317 articles
Poole
Poole is a coastal town in Dorset, England, on Poole Harbour, one of Europe's largest natural harbours. Formerly the Borough of Poole, since 2019 it sits within BCP Council; a new Poole Town Council is being created.
Porthleven
Porthleven, Cornwall's most southerly port, is a town on Mount's Bay built around a refuge harbour authorized by the 1811 Act of Parliament, opened 16 August 1825, later run by Harvey & Co, with a pilchard fishing and boatbuilding past and a storm-famous clock tower.
Portsmouth
Portsmouth: port city and unitary authority on Portsea Island, Hampshire, England; home of the Royal Navy's main base with about 211,500 residents, chartered in 1194, a city since 1926, facing local government reorganisation.
Preston, England
Preston is a city in Lancashire, North West England, on the north bank of the River Ribble. It became England's 50th city in 2002 and anchors the county's largest economy.
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a Kent seaside town and port on the Isle of Thanet, population about 40,000, home to the UK's only Royal Harbour (George IV, 1821), built 1749-1850, a Dunkirk embarkation point.
Reading, Berkshire
Reading, Berkshire: Thames Valley town and unitary borough at the Kennet-Thames confluence, 182,907 residents, major UK tech and insurance center, M4 and rail hub, Saxon origins and 1121 abbey.
Redditch
Redditch is a Worcestershire town and former center of England's needle industry, once claimed to make about 90% of the world's needles; designated a New Town in 1964, population about 87,000.
Richmond, London
Richmond, London: town in Richmond upon Thames, southwest London, formerly Shene, renamed by Henry VII in 1501 after his Yorkshire earldom; site of Richmond Palace, Richmond Park, and the protected Richmond Hill view.
Ridgewell
Ridgewell (Ridgwell), Essex: village and parish in Braintree district, site of a Roman villa excavated and destroyed in 1794, occupied c. A.D. 54 to late 4th century, with a possible bath-house in its eastern wing.
Ripon
Ripon is a small cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, founded around St Wilfrid's 672 church whose Anglo-Saxon crypt survives; it became a cathedral city in 1836, has about 16,190 residents, a Thursday market, and 1,300 homes planned at the former barracks.
Rochdale
Rochdale, Greater Manchester: historic mill town recorded in Domesday 1086, granted a 1251 charter, birthplace of the 1844 Rochdale Pioneers co-operative movement, with a noted Gothic Revival town hall.
Rochester, Kent
Rochester, Kent: historic town on the east bank of the River Medway, England, also Roman Durobrivae. Known for its Norman castle (sieges of 1088, 1215, 1264), cathedral founded in 604, Dickens associations, and loss of city status in 1998.
Romford
Romford, Essex/Havering market town on the London-Colchester Roman road; 1247 market charter, railway 1839, major retail centre with 21 million shoppers, adopted masterplan 2025.
Rotherham
Rotherham, South Yorkshire: metropolitan borough of 271,195 on the River Don, known for town centre regeneration, the November 2019 record Don flood, and commuter links to Sheffield.
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC): Inner London borough formed in 1965 by merging Kensington and Chelsea; smallest but densely populated London borough, home to South Kensington museums, marked by stark inequality and the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a spa town in western Kent, England, founded on the chalybeate spring discovered in 1606 at the Pantiles; it received its Royal prefix from Edward VII in 1909 and had about 59,000 residents in 2025.
Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby, Warwickshire: market town on the River Avon in eastern Warwickshire, England, birthplace of rugby football at Rugby School (1567). Grew rapidly after the 1839 London and Birmingham Railway; borough population about 114,400 in 2021.
Runcorn
Runcorn is a Cheshire town on the Mersey at the Runcorn Gap, first recorded as Aethelflaed's 915 burh, later a canal port and chemical town, designated a New Town in 1964, population about 61,000 in 2021.
Rye, East Sussex
Rye, East Sussex: historic former Cinque Port town on a sandstone outcrop at the Rother, Brede, and Tillingham confluence, once a major medieval port, now landlocked, heritage-focused, and flood-risk managed.
Salford
Salford: city in Greater Manchester, England, west of Manchester across the River Irwell; 37 square miles, about 220,000 people. Industrial-era canal and rail pioneer, now known for Salford Quays, MediaCityUK and large-scale regeneration.
Salisbury
Salisbury (New Sarum) is a cathedral city in southern Wiltshire, England, founded in 1217 when the see moved from Old Sarum hillfort; its 1220–1258 cathedral has England's tallest spire at 404 ft and an original Magna Carta.
Saltburn-by-the-Sea
Saltburn-by-the-Sea: Victorian seaside resort in North Yorkshire, England, founded by Henry Pease in 1861, known for its 1869 pier and the 1884 water-balanced cliff lift, Britain's oldest.
Sandbach
Sandbach: market town in Cheshire East, England, chartered by Elizabeth I in 1579. Known for its early 9th-century Saxon Crosses, Foden and ERF truck manufacturing, and an emerging 2026 Neighbourhood Plan.
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a small town in north-east Kent, England, on the River Stour about 3 km from the coast, and one of the five original Cinque Ports.
Scarborough
Scarborough is a seaside town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire, England, Britain's first seaside resort and the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast.
Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe is the largest town in North Lincolnshire, England (about 80,000 people), an industrial town built on iron and steel since 1864 and home to British Steel's works, the UK's last blast furnaces making virgin steel, nationalized in 2026.
Seaton
Seaton is a coastal town in East Devon, England, on the Axe estuary, known for its Roman settlement at Honeyditches and a 22,000-coin hoard found in 2014.
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is an old market town in west Kent, England, about 30 miles from London, known for Knole House and timber-framed buildings from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Sheffield
Sheffield, South Yorkshire's largest city and historic "Steel City", is a Core Cities Group borough of about 582,000 people beside the Peak District, famed for cutlery and steelmaking and now a £2.01 billion visitor economy.
Shirebrook
Shirebrook is a former colliery town in Bolsover District, Derbyshire, England, transformed by the 1896 Shirebrook Colliery (closed 1993) and now known for the Sports Direct warehouse on the old pit site.