‘We’re struggling’: unease as crowded Cotswolds braces for JD Vance’s summer holiday

Residents of Stow know the value of the tourist dollar or yuan, and despite the crowds of tourists and backed-up traffic, they generally welcome them. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian

The narrow lanes and honeyed stone walls of the Gloucestershire market town of Stow-on-the-Wold are not the setting where one would expect to see an angry altercation – unless it was a standoff between Range Rovers for the last parking spot in the gridlocked market square.

This is a place of ancient doorways and expensive condiments, where the pavements are dotted with teashops and vintage cars drift past with their roofs down and a plaque on the war memorial records the last time a battle was fought here, in 1646.