By Valerie Elliot For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 00:01 BST, 16 June 2019 | Updated: 00:02 BST, 16 June 2019
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It is not a part of the country famed for its wide open spaces.
But if you’re looking for a home with a big garden, you should look beyond leafy Surrey, the rolling Yorkshire hills or the wilds of Northumbria – and instead plump for Canvey Island beside the Thames Estuary.
The Essex peninsular is the place with the largest average garden size in England and Wales, according to figures exclusively collated for The Mail on Sunday by Ordnance Survey.
Their data shows that houses in the Castle Point district, which includes Canvey Island, typically have 1,100 sq ft of greenery – more than three times as much as those in Westminster, whose Central London homes come bottom of the league.
Jill Shrubb in her large, well-tended garden. The aptly named 73-year-old said: ‘There are lots of big gardens round here. I’m out in mine every day but don’t ask me how big it is because I don’t know'
But there could be a downside if Labour come to power and bring in their threatened ‘garden tax’.
Though Canvey Island’s houses are often relatively small, with lots of bungalows and chalets, the gardens are enviably spacious.
Pensioner Jill Shrubb has