Community feeling, independent spirit and great people all part of mixture that makes Eccleshall great place to live in

I've been lucky enough to travel all over this country, from driving over the Highlands in Scotland to along the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, around the East Anglian coast and on long drives to and from Devon.

However, there's a town only 25 miles from my home in Wolverhampton that I've never been to and never taken the time previously to do so in Eccleshall.

It's a name I would see as I was leaving the M6 at junction 14 on my way to Stafford, or through emails sent my way regarding food festivals, flower arrangements and other civic matters, but I'd never made the effort to go there before.

However, the town has been named as one of the top places in the UK to live by the Sunday Times, something which was decided and announced after expert judges visited and assessed factors from schools to transport, broadband speeds and mobile signal to culture, as well as access to green spaces and the health of the high street.

For Eccleshall, the judges said: "The sweet scent of woodsmoke hangs over the coaching inns and the Grade II listed, quaintly arched high street shopfronts in this Staffordshire town.

"Eccleshall carries on much as it has done for the past 600 years. Officially a town but a village in look, feel and community spirit, it feels safe, looks pretty and has history.

"There’s also a cricket club, a busy and competitive football club, a primary school and a year-round programme of community events that keeps locals busy."

With that high praise, it seemed a good time to venture into the Staffordshire countryside and finally visit the town to see whether the hype matched the reality.

Set amid leafy green countryside, the vivid Eccleshall sign, which is adorned with a horse-drawn carriage and a church, sits on the busy A5013 road as a welcoming beacon.

The town is set as something of a middle point between Stafford, Newport and Newcastle and sees traffic passing through, but doesn't feel overly busy or overrun by vehicles.

Looking along Stafford Street, you're met with nice architecture on the various buildings, all of which seem to be hosting independent businesses from the Great Wall Chinese takeaway to butchers Perrys of Eccleshall and there's also the Tudor-framed and very pretty Kings Arms Hotel.

In fact, the only businesses on the street seemed to be the Cooperative Food shop and the Post Office, where postmistress Sangita Prasad was hard at work.

She said she and her family had moved into the town a few months before and had just found it to be a friendly and welcoming place.

She said: "Every place we go to, the people are the best and Eccleshall is a very friendly and very nice place to stay.

"My son has been enjoying it as he has all the support of his friends, so I'm happy and my kids are happy.

"It's a town which feels like a village because everything is connected with every place, so it's good for that peace of mind."

Take a walk further down to the crossroads where roads lead towards Newcastle or out into the countryside towards Staffordshire and you'll find the busy and very stimulating High Street, full of independent businesses and more Tudor-framed buildings.

Among the centres for independent businesses is the Eccleshall Arcade, a walkway with several small shops along the narrow corridors providing colourful fabrics.

Among those was the Corner Patch, owned and run by Janet Markwell, who had been running the shop for six years and was in the middle of plans to move into Eccleshall from Penkridge.

She said: "I think it's a real community and an historic place full of independent traders with lots of variety of shops and it's just such a vibrant community.

"The people in the town made me feel very welcome when I first came here and opened the shop and I'm going to be moving into the town soon.

"It has that village feeling to it and they do so much here as a community, like the Eccleshall show, and it's amazing to think that a fairly small town can put on events of that size."

The community feeling is one that a lot of people in the town seem to feel, either from just working there or by living in the town.

Sally-Ann Ware runs Homely Bee, a shop with a fine range of honey products and many other home decor and gift ideas for people.

She agreed with the community aspect of the town and said it was just a friendly place.

She said: "It's got a lovely community feeling as everybody knows each other and everybody helps each other and it's just very friendly.

"It has the small village feeling and I'm vey proud to hear about it being named as a best place to live as if you come at various times of the year, you'll see baskets out for VE Day, loads of flags and pretty Christmas trees in December.

"You feel like part of the community straightaway, as you can go to loads of the pubs and people will just chat with people, even if they don't know them. Even in my shop, people come in and they're chatting to each other."

Being a town with an independent spirit, Eccleshall seems like a place which prides itself on unique and fun places to go, such as Charlie's Cat Cafe, a place for coffee, cake and the attention of around 19 different cats.

Owners Jill and Nola Creighan said that they felt very much part of the community, even living up the road in Stone.

Jill said: "I think it's quite a close community and since we moved the business here in 2023, we've had quite a lot of regulars come in and say how lovely this place is.

"It's just a nice town to be in and we're very proud to be part of the community feeling."

My own impressions of the town on my short visit matched with those of the people I spoke to, with a warm feeling from every shop I went into and people being very friendly, so I can see why Eccleshall is on that list. 

Make sure you take a moment to go along and see a town with a warm community feeling and great people.