A number of villages in Newark and Sherwood are historically associated with important people. Examples include the village of Elston with the Darwin family. Elston Hall was the home of the Darwin family from 1680 until just after the Second World War, when the estate was sold.

Its most famous resident was the savant Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin. Erasmus was the founder of the Lunar Society, which included Robert Boyle, Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Franklin.

The village of Rolleston is associated with the Victorian writer and illustrator, Kate Greenaway. Was it Rolleston that she thought about when she wrote and illustrated the sweet little rhyme “The Little London Girl”?:

"Oh, I’ll stay in the country, and make a daisy chain, and never go back to London again."

Villages also have their own quirky charm. Take, for example, the pretty hamlet of Kersall with its Best Kept Phone Box in the world. Maplebeck is home of the Beehive Inn, the smallest pub in Nottinghamshire and, until the 1970's, when a small extension was added, possibly one of the country’s smallest pubs.

In Blidworth, on the first Sunday in February, the baby boy baptised in the Church, nearest to that date, is rocked in a beautiful flower-decked cradle at a special ‘Rocking’ ceremony.

When visitors arrive in the village of Laxton, they will discover it is the only village in England which still practices the medieval system of Open Field Farming, a system once used widely throughout England. Also in Laxton, you will find the Holocaust Centre, Museum and Gardens where the history and implications of the Holocaust are sensitively explored in a two-acre setting.

In the village of Cromwell, north of Newark, you will find Vina Cooke's Museum of Dolls and Bygone Childhood. Rooms in the 17th century rectory are filled with a large collection of dolls, prams and costumes.

One of our unique villages is the village of Hockerton and its Hockerton Housing Project. This is the UK’s first earth sheltered, self-sufficient ecological housing development. The beautiful site has seen the return of a wide variety of wildlife and has quite rightly received great publicity from the media.

Wellow is famed for its 60-ft high Maypole, situated in the centre of the village green. It is one of only three permanent maypoles in the country. Each Spring Bank Holiday, you can join in the Wellow Maypole Celebrations when the May Queen is crowned and local children perform dances around the maypole.

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