Littleover Historic Boundaries Project

 This is a long term project using ancient maps and local knowledge to identify, visit and catalogue the boundaries of the parish.  It is a part of the Council for British Archaeology "CBA" project to map the ancient boundaries of the region.

Littleover boundary has largely visibly disappeared over the last century. One portion of the boundary still exists in an old or ancient state and is in the area of Hall Pastures Farm. Although the fields and farm are now in Willington and Findern, a District Ward of South Derbyshire and not in Littleover they have been on the boundary for centuries.

PHASE I  Boundary at Hall Pastures

Littleover Historical Society decided to research part of the boundary at a field named Forty Foot Meadow, which is readily accessible from the road. A site visit took place on Friday 11th August 2017. This research was later extended to incorporate a greater view of the boundary at Hall Pastures Farm.

The results of the first study have been published in a comprehensive report by Chris Drury who describes the history of Forty Foot Meadow.  Chris has thoroughly researched the area and has come to some important conclusions about the source of the ancient names.......

The full report is available here ........     Phase I Boundary at Hall Pastures

Phase II  Blagreaves 

This report is based on an interpretation of the part of the boundary under investigation by Littleover Historical Society.  It does not profess to be a scientific analysis of the boundary.  It is based on a site visit to examine the hedgerow boundary by Littleover Historical Society on Friday 13th August 2021 and Wednesday 16th August 2021.

Littleover boundary has largely visibly disappeared over the last century.  The portion of the boundary investigated is nearly a continuation of the that portion investigated by the Society in August 2017, and like that it still exists in an old or ancient state and is in the area now known as Blagreaves.

Although the fields have disappeared on the Littleover Parish side of the boundary, following a wholesale development of the Oaklands Housing Estate c1957.  The fields are still viable on the Stenson District Ward of South Derbyshire side of the boundary and are currently in use as grassland.

In this report Chris Drury has used an aerial Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) map to show how the traditional strip field system is still visible adjacent to the modern housing estate.......

Chris has published the results of this study in a detailed report ........

The full report is available here .......         Phase II  Blagreaves

Future Work will be :- 

Phase III – Heatherton  

Phase IV – Pastures Hill School.