Great Bentley

Has the largest village green in England, weighing in at over 40 acres. It used to have four or five pubs but only has two now. The green itself is so large, it is sliced in two by the road through the village.

As it is so big, I would argue, it doesn't make it the prettiest green. They play cricket on one side, football on the other. It has a couple of churches, a primary school, several bus routes and a railway station connecting with Frinton, Walton and Clacton at one end and Colchester and London at the other. All this and a population of about 2,500.

Probably the most famous resident in recent times was Jeremy Spake, the ex-Aeroflot star of the original Airport documentary series and who went on to present a number of BBC programmes. He could often be seen driving his Audi TT around, recognisable by it's number plate X KGB, which I thought showed he had a sense of humour!

The village is surrounded by arable farms which were today basking in brilliant sunshine at 24C.