Twice as many people in Cornwall would rather live next door to Ross Poldark than Prince Charles, a survey has found.

South West regional insurer Cornish Mutual polled people visiting its stand at the Royal Cornwall Show to discover who the region’s ideal neighbour would be, with the same survey running simultaneously online through the company’s social media channels on Facebook and Twitter.

More than 1,350 people voted on who they’d prefer to live alongside from a list of some of the county’s most famous residents or advocates including Rick Stein, Jethro, Kernow King, David Cameron, HRH the Prince of Wales, Dawn French, and Ross Poldark, while voters at the show were also free to suggest an alternative celebrity neighbour of their choice.

The overwhelming winner was fictional Cornish mining hero Ross Poldark, who polled 382 votes - twice as many as Prince Charles, the Duke of Cornwall. The heir to the throne trailed in third place behind TV star and comedienne Dawn French, who netted 224 votes to HRH’s 185.

Infamous Cornish stand-up Jethro came fourth with 181 votes ahead of recently re-elected Prime Minister David Cameron with 143 votes. Fellow local funnyman Kernow King earned 127 votes, and the county’s famous celebrity chef Rick Stein came seventh with 99 votes.

Alan Goddard, managing director of Cornish Mutual, said: “Every year at the Royal Cornwall Show we get thousands of our members visiting our stand for complementary pasties, cream teas and refreshments. We thought this would be a captive audience to run the good neighbour poll, which we felt was a fun way to mark the event, as well as to celebrate all things Cornish.

“Clearly the enormous popularity of Poldark after the recent hit BBC series hasn’t waned, as Ross Poldark was the clear winner in our poll, beating even the much loved Dawn French and the Duke of Cornwall to be named the person most people would like to live next door to in the South West.

“More than half of Cornwall’s farmers are Members of Cornish Mutual as we have stayed strong to our company’s roots supporting the agricultural community, so it’s quite apt that the winner of our best neighbour poll should turn out to be a character who is well known for being a farmer in Cornwall – as well as a miner.”