Bollington

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service have a retained fire station in Bollington. The town has a medical practice on Wellington Road, and a dental surgery on Bollington Road. The town does not have its own police station; policing is provided by the Cheshire Constabulary. The town has a small yet thriving local retail community, with two bakers, two butchers, a delicatessen, a florist, a Co-op and a Tesco convenience stores. The town has several notable take-aways, restaurants, wine bars, and coffee shops, along with a around ten traditional public houses.

Bollington is served by four primary schools. The Roman Catholic school of St Gregory is on Albert Road, along with the secular Dean Valley Community Primary School. The Church of England has two schools in the town, St John the Baptist Church of England on Grimshaw Lane, and at Bollington Cross, St Oswald's Primary School. Secondary-aged students travel to Tytherington School, The Fallibroome Academy, The Kings School, All Hallows Catholic College, all in Macclesfield, and Poynton High School.

The Recreation Ground, across the road from the Civic Hall and Library, provides a football pitch, bowling green, tennis court and cricket pitch, all of which are in regular use by Bollington Town F.C., Bollington Cricket Club,[6] Bollington Athletics Club, and the Bollington Bowling Club. A further cricket pitch located along Clarke Lane, by the Lord Clyde pub, is home to Kerridge Cricket Club. Bollington has a hockey club, which plays on the King's School astroturf pitches. There are a number of other sporting activity groups including cycling, walking, and swimming.

Other activities are based at the Bollington Health and Leisure Centre at Heath Road, Bollington Cross and The Capelli Sports Ground, the home of Bollington United Football Club and Bollington Health and Leisure Football Club.

All Football clubs crest features White Nancy, a significant landmark within the Bollington area.

Perhaps because of its proximity to the home of British Cycling and its location between the flat Cheshire plains and the hillier Peak District, Bollington is home to a number of professional cyclists, notably Adam Blythe and Ethan Vernon.

Bollington is notable for White Nancy, a stone folly located on top of Kerridge Hill. At c.6m high and painted white, this 1817 monument to victory at the Battle of Waterloo is visible from as far away as Shropshire and the western hills of Cheshire. It originally had an entrance to the interior where the visitor would find a single room with stone benches and a round table. However, vandalism reportedly prompted the closure of the entrance sometime in the 20th century.[7]

The big mills, Clarence, Adelphi and Lowerhouse, are notable examples of 19th-century mill buildings in the northwest of England.

Bollington Festival 2005

Every five or six years since 1964, the town hosts the Bollington Festival, which runs for two and a half weeks and involves a wide variety of community activities, from concerts, theatrical, opera, art exhibitions, to local history events, science events and competitions.[10] The last Festival was in 2019 and the next is scheduled for 2026 (delayed by Covid and the financial environment).

In September each year a ten-day Walking Festival promotes exercise and fresh air while taking in the beauty of the surrounding countryside, the western hills of the Peak District.[11]

Bollington hosts an annual 'Carols around the Christmas Tree' on Christmas Eve each year.[12]

At mid-day on Christmas Day each year a brass band play at White Nancy.[13]

Bollington has a branch of the Women's Institute, which meets regularly while retired gentlemen may meet at the weekly Probus, and likewise the ladies at their monthly Probus.

The Guide and Scout movements are all represented. Bollington United Junior Football Club (JFC) has three clubs for children ranging from under-10s to under-17s.[14] Bollington is home to 236 Squadron[15] of the Royal Air Force's Air Training Corps, which has its headquarters on Shrigley Road. The Squadron had close links with 42(R) (formerly 236 OCU) of the Royal Air Force before the latter was disbanded in the government defence review in 2010. The Sea Cadets is for 10‑ to 18‑year‑olds. The Bollington and Macclesfield Sea Cadets also have a unit website.[16]

There are numerous artistic, musical and theatrical groups[17] all providing popular exhibitions and performances. Many of these are held at the Bollington Arts Centre.[18]

Bollington is 2 miles (3.2 km) from the A523 road that runs from Hazel Grove, through Macclesfield to Leek in Staffordshire. The nearest motorway junctions are J17 and 19 (Congleton and Knutsford) on the M6, and J1 (Stockport) on the M60.[19]

Regular bus services connect Bollington with Macclesfield, Hazel Grove and Stockport, operated by D&G Bus.

Bollington no longer has its own railway station; the nearest being in Macclesfield, for inter-city trains to London and Manchester, and Prestbury for local stopping trains.

Bollington Station in 1960

Bollington used to be served by the Macclesfield, Bollington & Marple Railway, which operated between Rose Hill Marple and Macclesfield. The railway was built in 1869 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR), as a part of a quest to provide an alternative link between Manchester and the south that was independent of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). Cotton mill owner Thomas Oliver had suggested this route hoping to revive the cotton mills of Bollington, the Kerridge stone quarries and the coal fields at Poynton. The line was closed in January 1970 as part of the Beeching closures. The trackbed is today used for walking, cycling and horseriding; it is known as the Middlewood Way.[20]

The Macclesfield Canal passes through the centre of the town and is a picturesque and rural part of the Cheshire Ring. The stretch from Marple Junction on the Peak Forest Canal to Bosley is without locks and is carried on an embankment through Bollington. Kerridge was the scene of a spectacular breach on 29 February 1912, where the water from Bosley to Bugsworth basin emptied through the town.[21] Today, the canal is used for leisure purposes.