We visit Staffordshire village known for its award-winning farm and booming independent businesses that make it an 'amazing' place to live and work
Across the Love Your Neighbourhood series in 2025, few places have been as highly spoken of by locals as this village in South Staffordshire.
Essington is a well-connected village in the South Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, nestled between Wolverhampton and Walsall near to the M54 and M6.
Despite its proximity to two of the West Midlands' main road networks, the village remains a quiet and peaceful place surrounded by farmland and known for its quality beef, grain and fruit.
In fact, Essington has been home to one of the region's best and most popular farms, and more recently farm shops, for hundreds of years, with the Simkin family having farmed in the village since 1892.
"My family have been in Essington since 1892 when my great grandfather moved here from Eccleshall," Richard Simkin said. "We've been growing all sorts of things here since then, and my family were dairy farmers who started to retail things around, so we can say with great confidence that we've been retailing produce from this farm to the local community since 1892.
"We started growing strawberries, which is when the current fruit farm phase developed, in 1978, so along with my wife I've got that off the ground, but now I'm in my 70s there's a new generation coming through.
"My son Will and his wife Penny are now in the driving seat, and we're looking forward to them expanding the business and carrying it forward.
