Welcome to the Village Link website. We’re a small not for profit organisation staffed by volunteers and cannot justify the expense of an SSL certificate. This certificate is what changes a web address from http to https. Google will soon change how they label sites; instead of labelling sites with a certificate as secure they will label sites without one as insecure. We keep this site as secure as we can and is as secure as it ever has been. Please do not be put off!

Take a little time to browse our pages and discover what goes on where and when in our area. Within our pages you can also find out who does what locally. If you would like to contribute anything to any of our pages, including your favourite picture from where you live in our area, please follow the links on the Contact Us page. We would love to carry all the info for your local club or association and best of all, it’s all for free!

The map on the left is fully navigable plus you can zoom in and out by using the controls in the top left corner and if you view the larger map you can enter street view by dragging the little yellow person onto the map to where you want to view and go for a virtual walk around our streets and lanes.

30 YEARS’ SERVICE AT GUILSBOROUGH FIRE STATION

Stuart Oliver attended his final Monday night drill at Guilsborough Fire Station, after 30 years of dedicated service. He was joined by the current crew, past crew members, friends and family. It was a great turnout to pay tribute to, and thank Stuart for his long distinguished service, the second longest in the station’s history. The knowledge, skills and behaviours that Stuart brought with him on every call were invaluable to the crew and the community that he served. Firefighters both past and present on the evening, accounted for well over 300 years of service at Guilsborough Fire Station. There was lots of reminiscing and recounting stories of fire calls from days gone by, and Firefighters catching up with colleagues they had served with, but hadn’t seen for 27 years in some cases. It was a fantastic evening, with a BBQ and presentations to Stuart from a Brigade Manager, as well as from the crew. Stuart with his years of experience will be sadly missed, and the whole crew wish him well for the future.

If you think you would like to join the local On-Call fire service, either call into the station on a Monday evening for a chat over a coffee, or check out the fire service website for further information. www.northantsfire.gov.uk

ARCHIE - THE RECORD-BREAKING RUNNER

Creaton resident Archie Wright became a National Champion in 100 metres at Birmingham Athletics Stadium on 22nd July. The annual National Prep School finals pull together the best athletes from over 500 Prep Schools around England to compete across track and field events. Archie, representing Spratton Hall in the U13's category, started the campaign back in April when he won the local Northamptonshire heat. On the big day Archie produced an outstanding run in the heats breaking the school’s record that had stood for over 20 years and setting a personal best. In the final, after a slow start, Archie powered through to take 1st place and gold medal, setting another school record and personal best of 12.29 seconds!

VJ Day - Victory in Japan

A shared moment of celebration

Friday 15th August 2025

Guilsborough, Hollowell & District RBL invite you to join them for an evening of remembrance and celebration at the Guilsborough Village Hall from 6.00pm

Everybody welcome, free admission,40's dress optional

GMAD's Presentation,

Music, sing-a-long & dancing

Free Barbecue, Cakes & Hot Drinks

Cash only bar

Raffle

The troops that fought in the Pacific are often referred to as The Forgotten Army as they continued to fight after V E Day. Please join us to remember them and to celebrate their victory.

BIRDING NOTES

New for the Garden List: Spotted Flycatcher

In twenty years of living in Hollowell I’ve seen Spotted Flycatchers a handful of times in the village, including a couple of times from my front door, but never actually in our garden. I was therefore delighted on the morning of June 5th to look up from my desk and see one land on top of a nearby wall. Soon after, a second bird appeared, giving close views as it perched on garden furniture. Over the following few weeks this pair became regular visitors, and it was apparent that they were establishing a breeding territory. Evidence of this was ‘courtship-feeding’, a pair-bonding activity where the male bird brings insect food to the female, and other territorial behaviour, including chasing off an intruding Woodpigeon from a potential nest site. Writing this today in the second week of July, the pair is still present; they appear to have chosen a nest site in a nearby climbing Hydrangea.

Spotted Flycatchers are a scarce summer visitor in Northants, and after an 87% decline between 1967 and 2016 they are on the ‘Red List’ of Britain’s 67 most vulnerable bird species. This decline appears to be driven by reduced first-year survival rates, although reasons for this are not clear.

In the British Isles, Spotted Flycatchers often frequent gardens, churchyards and farm buildings as well as open woodland or habitats, and they can be confiding and easy to observe. They will often use a perch such as a fence, wall, or a high exposed tree branch; from this vantage point they will fly up or out and catch insects in dashing flight, often returning to the same perch between sallies. An audible ‘snap’ can often draw attention to this feeding activity. When feeding their young, adults often gather an impressive beakful of insects, which may include large moths, butterflies and even dragonflies. The birds’ bills are excellently adapted to this, each of the upper and lower parts being broad and shaped like the front end of a boat. Adult birds are more striped than spotted, their scientific name is Muscipapa striata – ‘striata’ meaning striped; juvenile birds do however have spotted plumage for a short time after fledging. They can be vocal and once learnt the calls are quite distinctive, but they have a fairly limited vocal range, typically one or two repeated syllables ‘sip’ or ‘see-chhkk’.

Once breeding is complete, Spotted Flycatchers typically disperse and can become more evident and widespread; while migrating, adults and juveniles may be encountered feeding in large groups of twenty or more birds. They are one of our latest summer visitors to arrive usually from mid-May to early June and have usually departed by early October.

Spotted Flycatchers are often described as nondescript, or lacking obvious features, and their overall grey/brown appearance could be said to be unremarkable, however they are characterful and lively birds, and fascinating to watch. It’s been a real privilege to be able to observe this fleeting and scarce summer visitor at close quarters over an extended period.

Jon Cook