Britain's most desirable rural area to live has been named as Uttlesford in Essex - home to the historic town of Saffron Walden, as well as Stansted Airport.
Uttlesford helped push last year's winner, Waverley in Surrey, into third place for 2014, with South Northamptonshire ranked second in Halifax's annual rural quality of life survey.
Popular with tourists and commuters for its close links to London and Cambridge, the district of Uttlesford was formed in 1974 when several boroughs merged.
Saffron Walden has been hailed as one of the finest preserved examples of a medieval market town in the country and Uttlesford also has attractions including a museum and mazes.
Another reason people flock to Uttlesford is to pass through Stansted Airport, the fourth-busiest airport in the UK, with about 17.5 million passengers a year.
Halifax uses statistics from various sources to find the top countryside idylls, including those relating to the health, personal wellbeing and life expectancy of residents, crime rates, weather, employment, school results and broadband access.
This year is the first time Uttlesford has been crowned the winner, having come second in 2013.
More than eight in 10 adults in Uttlesford believe what they do in life is worthwhile.
As usual in Halifax's survey, southern areas and the London commuter belt fared well in the quality-of-life survey, with the local authority districts of East Hertfordshire, South Cambridgeshire, Vale of White Horse and Chiltern also making the top 10.
The highest a Welsh district was placed in the survey was Monmouthshire at 70.
Scotland claimed two places in the top 50, with the Orkney Islands at 24 and the Shetland Islands at 43.
The sunniest place in Britain is the Isle of Wight, where residents enjoy an average of 37.4 hours of sunshine a week, while the people living in East Dorset can expect to live the longest, to 82.9 years old typically.
