Hollinsclough

Hollinsclough is a small rural village in the county of Staffordshire in the English Midlands. It is within the Peak District National Park.Location and geographyHollinsclough is on the upper reaches of the River Dove, at one end of a level area between the Dove and the River Manifold, not far from their sources on the eastern side of Axe Edge Moor. Here the Manifold flows through moorland on sandstone and various gritstones, before a conspicuous change at Hulme End, about 6 miles downstream, when the underlying rock changes to limestone. For all its length, the Dove marks the border between Staffordshire and Derbyshire. Not far downstream from Hollinsclough the Dove enters the limestone valley that ends in the famous Dovedale.The Church of St Agnes, built as a Chapel of Ease in 1840 when Hollinsclough was in the parish of Quornford, is now linked with the parish of Longnor, about 2 miles east. The church has been abandoned for worship, and is now used as a residential centre for visitors to the Peak District.The villageVillage name and populationAccording to the English Place-Name Society, the name Hollinsclough comes from Howel's ravine. Various documents, including tenancy records for the Manor of Haysgate in the County of Stafford, from 1651 to 1850 give the following variants of the name. Hollescloughe (1651), Holling Clough (1750), Hollingclough (1767), and The Liberty of Hollinsclough (1769). The population list for 1769 has 112 names. The 1851 Census has 211 male and 189 female inhabitants. Like many other such villages dependent upon hill farming, the population has declined rapidly since then.