside town and borough in East Sussex, about 53 miles from London, population about 91,000 (2021). Original Cinque Port, site linked to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, later a Victorian resort and fishing town.
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Hatfield, Hertfordshire: historic market town 29 km north of London, home of Hatfield House (Cecil family, Elizabeth I's accession), de Havilland's aircraft works, a 1948 New Town, and the University of Hertfordshire.
Hayes, England
Hayes is the name of two towns in Greater London: a large town of about 94,000 in Hillingdon near Heathrow, and a suburban village of about 16,000 in Bromley.
Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England, within Calderdale, known for its stone mill buildings, steep valley setting, and independently owned shops.
Hednesford
Hednesford, Staffordshire: market town and gateway to Cannock Chase, first recorded 1153 as Hedenedford; coal mining town from the 1850s, WWI training camps, RAF Hednesford, and a Neighbourhood Plan adopted in 2018.
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead: Hertfordshire market town designated a 1947 Mark One New Town, planned by Geoffrey Jellicoe as a town in a park; 60,000 planned population, Water Gardens, Maylands Business Park, and Garden Town growth since 2019.
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames is a historic riverside market town in South Oxfordshire, England, first recorded in 1179 and best known as the home of Henley Royal Regatta, held annually since 1839.
Hereford
Hereford, cathedral city and county town of Herefordshire, England, on the River Wye near the Welsh border; population about 58,000–62,000. Known for the Mappa Mundi, Hereford cattle, cider, and severe A49 congestion addressed by a planned bypass.
Hetton-le-Hole
Hetton-le-Hole is a former coal-mining town in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, also called Heppedune. Known for Hetton Colliery (1822–1950) and Stephenson's 1822 Hetton Colliery Railway to the River Wear.
Hexham
Hexham: market town in west Northumberland, England, on the River Tyne 20 miles west of Newcastle; founded around Wilfrid's 7th-century monastery and Hexham Abbey, with the 1766 Shambles market and Tyne Valley rail line.
High Wycombe
High Wycombe (Wicumun, first recorded 970) is a Buckinghamshire market town, Britain's historic chair-making centre: 4,700 chairs a day by 1875, home of G-Plan, Parker Knoll, Ercol, chair arches, the Mayor Weighing, and RAF High Wycombe.
History of Liverpool
History of Liverpool: northwest English port city on the Mersey, major Atlantic slave-trading port (1750–1807), 'Second City of the Empire', pioneer of docks and railways, UNESCO-listed 2004 and delisted 2021.
Hitchin
Hitchin: historic Hertfordshire market town on the River Hiz, named for the Saxon Hicce tribe, recorded in Domesday 1086, charterless pre-12th-century market, railway town from 1850, now undergoing the Churchgate regeneration project.
Horsforth
Horsforth is a town and civil parish in north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, recorded in the Domesday Book, formerly a clothing village, amalgamated with Leeds in 1974, home to Leeds Trinity University and the Brownlee twins.
Horsham
Horsham: medieval market town in West Sussex, England, on the River Arun. Name unchanged since a 947 Saxon charter; market charter 1233; joint county town with Chichester from 1889; dormitory town for London.
Houghton-le-Spring
Houghton-le-Spring: historic town in the City of Sunderland borough, Tyne and Wear, on the A690. First recorded 1112; coal-mining town (1823–1981); home of the Houghton Feast and Bernard Gilpin's Kepier Grammar School.
Hove
Hove, the western half of Brighton and Hove on England's south coast, is a Victorian seaside new town known for Regency Brunswick Town, Hove Museum, Hove station, and the King Alfred seafront redevelopment.
Huddersfield
Huddersfield, a West Yorkshire market town, grew under the Ramsden family (manor bought 1599) into a woollen textile powerhouse, with its 1766 Cloth Hall, canals, Grade I listed station, Luddite and Oastler history, and ongoing regeneration.
Huntingdon
Huntingdon: Cambridgeshire market town, county town of Huntingdonshire, on the River Great Ouse; chartered by King John in 1205, birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, bridging point on Ermine Street.
Ipswich
Ipswich (Gipeswic) is the county town of Suffolk, England, at the head of the Orwell estuary. One of only four Middle Saxon emporia, it grew from a 7th-century trading port into a borough of about 139,600 people (2021).