Balderton Lane Overview

The Lane runs from Brownlow's Hill, opposite Brownlow's House to Balderton, (passing the side view of Coddington House, the Moat, The Windmill, several farms and running down the hill towards Balderton).

Balderton Lane contains two of the village's listed buildings: The Old Forge and The Windmill. Both the important archaeological sites in the village are also in this area - the Moat lying behind Moat Edge and the traces of the Civil War earthworks which formed part of the ring of village defences from the siege of Newark in 1645 -1646. The road is presumably ancient, and certainly pre-dates the 17th century. The current housing is mixed and mainly 20th century.

Follow the link to see Aerial photos of Balderton Lane (running N-S) taken in 1999 and 2004, from getmapping.com

The Lane between Balderton and Coddington pre-dates the 17^th Century. It can be seen on both the famous Newark siege maps, in which the roads running between the villages of Balderton, Coddington and Winthorpe would have provided an important communication route between the quarters of Col. Rosseter, Col. Theophilus Grey and Col. Henry Grey, behind the 'lines of circumvalation'.

As you travel South from Brownlow's House along Balderton Lane, Coddington House is visible across the fields to the left. On the right at intervals there are views across fields to the back of Newark Rd on the other side of the village. The Old Forge on the right is an 18^th century brick and pantile cottage. The current housing along the lane was built in the 19th and 20th Centuries and is quite mixed. A few older cottages, some built of the local stone, survived until the 1960s and early 1970s.

The older remaining houses are brick built and set close to the Lane, whilst the more recent houses are generally set back and on larger plots. Paths run off on the left to farms and former agricultural buildings sometimes set well back from the road. As you move away from the village you pass the track to Vale Farm, The Homestead (a smallholding), the sign to Hill Farm, and eventually Hilltop Farm (on the lane).

Six houses purpose-built as early council houses are on the right. After the Homestead (on the left) and The Moat (on the right) there is a triangular patch of trees known as Page's Wood. Walking beyond this requires care as the lane bends and the verges are narrow and often churned up, but the views are wide open.

A similar walk in 1885 would have passed far fewer houses. Once beyond the junction the first cluster is at the Smithy (the Old Forge) - opposite a house or cottages end-on to the lane (now lost) and then the row of brick cottages hard against the lane (which survive). After a gap (which includes the track to Rose Vale Farm two fields away), on the right is a row of three more cottages, also hard against the lane and since demolished. The Homestead is on the left and the Moat would have been visible across the fields on the right. The road veers slightly left and a track peels off to the right leaving a triangle of ground. Down this track, beyond the Moat, is a pair of semi-detached houses on the right and a detached house in a large garden on the left (Page's Wood).

Returning to the present day, walking further brings us past the track to Hill Farm (on the left) to what remains of the windmill complex (on the right). It is a tower mill (now with no cap or sails, but a few millstones remain) and has been converted into a house. Earlier in the village's history and up to the end of the 19th century there was Quarrying and Limeburning activity in the area to the right of the windmill (see Sanderson?s 1835 map). An old public footpath runs past the windmill towards the old road Clay Lane and the A1.

A little further up the lane are Hilltop House and its converted barns and farm buildings, before the lane descends the hill towards Balderton.  Hilltop's stone barns are now the only secular village building made largely of Coddington stone.

The same journey in 1885 would show a picture of village industry. A long lane still stretches off towards Hill Farm on the left, then on the right a lane (now the footpath) passes close to the bustling (but now vanished) house and outbuildings of Coddington Mill and on towards Mill Cottage a field further away. Further down the lane Hilltop Farm complex straddles the road, with its stone and brick barns, outbuildings and imposing house with brick walls and gardens.

In 1835 Sanderson's map shows few features or buildings on the Lane due to its scale. However, it also fails to show the Moat, so we can't be sure if details have been left out (by accident or design), nor whether the map can provide evidence for the absence of other features or buildings in 1835. Buildings are shown on both corners where the lane meets Brownlow's Hill (the former turnpike road). A group of buildings on the site of Coddington House shows the predecessor(s) of James Thorpe's dower house. The first pair of buildings along the lane appear on the left, with no indication of the Smithy which must surely have been opposite. Further along there is a cluster of buildings on both sides of the lane around the site of the Homestead. Where the road bends to the left there is a building at the corner and one up a track. Further still along the lane there is a building on the right and another almost opposite a track leading past the site of a couple of buildings (Hill Farm). On the right a windmill symbol, with lime and lime kilns marked two or more fields behind with two small buildings behind. Finally we reach a complex of buildings both sides of the lane at Hilltop Farm.

In the People section we have some information about former inhabitants of Balderton Lane from 19thC Censuses, and from 19th and 20thC Trade Directories. Around 1857 curate Rev Frederick Taverner made a rough map of the village (listing the householders and the number of children in each house) which still exists and complements the 1861 Census.

See also the Lee, Daybell and Booth families associated with the Windmill, The Homestead and the farms.