How did the road get its name?
Fields Close is so-called because of its proximity to the area known as Badsey Fields.
When did housing development begin?
Fields Close was created in the 1980s as a development of nine detached houses and seven detached bungalows in a cul-de-sac off Badsey Fields Lane. The Badsey and Aldington Village Plan for the period 1981-1991, published in 1981, identified this site as one of four possible areas for expansion within the village, Badsey having been selected for limited housing development because of its good shopping facilities, local employment, relatively good public transport service and spare capacity in the main services. The Plan described the land as being currently in market gardening use but approximately 3½ acres could be assembled as a housing site which could accommodate up to 30 new dwellings. It stated that, “The advantages of this site are that it is enclosed and therefore not extending the village into open country. Access to the site could be gained from Binyon Close or Badsey Fields Lane.” In the event, three bungalows were built at the northern end of Binyon Close and the access to the new road called Fields Close (with 16 houses) was from Badsey Fields Lane.
Some 30 years later, in about 2011, two more houses were built (on land which had previously been part of the garden of No 10 Badsey Fields Lane) and were given an address of Fields Close.
Numbering system
The numbers were originally 1-17 with no number 13; they run consecutively round the Close on the west side. When two new houses were built in about 2011 on the east side, they were given the numbers 18 & 19.
19th and early 20th century auctions and ownership
In 1812, at the time of the Badsey Enclosure Act, this land was an old enclosure owned by John Jones. It was called Sand Close and amounted to 4a 0r 18p. After John Jones’ death in 1850, the land remained in the Jones family but was mortgaged to Henry Burlingham for £2000. Joseph Jones (John’s nephew) defaulted on the mortgage and so the land was sold at auction on 7th July 1888. The land, known as Sands Garden, which had been used as garden ground, was divided into five lots of around an acre each, on which houses were built abutting Willersey Road. The eastern-most part of these plots of land were sold off by the respective owners in the 1980s for housing development on the new Fields Close.
