Janet Reeder meets three people proud to live and work in the golden village of Prestbury.
CLARE GARDNER
Wedding and events planner, Hilltop Country House
My family has lived in Prestbury for more than 100 years. My great-uncle, Sir Robert Burrows, who was chairman of the London, Midland and Scottish
Railway, lived at Bonis Hall, and the Duke of York (later King George VI) dined there. The marketing agency McCann, which is now based at the hall, still has a picture of the occasion, so I very much have a historical connection to the place. I moved away from Prestbury when I married in 1975 and went up to Manchester but we returned in 1985 and have been here ever since.
Hilltop was a private family home until 2009 by which time our five children had begun to go their separate ways and we were at the point where we had to make the decision to leave the big house, or not. Because our ties to this house were so very strong and we had talents in the family we believed would make it work, in 2009 we opened as a wedding venue.
Fortunately, it worked very well, and we’ve bounced along very happily ever since, apart from during the pandemic, of course.
There are 15 acres of land, formal gardens, informal gardens and rustic areas. Hilltop is a bespoke wedding venue and our staff have been here with us from the very beginning. One thing we pride ourselves on is giving couples great service and exactly what they want for their wedding day. We
were voted Cheshire’s finest venue in the 2022 North West Wedding Awards, where the only people who can vote are couples who have been married at the venue, so it is a very meaningful accolade. When they come here, they find a lovely house, a gorgeous chill-out area, an outside bar, pizza ovens
and barbecues, and a beautiful bespoke marquee with a nightclub area and indoor loos. We do all our own cooking and run our own bars.
We’ve been very lucky to do very well and really once you are part of the Hilltop family, you’re always part of the Hilltop family. We have people coming back after 10 years and having a glass of bubbles.
We offer bed and breakfast as well, most notably as an adjunct to the weddings and in the winter months it’s an Airbnb.
Prestbury has marvellous rail and road communications and although you’d think we were in the middle of nowhere we are five minutes from the centre of the village, and five minutes from the station. There’s masses of accommodation and the location is very private.
My roots are here and I think it is an enchanting village. It’s unique in this part of East Cheshire. There is the historical and beautiful church, there
are lovely walks, you can eat and drink to your heart’s content in many different ways and it has always been a community. It has a welcoming
village atmosphere, which is a pretty valuable characteristic nowadays.
We are part of a big community, but Hilltop is effectively a family home, and this is one of its charms. This is where I am and where I stay, and that
will never change.
BLAIR GLEN
Managing director, The Coast Restaurant and Bar
We’ve been in Prestbury for eight years. We opened our first restaurant in Tarporley in 2013 (it’s now under different ownership) and the idea behind the model was it was very much a stripped-back, raw product built on the flavours of the Amalfi Coast. It was all done with an Italian personality and you knew when you sat down to a plate of food a lot of love and effort had gone into it.
Tarporley and Prestbury have a lot of similarities in terms of demographics and footfall – they are affluent areas where people have disposable incomes. We wanted to be all things to all people: families, the Cheshire ladies who lunch set, the retired sector, the audience that came out at the weekend, the corporate market...
It was about serving people who were able to sit down knowing that somebody who cared was putting their food in front of them and it was about creating a whole experience, so when guests came into that building they could see the story we had to tell.
I’ve been in the business for 40 years, coming from a background based on linen tablecloths and fine dining service to a completely different concept with Coast. We were going into a world very much about social scene and social media and it took me a while to get my head around it.
Tarporley did extremely well for about three or four years. We opened Prestbury on the back of that. Then in Tarporley, the village as a whole, changed. They closed the banks and changed the parking. Tarporley was always very, very difficult to get in and out of and on many occasions we had people cancelling lunch because they couldn’t find anywhere to park, or they couldn’t get home because taxis were hard to get, whereas Prestbury was a different model altogether.
There is an incredibly loyal community in Prestbury and over the past eight years we have had a huge repeat audience. We have seen people come in three or four times a week, which is unknown for restaurants. We’ve had pretty much the same team here for the past six or seven years, and my belief is the consistency of the product comes from the consistency of people. Prestbury as a whole has taken to us with open arms.
In 2015 when I first looked at Prestbury, I thought ‘where are the people going to come from?’ I had a meeting with the parish council to explain what we were thinking of doing and they said that people didn’t invest in Prestbury, and I thought well, there’s nothing here for them to invest in.
I think we set the precedent. Quite a few places have opened up since, but together with our private dining and outside dining services, we have the
answers to what people are looking for. I am in a business where we measure success by the people who come through our door. The fact we are in a gorgeous village with a huge amount of loyalty is proof we are doing something right.
JASYN SAVAGE
Coach, Jasyn Savage Fitness and Pilates
We’ve been living in Prestbury for four years. Before that, we were in London, and then Wilmslow for about a year. My partner and I got job opportunities up here and it was a very good change. It meant during the pandemic we had a bigger house with a garden and there were lots of places to walk around. Had we been in London then that would have been quite difficult. We wanted a rural setting and I like the fact Prestbury is between Macclesfield and Wilmslow so you get a diverse range of people and places.
I coach athletics and Macclesfield athletics track is just up the road from where we live, and the school is very convenient for my son as he can walk home. He plays cricket, rugby and tennis locally, so we were very lucky to find the house we are in.
We rented in Wilmslow for a year just to suss out the place and choose where we were eventually going to move to. We liked the vibe of Prestbury
– the energy – and there is a calming atmosphere.
Wilmslow was just too busy and the property prices were much higher. We got much more value for money in Prestbury.
I operate my business from home, and I work in gyms. People come and see me at home for Pilates training, so another consideration was finding a house that had room to work in. I’ve got a range of clients, including
an athlete who comes to me for gym sessions, Pilates, and massage to help
him recover as he’s fairly high level. The serious clients take you to the next level and challenge you, but I have a range of people I work with and I like the variety.
We chose our home and its setting based on our objectives in life. There is a story about the runner Sebastian Coe’s dad buying a family house where if Seb went for a run nearby he’d start on an uphill route and end on an uphill. Prestbury gives my son access to facilities and coaches. We planned our
location to help fulfil our goals – for business, culturally and for sport. It’s a place where it all interlinks for us.
