I live in England's friendliest place – these are the spots locals love

Cloud-white beaches, a subtropical microclimate and a relaxed pace – all less than three hours by ferry from the mainland. England’s only archipelago is a beloved holiday destination made up of a mix of around 200 islands, islets and rocks and attracting about 100,000 visitors in the peak months of summer. It has also been named the nation’s friendliest place to live in a new index compiled using data from the government-run community life survey.

The Isles of Scilly have a population of around 2,360 that’s spread across the five inhabited islands. Around 75 per cent of the land and a third of the residential housing is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, a landed estate currently held by William, the Prince of Wales.

Among the isles’ residents is Anna Browne, who lives on St Martin’s, which became her adopted home in 1998.

“I first came to the island in 1990 on a diving holiday, and did what everyone does – fell in love with the place,” she says. “I came over in a massive storm; it was wet and windy. Then, the next morning, there was blazing sunshine, calm sea, and I thought: ‘What is this place I’ve come to? It’s amazing’.”

Browne returned to the islands for holidays many times over the years. She eventually found a job at a diving school on St Martin’s before going on to run St Martin’s Watersports, which hires out kayaks, paddleboards and snorkelling sets. She has now lived on the northernmost and third-largest of the inhabited islands for 28 years, and says she can’t imagine wanting to leave.

With around 140 people living on St Martin’s, she says you eventually get to know everyone. “I think the reason it’s so friendly is partly because people come here on holiday, so they are relaxed.

“So many tourists come regularly; some people have been coming for 20, 30, 40, even 50 years. I know what time of year it is by the visitors I see. Because it’s quite a relaxed lifestyle here, people say it’s like England in the 1950s. There are lots of honesty stalls around. People stop and chat. I think Scilly brings out the best in people.”

Browne adds: “I find it really lovely that everyone knows your business. I broke my leg in March. I had so many flowers [from neighbours]. I had cooked food left in the house for us to eat.”

Island life wouldn’t suit everyone for more than a holiday, and that’s just as well given the size of the Isles of Scilly, and peace being part of their appeal. But Browne says St Martin’s is a place that welcomes tourists.

She adds: “Anyone who has a business here knows that it’s the tourists that keep us going.”

Browne tends to work up to six days a week and tries to travel elsewhere when she does take a holiday, although she is always glad to return to St Martin’s.

She makes the most of the island’s local businesses and takes trips to neighbouring islands when she has a chance. Here are her favourite spots.

“The view from the pub is amazing,” says Browne, of the island’s public house. It’s on an elevated area in St Martin’s Lower Town and has views across the Atlantic, both out of the pub windows and from the leafy terrace. On clear days, you can see the islands of Tresco and St Mary’s.

This collection of eight uninhabited islands to the south-east of St Martin’s is protected as the Eastern Isles nature reserve and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its flora, fauna and fragile marine habitats. The islands are around 1.1 miles from St Martin’s, or around 15 minutes by boat from St Martin’s Quay.

Brown says: “If I’ve got a quiet evening, or if I’ve got friends over, we might paddle over to an uninhabited island by kayak and watch the sunset there or take pizza and have tea there.

“They’re generally really quiet, and you’re often the only person there in the evenings. It’s nice to see a different place, with different beaches.”

“If I was on St Mary’s (around 15 minutes by boat from St Martin’s) I would probably go to the Gig Shed Cafe and have food there. That’s on Porthmellon Beach,” says Browne.

The business is set among other gig sheds, huts that are traditionally used to store Cornish gigs, or rowing boats. It has views over the harbour and serves vegetarian food.

Browne says: “Adam [Morton] goes out and catches the fish. His brother James grows the potatoes. Adam’s wife Fiona makes the puddings. The food there is always really good.”

The takeaway in St Martin’s Higher Town dates to 2003, when Adam, a fisherman, was looking for an outlet for his fish. Options on the menu include lobster scampi and freshly caught pollock, both, of course, served with chips.

Run by Barney and Ella McLachlan, the bakery is open seasonally between Easter and October. It serves traditional Cornish pasties, takeaway pizzas and picnic lunches.

Browne says: “The fresh bread is fantastic. Barney bakes through the winter. They do tarts, and, generally, really lovely food. Quite often people will go to the bakery, grab food, then go off to explore the islands.”

Ella McLachlan also runs a skincare business. Browne says: “My friend Ella makes this incredible range called Phoenix & Providence, with seaweed. You can buy that through the bakery. She gathers the seaweed on the seashore, she dries it, then infuses oil with it.”

Browne says: “Each island has its own characteristics. If I had a choice of going to another [inhabited] island, it would probably be St Agnes, it’s probably my favourite off-island. It has a very different feel to St Martin’s. We’re a long, thin island, while St Agnes is very circular.”

St Agnes is around 30 minutes from St Martin’s by boat.

Browne adds: “Agnes is lovely, it’s the furthest southwest. You can look out to the Western [Rocks; an uninhabited collection of granite islands and reefs] and Bishop Rock Lighthouse.

“As a diver, I’m really interested in the shipwrecks out there.”

Browne says: “There’s an incredible jewellers down in Lower Town, Fay Page. She has been operating for about 25 years now, and she made my engagement ring and wedding ring.”

The business started out with shell and pebble jewellery, while Fay was on St Agnes, before branching out to silversmithing. It’s now run from a granite barn on St Martin’s.

“There’s a really lovely honesty store in Middle Town with an incredible artist called Inga,” says Browne.

Middletown Barn, also known as Ingart Gallery, is run by Inga Drazniece. It sells fine art, prints, stationery and gifts.