Two miles east of Oundle in Northamptonshire, 8 miles from the A1. Click on the map for a close-up.
There are signs that the springs in Polebrook were used by hunter-gatherers as early as 4000 BC, and certainly in Roman times there were small farms in the area, probably centred on what was then the town of Ashton (now best known for the annual Conker championships).
Polebrook is called Pochebroc in the Domesday Book, and seems to have been the centre of a large administrative area (the Polebrook Hundreds) which stretched from Corby in the west as far across as the Huntingdonshire borders in the east. There was already a church in the village, probably a wooden one, which pre-dates the current Church of All Saints, built between 1175 and 1250 by the builders of Peterborough Cathedral.
The church contains a roll of honour and the stars and stripes hang as a memorial to the men of the 351st Bomber Group of the United States Air Force, which was stationed at the airfield (now disused) near the village during the Second World War. Click here for more on the 351st.
A farm on the outskirts of Polebrook was bought by the Roberts Brothers circus in 1955, and has been used as winter quarters for animals from time to time since then. Indeed, an elephant in the village street need not be the result of an over enthusiastic session in the King's Head!