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Badsey & Aldington Trail - Location 30

Badsey Fields Lane

At the beginning of the 19th century, the road we know today as Badsey Fields Lane was then known as Pitchness Lane as it led to three pieces of land called Pitchness. In the Enclosure Awards of 1815 it was described as: “One other private Carriage Road and Drift Way of the breadth of thirty feet.” At that stage, the road ran from the junction with what is now Chapel Street, as far as what is now 37 Badsey Fields Lane on the north side and 34 Badsey Fields Lane on the south side. It was for the sole use of the four landowners and their workers, to enable them to have access to their land. At the entrance to the road, on the southern corner, a pool (called in later documents Sand Pool or Green Pool) was situated and was in existence until at least 1883. Sometime between 1815 and 1841, the landowner, Thomas Byrd extended the lane across Pitchness Closes and over the western part of a very large field called Foxhill and built a farm at the end of the lane. By 1861, the farm was being referred to as Badsey Field and, by 1901, the whole road was being referred to as Badsey Field Lane.