Walk along the pretty tree-lined avenues of Bowdon on any morning of the week, and it is a hive of activity.
Joggers pound the pavements and dog walkers are out in force, many heading down to the village's popular public park Denzell Gardens and the Devisdale.
To get there, you wander past the huge white-washed mansions and modern glass-fronted palaces that are a signature of this part of Greater Manchester - which is by some margin the region's most-expensive village to live.
READ MORE: Greater Manchester's most expensive streets where footballers, celebrities and millionaires live
But be careful not to gawp too long at the dream properties here - for most are under the watchful eye of 24-hour security firms who patrol the streets, a necessary part of life for the super-rich here.
In the most recent statistics published this week, four of the top ten priciest streets to live in Greater Manchester were in Bowdon.
The rest were in its neighbouring towns of Hale and Hale Barns, all in Altrincham.
Three streets in Bowdon have average house prices over £1.8mn, while the village's Green Walk has an average house price of a staggering £2.3m.
Even to buy a traditional three-bed semi or terraced property in Bowdon you're looking at paying in excess of £600,000.
With such a wealth of huge mansions lining its leafy avenues it has naturally become a hotspot place to live for the region's many millionaire entrepreneurs, footballers and famous faces.
You could wander past a Coronation Street star, a Manchester United legend, Real Housewife of Cheshire or even a rock and roll icon here.
But despite the sheer wealth of the residents in Bowdon, this most desirable of locations is missing one surprising detail at its heart - there are no shops and no cafés in the pretty village centre where the imposing St Mary the Virgin Church presides.
While neighbouring Hale, Hale Barns and Altrincham's high streets have burst to life in recent years with a near explosion of independent restaurants, cafés and quirky boutiques, in the old Bowdon village things have stayed resolutely unchanged.
There is no village store or café here - so all those dog walkers have to hotfoot it ten minutes to Hale or Altrincham for their early morning caffeine and pastry fix.
You have to walk down the hill to Bowdon Vale for the nearest convenience store - the Co-op - although locals say few of those who reside at the top here tend to bother with that.
But even at Bowdon Vale, where in past years there was a local hub of shops and cafés, there are now only hairdressers, a pet grooming salon and a chemist - and one local restaurant Borage.
However Bowdon village does have two thriving pubs at its heart, The Stamford Arms and The Griffin and Indian restaurant Sangam opposite the church and village green, as well as an estate agents of course.
For those who live in Bowdon, the fact that it is a quieter and simpler alternative to the rather more flashy neighbours of Hale and Hale Barns is entirely its appeal.
Events-organiser-to-the-stars Liz Taylor has lived in Bowdon for the past four years, in one of the village's classic mansions that have been converted into apartments.
She said: "It takes me ten minutes to walk into Hale or ten minutes to Altrincham, but the beauty of it is you don’t have the parked cars everywhere here because you haven't got the intrusion of shops, supermarkets or schools.
"It’s a little bit more private.
"Yet I can walk to the train station and be in London in two hours, it's only ten minutes from Manchester Airport.
"It’s a great, leafy location yet so accessible to all the main transport networks which is the big appeal of Bowdon.
"You can walk to the local pubs, and it's all very pretty, it's a little bit like Midsomer Murders, it's that type of feel."
Liz, who has organised celebrity weddings for the likes of This Morning's Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright and Manchester United star Gary Neville to wife Emma, has also seen first hand how in-demand Bowdon has become as a property hotspot.
She bought her penthouse apartment four years ago, and its value has now DOUBLED.
She says: "I bought my apartment for £575,000 and it’s now valued at £1.3m - and that’s in only four years.
"It is a penthouse, and I’ve put my stamp on it with the design and layout, but that's still a huge price rise.
"It just demonstrates the value of the area, it’s insane, it’s a sign of the times, but for me it was a good investment - moving here was one of the best things I've ever done."
Former Key 103 and Greatest Hits DJ Darren Proctor has called Bowdon home for the past 16 years and has also watched as prices have sky-rocketed in the area.
On the road where he lives he has watched as footballers and multi-millionaires have gradually moved in, building ever bigger and glossier mansions there.
He says: "It's a lovely area to be in Bowdon, and while Hale is great there's not that many big houses there.
"So for those people like footballers and business owners who want something with a big garden with a big plot you need to live in Bowdon.
"It's quiet with the tree-lined streets but it's also so close to the motorway network with the M56 just down the road.
"But the prices are being driven up because there's been loads of footballers moving in here and business owners spending a lot of money on the bigger plots.
"There's a massive gap in the market for a nice coffee shop here, but there's still a good community feel, particularly at the local pub."
At village pub The Stamford Arms, owner Nicholas Theaker has big plans to "bring the village feel" back.
During the first lockdown, the pub turned its main restaurant space into "the village stores" selling coffees and fresh bread and pastries which was a huge success, and they would long-term like to make that a part of the outhouses on the site.
Nick says: "There used to be a row of shops round the corner from us, but it's almost lost a bit of its identity as a village which is what we're trying to bring back, to become the heart of the village again.
"Normally every village you go into has one shop, and yet for such a massive area we don't have any.
"Which I think is why, when we did the Bowdon village stores in lockdown it did so well."
Nick, 40, grew up in the Bowdon area, but went to live away with hospitality jobs, returning five years ago when the chance to take on the Stamford Arms came up.
He knows only too well what a big part of the community the pub is.
He says: "It had been my local growing up, and I could see the potential in it. When we took it on they didn't serve any food, it was a dying pub.
"When it came available it ticked all the boxes in terms of location, the clientele, the space available, we knew it had potential.
"When it comes to the customer, it's funny but probably the richest customers we have you'd never know they have two pennies to rub together. We don't get the kind of bling you get in Hale.
"It's mostly old money here.
"For the majority of people here the pub is a bit of an escape, especially the footballers and celebrities, they know we're not going to be phoning the media to get photos of them here.
"They can just come and enjoy a drink, whereas the Hale vibe is a bit more Instagram friendly."
The pub has a huge rounded function room - that was originally built in 1880 to link the Stamford Arms and the neighbouring Griffin pub, specifically for a wealthy local resident to host a wedding in there!
But in recent times the entrance to the Griffin was blocked up, and the curved room is the main restaurant space for the Stamford Arms.
Nick has big plans to turn it into a fine dining restaurant, The Ugly Duckling, to offer something else for the local community alongside the pubs.
It sits next to the Bowdon Rooms, a grand civic building which is currently run by brothers Anthony and Edward Prophet where they host weddings and live music events.
It looks out onto another of Bowdon's hidden gems - one of the largest croquet greens in the country.
So why, with such a thriving community of people in Bowdon, has the shops and café side failed to thrive?
For pub landlord Nick it's all down to the strength of the resurgence in the towns all around it.
He says: "The rise of the supermarkets killed the village vibe, and things like the local butchers moved out to Hale.
"Then Altrincham Market became a hub for all your fancy shopping.
"Bowdon is due a comeback in terms of shops and stuff but the rents are extortionate here.
"It's suffered from having two very strong places on its doorstep.
"You've got 20-odd restaurants in Hale Village, 30 plus in Altrincham, all within a mile of Bowdon."
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