Little Norton

For the majority of its length, Little Norton Lane (LNL) now runs parallel to the east of Meadowhead / A61 Chesterfield Road and joins the main road via a 90-degree bend.  Before the building of the turnpike road between Sheffield and Chesterfield in the late 18th century LNL was a part of the old Sheffield to London road, used to carry (among other things) the scythes produced in Norton and Woodseats to the south. 


The road - shown in Burdett's map of 17xx shown to the right - came from Meersbrook, up Derbyshire Lane to Bolehill, across Norton Park (now Graves Park) to Little Norton Lane and then down Dyche Lane and across to Old Whittington on its way to Chesterfield and the south.  Commissioner John Nuttall of Matlock (appointed in 1802), decided that the road across from Bolehill to “…a certain Gate near Widow Biggin’s house at Little Norton....be stopped up and discontinued, the same appearing to me to be useless and unnecessary”.


Armitage describes (in Chantreyland p242) that this decision and the newly built  turnpike left LNL as:  “…a place then on one of the main routes, but now left in a quiet backwater of England, with nothing conducting us through it but an obscure footpath, no traffic upon its road but an occasional slow-moving load of manure, a hawker’s cart surrounded by a knot of women, or a herd ofleisurely cattle.” leaving “…this short stretch of deserted road, that today comes to an abrupt end at Norton Park, near the village pump on its patch of green…”


Park Farm may have been the early 17th-century home of John Parker, yeoman farmer and lead merchant. It was used as a watering stop for horses pulling coaches on the old Sheffield to London route. 


he OS Map published in 1883 shows Park Farm and Herbert Goy’s Pig Farm (29 LNL) at the north end of (today’s) Little Norton Lane, where the road bends to the west to join the A61.  Birch Hall Farm was to the south-west of this bend and owned by the Tattersall and then the Proctor families who sold the farm in 1920..


Ernest Hunstone worked at Park Farm for 40 years, and died in 1932.  He was succeeded by his nephew Manby Allen. . Both Park Farm and the Pig Farm were demolished in the mid-1930s, following the fate of the nearby Birch Hall farm in 1928 - sold for housing development.


The cottages to the south of Serpentine Walk, opposite Birch Farm, were built on the east side of Little Norton Lane (numbers 41-45) in the 18th or 19th century for farm workers.





The arrival of the Royal Flying Corps in 1915 and subsequent events were to change the area substantially.  There was significant WW1 development at Little Norton – the OS map of Derbyshire XII in 1915 published in 1924 shows Men’s and Women’s Camps, identified as “Coal Aston Aerodrome” on both sides of LNL to the south of the farms and cottages. 


The RFC Coal Aston Landing Ground (Aerodrome) and the No 2 NARD Aircraft Repair Depot – which were on the south side of Norton Lane are not identified on this map.  This may have been for censorship/security reasons.


After WW1 most of the buildings of Camp no 1 (the Men's camp) were sold off by auction.   The Women's camp - built from more permanent materials became Painted Fabrics.


The site of Camp 1 was developed for housing along Norton Lane and as the Norton Park Estate during the inter-war  years and post-WW2.


Building stopped during WW2.  Names of builders.


  




More info on no of houses built and when – check Plg Apps.


Builders (along Little Norton Lane) included GR Parkin, Wright and Walton, H Harrison & Sons, Skinners any more? check Plg Apps…………

P6 I think. - builders in Little Norton Lane in mid to late 30s


Graves Trust Homes were built on the site of the pig farm and land to the north of Serpentine Walk which was Little Norton Green and the orchard.

    • Built at the expense of the Trust on Corporation land passed to Sheffield Corporation on completion.``
    • The 20 flats within the complex were originally provided rent-free to OAPs who paid rates and a charge to cover repairs