Even on a slightly overcast morning in East Leake, people are out walking the streets, nipping into shops and stopping to have a chat. It's a place which has retained its village feel, even if its quite a large one, as everyone seems to know each other.
The village has been ranked second bottom of a list of the best places to live in the UK. In the Garrington's Property Finders Best Places to Live list, the village was ranked 1,371st out of 1,372 areas.
Paul Keay, 61, who is retired, used to work in a garage in the village before eventually moving there. He said: "I'm definitely surprised by that - I think there is something here for everybody. It's certainly no worse than anywhere else - I can think of a lot of worse places near here!
The best places to live in Nottinghamshire - read more here.
"Everything is here if you need it. Especially if you're an older person, it means you don't have to get on a bus or a train to get what you need and that's important. It's getting bigger and bigger, too. I understand people have got to live somewhere, but I think the fact that they aren't adding infrastructure to go alongside the houses is a bit of a problem.
"But I mean they are adding all these houses and people are buying them and moving in - so it can't be that bad, can it? Everywhere is expanding - Clifton is marching right towards Gotham now. I can't see anything here that makes it a terrible place to live. We have pretty much everything you need."
Garrington's ranking is based on natural beauty, quality of life, architectural beauty and how green the area is - along with the average cost of a family home there. Other Nottinghamshire areas that scored highly include Beeston and West Bridgford.
Another East Leake resident, who has lived there for more than 20 years but preferred to remain anonymous, said: "I think it's a load of nonsense. It's ridiculous. Ask the majority of people here if it's a nice place to live and they would say 'yes' and I think that speaks volumes.
"Have these people ever actually been to East Leake? I'm willing to bet good money they haven't - I bet they haven't even stepped foot here. If you look around we have lovely independent shops, the people are nice, we have parks, great houses. It doesn't make any sense."
Thomas Gwynne, 79, has lived in the village his whole life - working in the British Gypsum building for many years before his retirement. He has told Nottinghamshire Live he feels East Leake is losing its identity as a village due to the new developments there.
"If I was looking for a place to live now I don't think I would choose East Leake," he said. "I don't mind West Leake, actually, so I think there are other options for people quite local. I think the place is a bit too big now there are more houses going up. I worked at British Gypsum so it made sense for me to be here and then I got too old to move! I have seen lots and lots of changes here."
The area got its lowest ranking for quality of life, for which it comes in as the sixth bottom of places on the list, then for its 'natural beauty', for which it was ranked as the 1320th best. For its green spaces, it was ranked 1,104th and finally for its architecture it got 1,003 out of 1,372. According to Garrington's, the average price of a family home in East Leake is between £350,000 and £650,000.
A Rushcliffe Borough Council spokesperson said: “We know how much East Leake and Rushcliffe residents love the village as a wonderful place to live with an engaged and caring community with its own identity that encompasses the spirit of so many great places here in the Borough.
“Surveys of this nature can often be misleading using data that is very much open to interpretation depending on the basis from which it is being assessed. We know East Leake is a thriving, attractive place to live with picturesque countryside on its doorstep and yet within touching distance of larger urban centres that provides a great balance of lifestyle for so many Rushcliffe families and individuals.”
A spokesperson for Garrington Property Finders said: “Our annual Best Places to Live report compares nearly 1400 of the highest ranking locations across England and Wales. By definition, everywhere on the list is a good place to live, and they all have good access to superfast broadband.
"Every year we analyse reams of publicly available data to rank each city, town and village according to four criteria - natural beauty, architectural beauty, quality of life and environmental credentials.
“We celebrate the places with the highest scores by writing about them on our website and in the media. Of course some places score less highly, but this is in no way a criticism."
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