Arundel

Arundel's streets are a mix of stone cottages, antique shops and a castle skyline you glimpse from odd angles as you walk down the hill, and the people you see about are more likely to be walking a dog or carrying a coffee than rushing anywhere. The median age here sits well above the national norm, and it shows: this is a place built around a settled, unhurried population rather than a young commuter churn.

That said, the trains still run. Arundel Rail Station sits in the village itself, which matters if you need London or the coast without a car, and the road and stop network is dense enough that getting about locally is straightforward. Schools are a mixed picture worth noting rather than glossing over: Arundel CofE Primary School is the recognisable name locally, and while formal ratings aren't listed for the schools sampled here, the area's overall schools grade sits just above the national average rather than in outstanding territory — solid, not exceptional. Housing leans firmly toward older stone terraces and character conversions, overwhelmingly owned outright as freeholds rather than leased, and the numbers back up what you'd guess from walking the high street: local terraced homes fetch nearly double the national terraced median. A house here costs noticeably more than the Arun district average around it, let alone the country as a whole — this is not a place you land in by accident on price.

Green space is genuinely part of daily life rather than a line on a report: with substantial acreage split across numerous pockets, you're never far from a riverside path or castle-grounds walk, and the food and drink scene tilts toward independent, sit-down places rather than chains, the kind you return to rather than discover once. Healthcare and general wellbeing indicators both sit at the top of the scale for this area, which tracks with an older population that has, on balance, settled rather than passed through. Crime is low in absolute terms — the yearly count is small — though it's worth being honest that violence and anti-social behaviour make up over half of what does get reported, a pattern common to small tourist-facing centres rather than a sign of a rough edge. The safety grade itself is high and has stayed flat rather than drifting either way.