WHEN IT WAS STILL ON EARTH, AMBLESBY WAS A fairly quiet and unexciting village situated on the chalk downs of southern England. Back then if you had approached Amblesby along one of the two roads leading to the village, you wouldn’t have noticed anything particularly remarkable about it. In fact, as you meandered through the countryside, you would probably would have found the ridge of hills overlooking the village more interesting.
Once you had reached the outskirts of Amblesby, you would have driven past the newer houses until you reached the centre where you would have crossed the other road that led in and out of the village.
It was quite a pretty part of the village and you might have been moved to park your car and wander around. At the very least you would have taken a look at the church with its jumbled mix of architectural styles, ranging from the 15th to 20th century as successive generations had several goes at improvements. Curiosity might have got the better of you, and you may have taken a peek over the wall at the manor house tucked amongst the trees of its large garden. Unless you’re the type of person who finds Georgian buildings fascinating, your attention would have glazed over and drifted from the manor to the eating and drinking establishments clustered along the road in front of the church.
After a cup of tea (for you are driving and a pint or two at one of the pubs is not conducive to keeping your driving licence), you would probably have strolled down the road and maybe stopped in at the bakery for a couple of pastries.
That was all before the gazebo incident, of course.
After the incident, everything changed. Not the physical layout of the village of course, but the social and political landscape (that’s a polite way of saying everything fell apart and there was a rush by certain individuals to turn the situation to their advantage).
Interestingly, when Amblesby arrived in Hollow, its church became the oldest building anywhere in the entire known world. Not only that, but in an odd twist, it became the only building in the universe older than the world it is in (or on).
— Extras —
Everything you ever wanted to know about the world of Hollow but never got around to asking: