On the banks of the river Kennet in north-east Wiltshire, Ramsbury is in many ways an archetypal English village. With a tangle of winding streets and a couple of country pubs at its centre, towards the outskirts the thatched cottages and period homes give way to rolling farmland and large, detached properties on spacious plots, some housing plump ponies in smart-looking all-weather rugs.    

Such charms placed Ramsbury squarely in the sights of Londoners seeking a move to the countryside in the wake of the first Covid lockdowns, as the advent of homeworking made areas further from the capital seem more appealing. In the first two months of 2021, the number of home sales in Ramsbury and its surrounding villages was 44 per cent higher than it was during the same period in 2020, according to property portal Rightmove.

The growth in London buyers between 2019 and 2022 was higher in Wiltshire — a mostly rural county — than in any other local authority in England, according to Hamptons, the estate agency.