AS THE women of Little Milton yoga group settled down for their weekly post-exercise coffee and chat at the village pub, there was only one topic on their lips.

The village is believed to be the subject for PhD student Francine Watkins's research paper: Is the rural idyll bad for your health? Stigma and Exclusion in the English countryside.

Although the social scientist gives the fictional name of Stonycroft to the place where she carried out her three-month research project, the facts given suggest that Little Milton is the village in question.

In keeping with the village described in the report, Little Milton has a 17th century thatched pub, a population of approximately 490, a village hall, a post office/shop, and a primary school with about 50 pupils.

It also states that the M40 is "far enough away to be hidden from the village but close enough to enable relatively easy commuting to London and Birmingham".

Dr Watkins spent three months living in the village, producing a report painting a grim picture of a gossipy, back-stabbing place where gay, divorced and single people are not welcome.

However, villagers staunchly defended their sleepy east Oxfordshire backwater and described the study as "absolute rubbish".

Yoga club member Shirley Leach, 70, said: "It is rubbish. Complete and utter rubbish. I have lived here for 10 years and I think it is one of the best community-spirited places around."

Fellow yoga club member and former Little Milton Women's Institute president Anne Hawkins, 55, was equally dismissive of the report's conclusions.

She added: "I have been here six years with my husband and son and always found it to be a very friendly village. It is family-orientated and we have got involved in everything that is going on here.

"There is a real mix of people, from young people to old age pensioners, but there is no bigotry here."

The research paper talked about a gay pub manager called "Mark" who is in his 20s and had lived in Stonycroft since the age of 11.

It says that "Mark" had been approached by four or five men in the village asking for sex, but had turned them down and been stigmatised as a result.

The barman worked in Stoneycroft' about five years ago, but only for a few months.

Sixty-year-old Doug Smith, who has been running The Lamb Inn for 18 months, said the attitudes of villagers described in the report bore no resemblance to the reality of village life.

He joked: "Let us get on with our wife-swapping in peace! This is a nice village and we have got a good thing going.

"I don't know where she has got her conclusions from, but I do know that the report will be tomorrow's fish and chip paper."

But Paul West, 38, painted a different picture.

He said: "I am gay and I would say yes, there are certain people in the village that are fine with it, but you do get certain neighbours who are negative towards you.

"I have been approached by one gentleman who told me to stay away from his children. I find that people who have come into the village from outside are the ones who are quite negative as opposed to those who have lived in the village all their life.

"Although I was born and bred in the village, I would not feel comfortable drinking in the pub with my partner.

"Personally, I think the report is about 85 per cent accurate."

Dr Watkins was unavailable for comment but a spokesman for Liverpool University said: "Francine Watkins is not going to confirm the true identity of the village because the people she has interviewed have to remain anonymous."