Godalming

Godalming's high street still runs on independent shops rather than chains, with the timber-framed Pepperpot at its centre and enough period brick to tell you this town grew up long before the car did. It attracts a settled, comfortable crowd — the median age sits close to 42, a touch above both the regional and national norm — and the housing stock backs that up: this is a place people move to and stay, not pass through.

The practical picture holds together well. Godalming Rail Station puts commuters within reach of Waterloo, which is the main reason London-facing professionals tolerate the premium here, and with seven schools in the town — including The Wharf Nursery School rated Outstanding and St Mark and All Saints Church of England Primary rated Good — families have real options without needing to look elsewhere. Housing is dominated by freehold houses and flats in a roughly even mix, with detached homes fetching notably more than the national going rate; a For Sale board here is as likely to be on a Victorian terrace as a 1930s semi, and leasehold only accounts for a minority of sales. Prices sit a shade below neighbouring Guildford and comfortably above the national median, which places Godalming among the better-off, lower-deprivation parts of the country without tipping into the eye-watering end of the South East market.

Green space is genuinely part of daily life rather than an afterthought — with thirty separate pockets of it across the town, from riverside meadows to town gardens, a walk along the Wey is as normal a weekend fixture as a browse of the independent shops. Health outcomes here are strong, and safety follows the same pattern: crime is trending down, and while violence and anti-social behaviour make up the bulk of incidents (as they do almost everywhere), the overall rate is low enough to earn the town one of the highest safety grades going. Full-fibre broadband reaches about two-thirds of properties, which matters if you're weighing up working from home against the commute.