On a couple of our jaunts this week we have gone past the turnoff to Cranleigh which is marked by an enormous brown tourist signpost, proclaiming it to be the largest village in England.

That got me to wondering exactly what the definition of ‘village’ is. Is there an ISO unit of measurement for human settlements? Is there a particular quantum of development which would turn a village into a town? What would the tipping point be?

It amused me to imagine a village which got so large that someone adding a loft extension caused it to become a town – a bit like that Hugh Grant film about going up a hill and coming down a mountain.

The truth is, of course, a lot more boring than any flights of fancy. There is no definition of village, at least none which is valid now.

Looking through the Wikipedia entries on town, village, and Cranleigh was quite enlightening, and threw up a few bits of information, including a local connection for me: apparently Cranleigh used to be spelled ‘Cranley’ but was changed in late Victorian times to avoid confusion with Crawley, and this was at the request of the Post Office.

Funny how the post office are happy to have Lingfield and Lindfield quite close to each other, or a Rainham in North Kent and another in South Essex, or Tonbridge next to Royal Tunbridge Wells.

But back to the point, it seems there are at least another 13 villages who claim, or have claimed, to be the largest village in the country, including Lancing!

I suspect that Cranleigh, with an 850-pupil secondary school, 5 primary school, 6 churches, and at least 20 places to eat or drink out (including Ask and Pizza Express) is probably more of a town than a village. At the 1991 census it had a population of 11,479, while the town of Llanwrtyd Wells (which claims to be the smallest town) had a population of 601 in the 2001 census. So the largest village has 20 times more people in it than the smallest town…