A Stroll through Prestbury

2059

Starting from the Shirleys taxi rank and bicycle sheds, proceed to the security checkpoint. After an identity check, full body search and confiscation of all mobile devices you may enter the village centre by the footpath leading to Macclesfield Road for a payment of only £10 (€5).

Old Reading Room

Across Macclesfield Road is the Prestbury Hall Geriatric Hospital. To its right is the old Reading Room, occupied on the left by the Bank of China and on the right by Ye Olde Internette Café, which replaced the library and Prestbury’s last Estate Agency during 2016-7 after both were closed, the former because it had become uneconomic for books to be stored in paper form when they could be downloaded from the internet, and the latter because the purchase, sale and repossession of properties were invariably arranged online. On the upper floor is the Directorate of the Parish Commissar (closed to the public).

PTP Headquarters

Across the road from the Reading Room, to the right of the piggery, is the PTP (Prestbury Thought Police) headquarters, a plain three-storey building with mullioned windows dating from the seventeenth century. Its unassuming exterior conceals surveillance equipment monitoring villagers and visitors for inappropriate thinking. Offenders are held in the cellars for re-education before being released into the community under supervision. Do not linger near the building.

Proceeding down the village street you come to the Legh Arms, a late Tudor building, probably dating from 1580. It was originally called the Saracen's Head after the crest of Sir Brian Stapleton of Upton who had followed Edward I in the Crusade of 1270. The inn sign was painted by a wandering artist. Probably due to ignorance he interpreted the Saracen as a “Negro”, so the inn became known as The Black Boy or the Blackamoor's Head.

The local inhabitants meet at the Legh Arms on market days in a room over the stables, entered by a flight of stone steps. Parish tea parties are also held there, hosted by the Grandmothers Union.

A lane at the side of the restaurant operated by the National Institute for Culinary Excellence (NICE) leads to the old vicarage. Alongside the lane is a narrow field called the Saw Pit Field. The field was last used in 2012 after the European Deforestation Commission decreed the felling of trees in Prestbury, though those in the churchyard were exempt. Yews in front of Prestbury Hall were the first to go. Sawing was done by hand so as to provide work for the unemployed. The saws were one and a half metres long.

Prestbury is famous for its markets held in the village street on April 28 (bull market) and October 22 (bear market) each year. During the markets the windows along the village street are boarded up to prevent damage by activists from the Bull and Bear Liberation Front.

The National Bank

The National Bank is a picturesque Jacobean timber-framed building on a stone base with a stone slate roof. It is said to date from 1448 and stands almost opposite the lych-gate. Once called the Priest's House, it is said to have been the vicarage in the Caroline period. Marriage ceremonies took place here and the vicar used to address his congregation from the balcony of this house during the period when the church was closed to him and occupied by the Commonwealth party. In the twentieth century the building was carefully restored for use as a bank, while preserving much of its original character. During restoration the fireplaces were unmasked. The original glass in the leaded lights has the lovely tints of green and rose similar to those of Haddon Hall.

Continue in the direction of the river past Ford House, probably sixteenth or seventeenth century but now derelict, a sad victim of the economic collapse of 2008/9.

In order to cross the river you must first present your identity card to the crossing warden. If approved, he will debit your credit card by £10 (£15 for a return ticket). You may then proceed through the turnstile to cross by means of the well designed timber (iroko) footbridge completed in 1979. The present stone bridge was built in 1855 to replace the dual-arched bridge which was found to be insecure.

Bollin Grove follows the River Bollin. On the right is the Village Club, built by in 1908 by I.C.Waterhouse, an ardent teetotaller, to provide wholesome recreation for the working classes. It is now licensed to sell beers, wines and spirits and operates as a casino, backed by the investment arm of the National Bank. “Speculate, Speculate, the Only Way to Accumulate!”

Proceeding along Bollin Grove you come to the drive leading to Prestbury Primary School where poor children of the parish are taught from the Primer to the Bible in accordance with the benefaction of Ann Whittakers. Past the terrace of workers housing is the euphemistically-named “cotton” factory, locally known as the “Sweatshop” which in recent years has become an important manufacturer of financial instruments, now exported to markets all over the developed world. Schoolchildren are sent to the factory for eight hours a day for work experience (except on Sundays).

Due to cutbacks, the picturesque cottages on the left hand side of Pearl Street have no water supply and no sanitation. Pigs and other animals live with the occupants on the premises. The cottages are rented to unwanted bankers who feel privileged to be allowed to live in such a time-honoured fashion: note the date on the wall plaque on Brooks Cottages – 1686.

The ex-bankers, together with their wives and children, work at occupations such as crossing sweepers, rat-catchers, or stable hands, singing cheerful songs as they go about their work. The better-favoured are employed as servants in the Commissar’s residence.

New Road, Prestbury

Turn right out of Pearl Street and right again on to the flooded New Road. Wade in the direction of the Bollin past the abandoned cars. On the right hand side of the road there are several charming cottages belonging to the Parish. Note the strong texture given by the original stone slate roofs.

