There are farm shops, and then there is The Hollies.
The Cheshire institution has been around since 1959, when it began life as a humble roadside vegetable stand with an honesty box.
More than six decades later, it has evolved into the sort of place where you can arrive intending to buy a few vegetables for dinner, and leave several hours later with a basket of fancy crisps, a wedge of local cheese, a candle, a house plant and a pumpkin sculpture on legs.
And if the name sounds familiar, you may remember it from the rather sizeable Molly-Mae effect it experienced in 2023.
The influencer and former Love Island star visited The Hollies with her sister Zoe and daughter Bambi, filming a vlog around the farm shop and declaring that ‘everything in here is just unreal’ – and huge queues followed within days.
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But visit now and it becomes immediately obvious why this place has become such a destination in its own right, because this isn’t just somewhere to pick up a locally grown cabbage.
The first thing that hits you is the produce. There are mountains of fruit and vegetables laid out, including marrows the size of your thigh, grapes in paper bags, and punnets of strawberries you can smell as soon as you walk through the door.
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The Hollies says its farm shops stock seasonal produce alongside goods sourced from more than 70 local suppliers, as well as products from across the UK and further afield.
Fresh produce at The Hollies Farm Shop. Credit: The Manc Group
The food hall is where a normal farm shop trip – and your weekly budget – starts to spiral.
You’ll find jars of beans that look suspiciously like they belong in an extremely well-dressed pantry, Gymkhana cooking sauces, colourful pasta for people who like to photograph their dinner, and some of the poshest crisps outside of Harrods.
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Then there’s the bakery, where alongside fresh bread loaves is a range of treats from local Cheshire business Allison’s Kitchen, including one particularly brilliant idea: a pick’n’mix cake (a full cake made of four slices, like an edible pie chart).
One of the most impressive sights is the wall of cheese, which showcases plenty of local produce from soft and blue cheeses through to big, punchy cheddars.
Olives beneath an olive treeThe wall of cheeseThe Hollies farm shop bakeryThe pick’n’mix cakeMulticolour pastaThe salad bar
Nearby, the deli and salad bar turns the whole thing into something approaching a countryside version of a very glamorous food hall.
There are fresh pies, pasties, quiches and sandwiches, alongside all the ingredients needed to put together a very respectable picnic.
And then there is the wine. A huge wine selection.
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At this point, your original plan to ‘just pop in for some fruit’ is looking increasingly unrealistic.
And then The Hollies is so beautifully put together, it’s hard to tear yourself back outside – the olives are displayed on a softly lit table beneath an olive tree, and root vegetables sit beneath an acorn tree, like walking through a series of carefully designed little sets.
I’ve never been so inclined to take a picture of a potato before.
If you think you’ve finished once you’ve conquered the food shop, you’re very much mistaken. The Barn is the gift, retail and lifestyle side of The Hollies, and it feels like autumn has been given an unlimited budget.
Autumn gifts in The BarnThe Barn at The Hollies FarmshopMore gifts and cards at The HolliesThe Fresian RoomsThe Fresian Rooms
There are seasonal decorations, pumpkins and orange leaves alongside Jellycats and other soft toys, greetings cards, candles, mugs, bags and fashion.
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Finally, there’s The Friesian Rooms, where you can sit with a coffee and cake or grab some lunch, on a sunny terrace that feels (on a good day) very akin to Soho Farmhouse.
The Hollies has taken the humble idea of buying good food directly from the countryside and turned it into a full-blown Cheshire day out – one with exceptionally good cheese, extremely photogenic vegetables, and just the occasional influencer wandering through…
New £60m fund launched to fill potholes across Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
A new £60 million Pothole Fund has been created to repair more of the city region’s roads and pavements.
The fund – which has been set up by new Mayor Bev Craig, and is to be spent across every borough in Greater Manchester – is set to be a ‘major boost’ to efforts to tackle the pothole problem, as it will be enough to repair and maintain over a million square metres, or around 125 kilometres, of road across the wider region.
Around 2.5 billion trips are made on Greater Manchester‘s roads every year – not only by motorists, but also by buses, trams, cyclists, and pedestrians. So the fund will be used to help keep the highways network ‘safe and reliable’.
The fund will enable transport teams to repair hotspots where surfaces are in poor condition, as well as resurface roads and pavements to prevent them from deteriorating in the first place.
