Hook Norton has been named among the UK’s best places to live for 2027.

The village, about eight miles south-west of Banbury, was included in Muddy Stilettos’ list of the UK’s Top 260 Best Places to Live, published at the end of October.

Published annually, the guide picks out the best places to live in each county and looks at what they offer, from schools, commuting and house prices to where to eat, shop and spend a weekend.

Hook Norton is one of eight places in Oxfordshire to make the list, alongside Burford, Goring, Great Milton, Henley-on-Thames, Thame, Watlington and Woodstock.

Why Hook Norton made the list

“With celebs as neighbours and brimming with independent businesses, Hook Norton is having a moment,” the guide says.

It adds that “Hooky to friends” might “seem like a sleepy Oxfordshire village, but it has some pretty flashy Cotswolds neighbours”, with Soho Farmhouse and Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm nearby.

The tall ironstone tower brewery at Hook Norton under a blue sky
Hook Norton Brewery. Photo: Derek Harper, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph

“Top billing has to go to the Hook Norton Brewery,” according to the guide, which calls it “a family-owned Victorian Tower brewery”.

Its “best kept secret” is that singer James Blunt “popped in a while back for lunch and gamely pulled pints for all the customers”.

The guide says the Pear Tree Inn, converted from a house to a pub in 1869, is now “a hub for the village”, while the Sun Inn holds an open mic night on the first Wednesday of the month.

It also praises the village’s “old-fashioned family-run butcher’s shop”, Hook Norton Butchers, and names the Hook Norton Festival of Fine Ales in July as “the big ticket event”.

Ivy-covered stone pillars of the old railway viaduct among trees at Hook Norton
Old railway viaduct pillars, Hook Norton. Photo: Derek Harper, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph

For walkers, it points to the Hook Norton Cutting, the old railway line now “teeming with ferns and moss”, and the “pyramids”, the huge stone pillars left when the railway viaduct was taken down.

How much it costs to live in Hook Norton

Prices are “pretty level year on year”, with an average of £502,129, according to the guide.

It puts detached houses at around £527,762, semis at £504,625 and terraced houses at around £388,195.

The guide names Kingham, 22 minutes away, as the nearest railway station, on the Cotswold Line to Oxford and London Paddington.

Nearby, it says, Broughton Castle has been owned by the Fiennes family since 1377.

What do you think makes Hook Norton a good place to live? Tell us in the comments.