Lord Rooney in his younger days

Ye Olde Lord Rooney Inn is named after Lord Rooney of Old Trafford, a local resident. The inn sign depicts Lord Rooney in his younger days. As Wayne Rooney, his career began with Everton and continued when he signed a professional contract with Manchester United after a £31 million deal, a large one for the time. Subsequently he made numerous appearances as captain of England before retiring to devote himself to good works.

Beyond the Rooney are weavers' cottages whose occupants labour day and night making high-quality fabrics for export to the Far East. The money laundry and dry cleaners, a charity shop, the co-operative grocery store (all ration coupons accepted) and an oriental take-away are at the end of the row.

On the opposite side of New Road there is Parrott’s Field (Village Green). When Prestbury had a tannery, it was called Tan Yards Fields. It is now used for bynge-drinking, kissing-in-the-bushes and other traditional sports.

Return over the River Bollin (£10 for those without a return ticket). The Bridge Hotel stands by the river. Now modernised, it was once a farm and dates from 1626. It is rumoured that Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed there during his march south in 1745, but not for long, because he thought the prices were too high (he was Scottish).

St. Peter's Church is the spiritual centre of the village. The church was started about 1220, with the building of the chancel in the Early English Gothic style. The church belonged to the Abbey of St Werburgh until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1448. The fabric was finally completed by the building of the North aisle by Charles Legh in 1741. His ancestor Sir Richard de Legh, Knight, was Sheriff of Cheshire in 1393 and again in 1397, and the family history has been continually linked with Prestbury. Every style of Gothic architecture is represented, from Early English through Decorated to Perpendicular. In 1877 the church was restored according to plans prepared by the late Sir Gilbert Scott. An unusual feature is a bell cot on the eastern gable housing the original sanctus bell which is still in use.

St. Peter’s Church, south side

In 2011 extensions were added at the north-east end to provide facilities needed after the closure of Ford House.

The Norman Chapel was built on the site of a Saxon church in the late 12th and early 13th centuries at the time when Randle Blundeville was sixth Norman Earl of Chester. All that remains of the original oratory at the present day is the doorway and figured corbel table. The doorway is a good example of Norman architecture, but the carved figures have become eroded by time. In 2019, a church in Las Vegas offered to buy them for a goodly sum and replace them by fibreglass reproductions of the original figures, arguing that they would thereby be saved from further damage from pollution which could otherwise destroy them completely. However an opinion poll in 2020 (carried out by MORI) showed 95% in favour of keeping them, so they remain in place, eroding away.

Near the Norman Chapel are the remains of a 10th or 11th century Viking preaching cross which had been found embedded in the wall of the chancel during repairs. An attempt to steal it in July 2031 was foiled by prompt intervention by one of the wardens.

There was a heated debate in 2045-6 about whether the church’s name should be St Peters or St. Peter’s. Public meetings were held. Families were divided. Half the congregation defected to the Methodists. On a quiet night you could hear the deceased turning in their graves. In the end the Bishop ruled that the issue should be resolved by tossing a coin. “The name is unimportant” she said. “The Church should return to promoting the Gospel.” On accepting the Bishop’s ruling, the Church began to flourish again, and St. Peter’s Church is now the Christian heart of the community once more.

The village stocks

The stocks were once used for the punishment of minor wrongdoers, but have been superseded by the more robust techniques now available (don’t ask).

No mere anachronisms, the telephone kiosk and pillar box are the focal point for the interception of communications to, from and within the village whenever required by the PTP.

The Licensed Drug Store is housed in the eighteenth century Unicorn House. Twitter’s Café (2008), the Old Post Office (1851), the church office (2013), a high-class pawnbroker’s and the attractive early 19th century curved terrace of three-storey weavers' cottages terminate this walk.

But Prestbury is not just buildings. It is also noted for the friendliness of its inhabitants. The village ancients, quaintly attired in the trainers and jeans of the early part of the century will, like, reminisce for only 10 pence per minute[*] payable in advance, while the village idiot (author of this page) who at 133 years of age is one of England’s oldest men (he eats five portions of fruit or vegetables a day) never stops employing his thesaurus to extol the sagacity of the Bishop and the Commissar and telling all and sundry what a wondrous place Prestbury has become under their benign guidance.

Please watch your behaviour when talking to local people. Some of them are undercover PTP agents (allegedly).

In emergency, contact the Bangalore police. Please be patient. Your call is important to them. 

You may now return to the taxi rank and bicycle sheds.

Tell us how much you've enjoyed your visit to Prestbury (enormously/hugely/tremendously/all of these). You will come again, won’t you? (definitely/decidedly/unquestionably/all of these)

A secure bus leaves the taxi rank for Macclesfield every second Tuesday at 6.00 AM except when there is an R in the month.

Have a nice day!

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[*] for the first three minutes then £1 per minute: minimum contract one hour.