A new £60m fund has been launched to fill potholes across Greater Manchester / Credit: TfGM
Cold and wet winters, more traffic, and heavier vehicles using the roads are just some of the contributing factors to the pothole problem, which is why the fund is being introduced before autumn and winter properly arrives.
The amount each of the 10 boroughs will receive is based on an agreed funding formula, with the allocations being:
Bolton: £6,552,000
Bury: £4,374,000
Manchester: £8,155,000
Oldham: £5,258,000
Rochdale: £5,243,000
Salford: £5,388,000
Stockport: £6,820,000
Tameside: £4,980,000
Trafford: £4,992,000
Wigan: £8,241,000
The extra cash comes from the region’s transport budget, with leaders agreeing to reallocate funding towards highways maintenance, and it fulfils a commitment Bev made in her Mayoral Manifesto to repair more roads and make sure pavements are safe.
“Keeping our roads and pavements safe and well maintained is essential for a growing city region like Greater Manchester,” explained Mayor Bev Craig.
“That’s why I promised to create this new Pothole Fund that will benefit drivers and everyone who uses our roads to get around. Properly maintaining our roads will save motorists money on costly repairs, and by preventing potholes forming in the first place, councils won’t have to spend as much money on emergency road repairs.
“This issue came up repeatedly on the doorstep during my election campaign so I’m pleased that I can do something about it so quickly, building on the significant work already planned by councils across Greater Manchester.”
Featured Image – TfGM
Travel & Tourism
The family-run gem doing tapas, craft beer, cocktails and live music just outside Manchester
Daisy Jackson
A good neighbourhood restaurant should be somewhere you can pop in to at any time of day, for just about any occasion.
Whether it’s coffee and a bake after the school run, a tapas night with your mates, a cosy cocktail with your partner, or even somewhere to end the night listening to live music, Gin & Brews is one such neighbourhood gem.
This brilliant family-run venue opened in an old bank in Garstang in 2023 and quickly spilled over into the unit next door, expanding its offering as it went.
It’s gone from a cosy bottle shop and microbar to a true neighbourhood haunt, with fantastic deals (like two pizzas and a bottle of wine for £25 on Thursdays) and cocktails made with their own distilled spirits.
The food is a big part of the appeal, particularly the tapas.
There’s bread and oils, chorizo and prawns, goat’s cheese and loaded potatoes, with plenty designed for sharing – you might want to order more than you think you need, but at £12 for three dishes, that’s no hardship.
You can get three tapas dishes for £12Lemon curd French toast
Then there’s the homemade honey and sea salt butter. It’s the sort of butter you try once and immediately want to tell everyone about.
For daytime visits, the brunch menu brings out perfectly poppable eggs and seriously good French toast, with the lemon curd a particular must-try.
And if you have dietary requirements, Gin & Brews is unusually well set up for gluten-free diners, with almost everything on the menu gluten free – even the beer – plus a generous selection of gluten-free bakes.
The drinks offering is where things get particularly interesting.
The team make their own spirits under the Garstang Gin name, with the distillery growing from just three spirits to an impressive 46.
It’s a natural progression for the owner, who previously worked in the drinks industry before leaving to set up her own gin distillery.
They distill their own Garstang Gin spirits for cocktailsInside Gin & Brews
Those spirits now make their way into the cocktails at Gin & Brews, giving the bar plenty of its own character and making it a particularly good shout if cocktails are your thing.
There’s also a constantly changing selection of craft beer, with the range switching up regularly, alongside the bottle shop, so there’s always something new to discover.
For somewhere that has grown so quickly, Gin & Brews still feels firmly rooted in its community.
Much of what goes onto your plate is sourced from businesses on the high street, including local butchers and egg suppliers. Even some of the cakes and cookies are made by one of the members of staff.
It feels fitting for a venue in Garstang, which is recognised as the world’s first Fair Trade Town.
Bakes at Gin & Brews are made by a member of staff
And while Wednesday and Thursday evenings are already busy, the team are keen to bring more people through the doors during the day. They certainly have the offering for it.
There are coffee-and-cake afternoons, brunch dates, tapas lunches, craft beer, cocktails and plenty of gluten-free treats to take away.
Then, when the sun goes down, the music comes on, with live performances at weekends and regular events bringing the place to life.
If you’re looking for a reason to venture out of Manchester for something a little different, this might just be it.
Gin & Brews has only been around for a few years, but it already feels like one of those places that has been part of the local scene forever.
And if the homemade butter doesn’t convince you, the cocktails probably will.
Daisy Jackson -
14th August 2026 
