Hollington Parish Council
Hollington is situated near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. It is a rural village comprising approximately 90 households along with farms, some smaller industrial units and family businesses, holiday homes and of course the Red Lion pub, which is famed for its excellent pies.
Hollington was recorded in the Domesday Book as “Holintune”, meaning the farmstead where holly grows. Over the centuries the village was held by the Meynel, Shirley and Coke families and some of its buildings date back as far as the 18th century. The village has a history of milk production and sheep farming although in the 17th century, the farming was mainly arable due to the presence of rich loam and strong marl soils.
The village enjoys excellent views across the rolling countryside of South Derbyshire and is criss-crossed by a number of footpaths. There is a good level of biodiversity and this is due mainly to the breadth and variation of local habitats. These range from woodland and ancient trees which are frequented by owls and hawks, and marshlands which attract curlew and ringed plover in the summer months. There is an abundance of frogs, toads, newts and crayfish in the local ponds and waterways, and otters are also present in the area. The fields and buildings of the local farmsteads also provide a haven for bats and butterflies.
For the most part Hollington is a sleepy village and in fact the population today is less than it was in 1831. The education of children was provided from the late 18th century and a new school was built in 1876. This operated until 1917 and had a roll call of up to 30 children. In the second world war Hollington had its own Home Guard. Mains piped water only arrived in the 1950’s, before which it was supplied by wells or by a hydraulic ram from a nearby brook. We currently have no mains gas supply- with many residents using gas in LPG form.
Today the road through the village has a 30mph limit and you will be about as likely to find people walking their dogs, or to see cyclists, horse riders and farm vehicles, as you would be cars and vans. We don’t have pavements or street lights and as a result, the dark skies provide as good a star scape as you are likely to find anywhere. We do have a bench, two post boxes, a defibrillator (located in the old phone box which now serves as a book exchange) and a small village green.
Most houses are named, so we also keep a village map which may be found at the Parish Council Notice Board, near to the old phone box, which is useful for visitors and delivery drivers alike.
