COUNTRY Life magazine asked its readers to nominate their favourite British icons and the shortlist included the Mini (both the skirt and the car), Nelson's Column, Morris dancing and – rather surprisingly – fox hunting.

Surely they're missing a trick though; nowhere in the list does it mention the English village. The very thought brings an irresistible image – the green with its ducks waddling into the pond, the welcoming pub, the cosy thatched cottages and the ancient church.

No matter how accurate that image may be now, the appeal of village life is undiminished for a large number of homeowners and attractive homes in popular villages are never short of potential buyers.

Philip James of property specialists Strutt & Parker said: "There was a time when people only thought of moving into a rural village when they were planning their retirement, but nowadays we are increasingly turning to village life, looking for a better quality of life for our families.

"We are also looking for a sense of community, which is increasingly rare in our cities."

Village life has changed enormously over the past decades. People commute into towns for work, village shops and post offices have closed in large numbers and many villages have lost their pubs.

For a time village schools were being closed and children were attending larger schools a distance away, which had a negative effect on village identity, though this trend has been halted and even reversed.

Despite all that village life has survived and in many areas is prospering.

Large numbers of rural businesses have been established in recent years, the National Lottery Fund has financed the building and re-building of hundreds of village halls, broadband internet connections have been extended to a large number of rural areas, and bodies such as the Women's Institute have found a new and important role in village life.

When it comes to the sort of houses those moving into villages want, Mr James says: "Properties on the edge of villages are always popular; there is a suspicion that if you are right in the heart of a village everyone will be able to see you coming and going and will know your business.

"In reality though, people are simply too busy with their own lives these days."

People tend to want picturesque cottages rather than modern estate homes, but some new village developments have been very well designed, successfully using local vernacular styles.

"Homebuyers shouldn't set their minds against new village property; villages need new development to grow and evolve. It’s in nobody’s interest that a community should be preserved, unchanged, as if in aspic," added Mr James.