Seven extraordinary villages to visit in England and Wales

Quicksands, time capsules, witch trials, the Elephant Man … These atmospheric villages all have a twist in their tale

Quirky villages. We’re famous for them. They may be split in half, full of deceptions or slipping off the edge of a cliff. Whatever their claim to notoriety, this is the perfect summer to go off-piste and find them.

I collected 50 such curios for my book, Extraordinary Villages. They are a rare adventure missing from tourist guidebooks – it took me 20 years of filming and lots of map reading to piece them together. I discovered a place in the Humber called Sunk Island – how can it be both? And a hefty chunk of Norfolk devoid of roads and place names – what is it hiding?