Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 2,629 people live in this town, in Cheshire, North West.
The everyday basics are strong; the price of a home is the catch. Its best grade is for health (A+) — life expectancy 80 for men, 85.3 for women. Homes are dear: a typical home costs £820,000 and rent runs £985 a month. Put together, the subjects come to an A− overall, better than 83% of UK towns. In the ranking it comes #15 of 46 in Cheshire.
Figures: life expectancy, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
The 3 things Prestbury does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Prestbury is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 38 buildings inside Prestbury’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 1 scheduled monument.
14% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Prestbury. Best known first.
Historic house · National TrustHare Hill1 km outside town, to the west
Historic houseAdlington Hall1.8 km outside town, to the north
Historic houseMottram Hall1.1 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumAvro Heritage Museum3.2 km outside town, to the north
Historic houseSutton Hall, Sutton Lane Ends4.7 km outside town, to the southeast
Historic houseAlderley Park4.1 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Prestbury.
Seeing a GP means leaving Prestbury: the nearest practice is 1.8 miles away. Disability touches 13% of the town’s population. What’s more, 2.9% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, lower than both Cheshire’s towns (5.4%) and England’s towns (5.2%).
| Census 2021 | Prestbury | Cheshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 88% | 82% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 2.9% | 5.4% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 13% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy and early deaths.
The town has one school, shown below. Attainment 8 at the 4 secondary schools within 3 km averages 50.4, and 52% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths. 61% of pupils at the 15 primary schools within 3 km met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prestbury CofE Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 322 | A |
Prestbury is the most expensive of the 46 towns in Cheshire: its median sale is £820,000. Private renters make up 8% of households, below Cheshire’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (21%) alike. The social rented sector houses 5% of households.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £950,000 | 90 |
| Semi-detached | £462,500 | 16 |
| Terraced | £395,000 | 11 |
| Flat or maisonette | £443,000 | 25 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The violent crime rate is 13.6 per 1,000 residents a year. Over the year to August 2026, 67 offences were reported in Prestbury, along with 5 incidents of anti-social behaviour. Violence and sexual offences accounted for 55% of recorded crime.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 56% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
88% of commuters drove, higher than both Cheshire’s towns (80%) and England’s towns (70%). For just over a quarter of commuters, work was under 5 km away. Before tax, the average household brings in £68K a year.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Of Prestbury’s land, 100% lies in conservation areas, close to Cheshire’s towns (100%) and above England’s towns (7%). Its listed buildings include the Church of St Peter, Grade I. Historic England’s list names 38 listed buildings in the town: 1 Grade I, 1 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Retirement age and beyond: 33% of residents are 65 or older. Children under 15 make up 14%, below both Cheshire’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (18%), and people aged 15 to 24 make up nearly a tenth of the town. At 54.6, the median resident of Prestbury sits in the middle of the age range.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Prestbury | Cheshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.6% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 13% | 25% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 31% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 33% | 21% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 8.9% | 17% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 3.9% | 5.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 12% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 54% | 34% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Cheshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
38 listed buildings in Prestbury, 1 of them Grade I.
The Legh Arms Hotel: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Post Office Spindles: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chapel in St Peter's Churchyard: Photo: JD554 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Church House Ravenstone: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0
15 notable people were born in Prestbury.
Brian Houghton Hodgson: Louisa Starr, Public domain · Ian Livingstone: This image was improved or created by the Wikigraphists of the Graphic Lab (fr). You can propose images to clean up, improve, create or translate as well., CC BY-SA 2.0 · Clifford Cocks: Royal Society uploader, CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prestbury | 2,629 | — | A− | C− | A− | A+ |
| Bollington | 7,236 | 1.9 | A | C+ | A− | B+ |
| Macclesfield | 54,352 | 2.2 | B− | B | C− | C |
| Alderley Edge | 4,496 | 3.5 | A | C− | C+ | A |
| Woodford | 2,241 | 3.6 | — | D− | — | A+ |
| Poynton | 13,015 | 4.2 | A | C− | A− | A |
| Wilmslow | 25,716 | 4.4 | A | C− | B | A+ |
| Bramhall | 17,201 | 5.4 | — | D− | — | A |
Woodford has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Woodford and Bramhall have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £820,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £443,000, terraced houses £395,000, semi-detached houses £462,500 and detached houses £950,000.
That is 5.9 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Church of St Peter. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Town in Cheshire, England
Prestbury is a built-up area of 2,629 people, in the Cheshire East council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.