It is, Gunn says, very much a party town – with an active social scene for locals, who throw garden parties and barbecues throughout the summer. Favourite hotspots include the Blue Ball pub, farm-to-table restaurant Briar, which has a place in the Michelin Guide, and the Prickly Pear pub (currently under renovation). The Newt, Babington House (the first Soho House club outside of Greek Street) and Michelin-starred restaurant Osip are all nearby too.

Gunn adds: “What makes Bruton a great place to live, for me, is its buzzing community and having my friends within walking distance. It has a buzzing Airbnb scene, with tourists visiting, thanks to the Hauser and Wirth art gallery and smaller galleries, like Bo Lee Workman.”

Where to stay

Number One Bruton, “a gorgeously appointed boutique hotel that’s a blend of townhouse and medieval forge, dressed like the home of a well-travelled friend”. Rooms from £130 a night.

The ‘Notswolds’

Another area fast becoming a celebrity favourite is Northamptonshire, which has been dubbed “the Notswolds”.

The area, described by local writer Alan Moore as the “nation’s best kept secret”, is home to Spice Girl Geri Horner and her husband Christian, the Formula One executive, and German supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who has a contemporary stone-and-glass house on the Northamptonshire/Oxfordshire border with her husband, the British film director Matthew Vaughn.

Northampton is also the home town of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, actor and writer Tim Minchin and presenter Jo Whiley. Actor Stephen Graham lives in nearby Leicestershire.

For visitors, Northamptonshire has a greater concentration of stately homes than any other county, including “the English Versailles”, Boughton House. There’s also Elizabethan pile Holdenby House, and Canons Ashby, which is owned by the National Trust.