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Let’s move to Shaftesbury, Dorset: an oasis of calm in these feverish times

<span>Photograph: Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Getty Images

What’s going for it? There’s a photo, an actual physical photo, of me – aged what, five? – standing atop Gold Hill in Shaftesbury on some roasting, golden afternoon in what, 1976? This was peak Shaftesbury season. Gold Hill had been beamed into everyone’s living room for years thanks to That Hovis Advert, directed by Ridley Scott (recently resurrected for the digital age), and everyone wanted to be seen there. These days it would be selfies and photobombs ricocheting through people’s Instagrams. In the 70s, we queued up quietly with our Polaroids. Odd, isn’t it, how an advert for bread seared itself on to the collective psyche? We didn’t have TikTok and billions of platforms to divert us back then, of course, so it was impossible to avoid. But there must also have been something reassuring, calming, medicating about the sepia-tinted sight of cobbles and thatch in the mid-70s, when Britain, like today, was going through yet another of its periodic, post-imperial nervous breakdowns. Shaftesbury, high on its hill, was ignored by the Industrial Revolution, bypassed by the railways, so its streetscape to this day has an air of the feudal, even Saxon past. It has entered the 21st century, but only just: shops such as Box of Allsorts take me right back to my childhood. Perching at the top of timeless Gold Hill again, gazing over the countryside below, however cheesy, is just the pulse-cooler I need in these feverish times.

The case against Off the beaten track but, perhaps, in an appealing way. Pricey. But everywhere’s pricey in Dorset.

Well connected? Trains: the nearest station is a 15-minute drive away in Gillingham, with services to Salisbury (25-31 mins) and Yeovil (21 mins). Driving: 45 mins to Salisbury or Yeovil, 50 mins to the coast at Poole.

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Schools Primaries: Abbey CofE is “good”, Ofsted says. Secondaries: Shaftesbury School is “good”, too.

Hang out at… The Grosvenor Arms for a pint of Otter. The Forester in Donhead St Andrew, just outside, is your perfect country pub, thatch, beams and all.

Where to buy While away an afternoon snooping on Parsons Pool or tumbling past the fabulous old houses on St James’s Street; the old town is a jumble of Georgian townhouses and thatched cottages. To the south-east, the streets around Hawkesdene Lane hide detacheds behind high hedges. Also Enmore Green, north-west. Large detacheds and townhouses, £400,000-£700,000. Detacheds and smaller townhouses, £275,000-£400,000. Semis, £220,000-£350,000. Terraces and cottages, £175,000-£300,000. Flats, £90,000-£325,000. Rentals: a one-bedroom flat, £500-£650pcm; a three-bedroom house, £750-£1,000pcm.

Bargain of the week Three-bedroom period detached in the centre of town, “with potential to improve”, £270,000, with connells.co.uk.

Related: Let’s move to Inverness, Inverness-shire: wilderness on the doorstep

From the streets

Jill Chamberlain “Walks on the hills south of town have stunning views. But there’s no good route to drive south to the coast.”

Ed BrownHine & Parsons is a treasure trove – a proper traditional drapery shop.”

• Live in Shaftesbury? Join the debate below.

Do you live in Ilkley? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, email lets.move@theguardian.com by Tuesday 7 January.