Another Brit here :) I used to live in a really small village called Bugbrooke, near Northampton, and I still miss the beautiful countryside around there.
For whatever reason, there are some wonderful needlework stores over there, but definitely less on the quilting front. Ironically though, some of my favorite fabrics are by Makower, and I have had to order from England on occasion in order to get all the fabrics I needed in a given series for one of their patterns.