Prestbury, Gloucestershire

The name tells you where to begin: Prestbury means "priests' fortified place", from the Anglo-Saxon preost and burh, and may refer to a fortified manor house belonging to the Bishop of Hereford. The settlement appears as Preosdabyrig in 899–904, and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Presteberie", held by the church of Hereford, with 18 villagers, five smallholders, a priest, a riding man and 11 slaves. By the 13th century the name had settled into Presbery.

In 1249 the bishop of Hereford was granted permission to hold a weekly market and a three-day August fair. The market is believed to have been held in The Burgage, and was thriving in 1280 and again in 1394. Cheltenham eventually eclipsed it: the market declined through the 15th century, an attempt to revive it in the early 16th century failed, and by the start of the 18th century it had lapsed entirely. A mineral spring found in the parish in the mid-18th century gave Prestbury a brief spa tradition in imitation of its larger neighbour, with the local landowner Lord Craven providing bathing and lodging by 1751, but that too had faded by the century's end.

Today the village holds 60 listed buildings, chief among them the Grade II* St Mary's Church, whose western tower dates from the 13th century, alongside the medieval bishop's manor site and the Manor House on Bowbridge Lane. The Prestbury War Memorial — a Cotswold stone Gothic Revival column bearing six engraved panels commemorating the villagers who died in the First World War — was toppled and smashed in an act of vandalism in October 2011. A replacement column, cut from stone from the original quarry, was rededicated on 14 April 2012.

The village is bisected by Prestbury Road coming up from Cheltenham, which becomes Deep Street and then the High Street before running north as Southam Road — an easy spine to walk, and the best way to take in the 26-hectare conservation area, with its architectural variety, Cotswold stone walls and open spaces. St Mary's Church, the medieval bishop's manor site and the Manor House on Bowbridge Lane are the obvious anchors for a slow afternoon's wander.

For refreshment there is the King's Arms, a brasserie and pub that was long the village's main public house and where the 19th-century jockey Fred Archer grew up, his father being the landlord; the Plough, the Beehive and the Royal Oak complete the quartet. The village also has two shops, a petrol station with a store, a library, a pharmacy, a butcher and three hairdressers. Cheltenham Racecourse — historically Prestbury Park — lies within the parish and hosts the Gold Cup each March.