How did the road get its name?
Packs Close is so-called because of its proximity to a field which was known as First Packs Ground.
When did housing development begin?
Packs Close, at the north-eastern tip of Horsebridge Avenue, is built on land which used to belong to Aldington but which became part of Badsey in 1921. When the Horsebridge Avenue estate was built in the 1940s, this area of spare piece of land was grassed over, swings erected and used as a children's play area. As more and more people on the estate began to get cars, the play area gave way to a block of garages. These in turn gave way in the 1980s to a small development of eight social housing properties: five terraced houses, a pair of semi-detached houses and a link detached house.
Further information about the road may be found in the chapter called "Council Housing in Badsey & Aldington" by Will Dallimore, in Aldington and Badsey: Villages in the Vale - A Tapestry of Local History.
Numbering system
Numbers 1-5 are a terrace on the east side; number 6 is a link-detached house adjoining a pair of semi-detached houses, numbers 7 & 8, on the west side.
19th and early 20th century auctions and ownership
In 1807, at the time of the Aldington Enclosure Act, this plot of land was an old enclosure owned by George Day. It was called The Hanging Grounds (16a 1r 38p) and comprised part of the land belonging to Aldington Farm, which had previously been owned by the Foley family for nearly 140 years. Thomas Foley of Witley had bought “all that Manor of Aldington alias Aunton, and all that farm called Aunton Farm now in the tenure of William Jarrett, gentleman” in 1665. On 6th October 1808, just two days after the Enclosure Awards, George Day sold the entire Aldington estate to James Ashwin of Bretforton, for £12,000. The land remained in the Ashwin family for the next hundred years when it was then sold as Lot 13, along with the rest of the Ashwin estate, by public auction on 10th June 1912 at The King’s Head Hotel, Evesham. From the end of the 19th century, this was used as market garden land. There was a gate with a road along the middle and tenants either side. This small section of the field was developed in the 1980s.
