Farnham

Farnham reads as Georgian brick and sandstone rather than chain-store retail parks — the kind of high street where independent shops sit under listed façades and the castle keeps watch over the whole thing. It attracts a settled crowd rather than a transient one: the median age here is 42, a few years older than the national norm, and the town has the unhurried confidence of a place people move to rather than pass through.

The practical picture is a good one, on the whole. Farnham Rail Station gives you a direct line into commuting territory without needing a car, and South Farnham School — rated Outstanding, and the largest primary in the sample at over 800 pupils — anchors the town's reputation with families. It's not the only strong option either; The Abbey School carries the same Outstanding rating, and the area's schools grade sits well above the national average across the board. Housing leans toward semi-detached freeholds, and that "For Sale" board you'll see propped against a Victorian bay window is usually announcing exactly that: three-quarters of sales here are freehold houses rather than flats, at a median around £475,000. That's a shade below the wider Waverley district (Farnham runs about 8% cheaper than its parent area) but still comfortably above the national median — this is affluent commuter-belt territory, sitting in the top decile for deprivation nationally, even if the affordability grade is more middling than the rest of its report card, a reminder that comfortable and cheap are not the same thing.