Prestbury is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the borough of

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

, England. Located on the outskirts of

and part of the Tewkesbury parliamentary constituency. The parish of Prestbury had a population of 6,981 according to the 2011 census.

History

The name of the village means "Priests fortified place", from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

''preost'' and ''burh'', possibly from a fortified manor house belonging to the

Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. The episcopal see is centred in the City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in the Cathedral Church of Sa ...

in the 13th century. The settlement is mentioned as ''Preosdabyrig'' in 899-904. Prestbury is listed in the 1086 ''

Doomsday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' as "Presteberie", part of the property of the church of

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester, England, Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. ...

, with 18 villagers, five smallholders, a priest, a riding man and 11 slaves. By the 13th century it had become ''Presbery''. In 1249 the

was granted permission to hold a weekly market along with a three-day annual fair in August. The village became eclipsed by Cheltenham following the end of the medieval period. The market started to decline in the 15th century and had lapsed completely by the start of the 18th century. In the middle of the 18th century a

mineral spring Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produces hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage un ...

was discovered in the parish, and by 1751 a local landowner, Lord Craven, had a business providing bathing and lodging. However it did not last past the end of the century. The Prestbury

War Memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

is a

Cotswold stone The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...

gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

column with six engraved panels commemorating the villagers who died in the First World War (1914–1918). The memorial was severely damaged in October 2011 in an act of

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The ter ...

when the column was toppled to the ground and smashed. There are claims that Prestbury is the most

haunted Haunted or The Haunted may refer to: Books * ''Haunted'' (Armstrong novel), by Kelley Armstrong, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Cabot novel), by Meg Cabot, 2004 * ''Haunted'' (Palahniuk novel), by Chuck Palahniuk, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Angel novel), a 200 ...

village in England, and one of the most haunted in Britain.

Amenities

The village shops include two stores and petrol station with store. There is a public library, three hairdressers, a pharmacy, and a butcher. A

carvery A carvery is a pub or a restaurant where cooked meat is freshly sliced to order for customers, sometimes offering unlimited servings in a buffet style for a fixed price. The term is most commonly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, and ...

, the King's Arms, was the village's main

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

, and it was here that the 19th-century jockey

Fred Archer Fred or Frederick Archer may refer to: * Fred Archer (jockey) (1857–1886), English jockey * Fred R. Archer (1889–1963), photographer and co-inventor of the photographic Zone System * Frederick Scott Archer (1813–1857), inventor of the photogr ...

grew up, his father being the landlord of the pub. There are three further village pubs: the Plough, the Beehive and the Royal Oak.

Prestbury Racecourse

The village is home to Prestbury Park, the

Cheltenham Racecourse Cheltenham Racecourse at Prestbury Park, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, hosts National Hunt horse racing. Its most prestigious meeting is the Cheltenham Festival, held in March, which features several Grade I races including the ...

, which holds the Gold Cup race each March.

Racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

trainers Frenchy Nicholson and his son David Nicholson had stables in Prestbury. Notable Nicholson apprentices include

Pat Eddery Patrick James John Eddery (18 March 1952 – 10 November 2015) was an Irish flat racing jockey and trainer. He rode three winners of the Derby and was Champion Jockey on eleven occasions. He rode the winners of 4,632 British flat races, a f ...

Walter Swinburn Walter Robert John Swinburn (7 August 1961 – 12 December 2016) was a flat racing jockey and trainer who competed in Great Britain and internationally. Biography Swinburn was born in Oxford. He was the son of Wally Swinburn, who won ...

, and

Mouse Morris Michael "Mouse" Morris, formally the Hon. Michael Morris, (born 4 April 1951) is an Irish racehorse trainer and former amateur and professional jockey. As a trainer, he has won the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and has won the Iri ...

the 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup winning trainer with the horse War of Attrition.

Governance

Prestbury civil parish has been in the Borough of Cheltenham since 1991; it was in Cheltenham Rural District from 1894 to 1974, and the Borough of Tewkesbury from 1974 to 1991. The parish is presently split between four wards of the Borough of Cheltenham: Swindon Village, Prestbury, Pittville (a very small part) and Oakley; three electoral divisions of the county of Gloucestershire: St Paul's and Swindon, Pittville and Prestbury, and All Saints and Oakley; and two parliamentary constituencies: Tewkesbury and Cheltenham.

Gallery

File:St Marys Church Prestbury.jpg, St Mary's Church, Prestbury; view from Mill Street File:War memorial, Prestbury - geograph.org.uk - 1507634.jpg, Prestbury War Memorial File:The thatched shop, Prestbury - geograph.org.uk - 864553.jpg, Thatched shop in Prestbury

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Areas of Cheltenham Reportedly haunted locations in South West England