Conservation Area: Bollington Conservation Area (086)

Bollington sits in and around a series of deep valleys on the end of the Pennine chain of hills, surrounded by attractive hills and woodland. To the east lies the boundary of the Peak District National Park, and to the south-west, the town of Macclesfield. Bollington comprises a built-up, urban townscape, but includes a long, sylvan strip of land along the route of the River Dean, with a few scattered cottages and the remains of mills and their associated waterworks. Of paramount importance is the impact on the form and appearance of the conservation area is the undulating topography, the attractive hills, which surround the built-up areas, and the line of the River Dean and its various tributaries. To the west, the slightly elevated position of the Macclesfield Canal forms part of the boundary to the conservation area and is itself protected by a conservation area. The long terraces of two storey cottages, and the two remaining mills, also provide a link to the area’s early nineteenth century industrial past, when cotton spinning became the most important local activity.