The secret to old age? Just ask the residents of Hinton St George Alex Nuttall, though, is persuaded by more down-to-earth explanations: "People look after each other here." The noticeboard opposite the pub advertises a cinema club, a jazz festival and a talk on Holbein in the historic local church. Plenty to keep everyone busy and engaged. Jonathan Palmer, propping up the bar in the Lord Poulett, is typical of the high number of escapees from the south east. "I abandoned the rat-race 22 years ago," he says. I was in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey but came here after my marriage ended. It's very different. A lot of people have already achieved in life and no longer feel that pressure. And that affects the atmosphere. We have retired Army and Navy people, old canons, and former High Court judges. There are six silks in this one village. The only thing we really lack," he says, pausing to determine the correct phrase, "are single women of a certain age." The social mix may be small "c" conservative and heavy on the professions, but there's a hippy-dippy element, too. "The population here is more affluent than the average," says Sara Hayward in the shop. They can afford good-quality food. She's surrounded by organic goods, plus locally produced marmalade, cider and even olive oil. But it is also a place that attracts artisans and artists, people who care about the environment. The novelist Rachel Billington, who lives nearby, is convinced that the landscape of this remote, rural borderland between Dorset and Somerset has an effect that is more than pleasing on the eye. "The fact that people in Hinton St George live so long," she says, "confirms what I have always thought, that living in beautiful surroundings is good for the soul." Not everyone in Hinton St George, though, is convinced that its headline-grabbing rates of longevity are down only to the splendid setting and keeping the modern technological world at arm's length (mobile phone signals are decidedly sketchy). Maria, serving in the post office, feels that there are pluses and negatives to the rising tide of second-home owners and prosperous retirees washing up in the village. Yes, it means that we have a shop and facilities, but it can be hard for local families to afford houses here. Local estate agents confirm that Hinton St George is a property hot spot, with those looking for a weekend retreat or somewhere to rent out in the holiday season pushing up prices; the owners of a pretty but poky three-bedroom 16th-century cottage are taking offers in the region of £475,000. Dave Keirle, the local window cleaner, who has come into the shop for a ciabatta roll for his lunch, refuses to take the village's 15 minutes of fame seriously. "If I had to put long lives here down to anything, I'd say it was caused by what a good job I do," he jokes. Clean windows mean more light, and they say that the more vitamin D you get from the sun, the longer your life. It's a theory to keep them puzzling over at the bar.