(Top photo: Didcot. Photo: wurzeller, via)There are certain features you'll find in every mundane British town. A shopping centre whose main draw is an extremely hot branch of Costa coffee; a succession of decaying charity shops; a patch of industrial wasteland; a McDonald's surrounded by nine 15-year-olds sharing a solitary Superking; and a very ugly landmark that everyone fiercely takes pride in for absolutely no reason at all.Perhaps that's why Didcot – a place that possesses all of these essential factors – apparently represents England better than anywhere else, with researchers crowning the Oxfordshire town the most "normal" in the country.Ten of its streets came closest to the statistical median in the UK when taking into account things like age, ethnicity, marital status, employment, home ownership, the 2015 election vote share, income, house prices and Euroscepticism.Didcot's mayor, Steve Connel, called the outcome "tremendous", saying: "We have a very diverse group within Didcot. We have a large retired population, working professionals who commute, a scientific community and a large grassroots working community. You can look at every aspect of British life and it's there somewhere within Didcot, and that's probably why we've been named the most normal town – statistically, anyway."The study was inspired by the 1947 film Magic Town, in which a pollster finds a place that he believes truly represents national opinion.The runners-up in the race to be Britain's most normal town are: Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire; the Bath Road area in Worcester; Southwick, in West Sussex; and East Leake in Nottinghamshire.
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