As we walk the lanes and paths of Bardwell, we are often following ways that have defined the shape of the parish for hundreds of years. The names attached to these, however, have been subject to far more change, and this month we shall take a look around the village to consider the ways in which some of these names reflect its history.

Our tour starts in Low Street, a name which does not seem to occur before the mid-nineteenth century. Prior to that, it was known from the latter part of the 18th century as 'Bardwell Street', or simply 'the Street', but the earliest name recorded for it was Southenton Street. This name, or its corrupted variants, Sunton or Sutton Street, appears in many documents in the 16th and 17th centuries. Its origin lies in the early mediaeval layout of the village, which seems to have had two main settlement areas, the one to the south being known as Southenton. In 13th century documents for Bardwell we find people surnamed 'de Southenton', and it is possible that Sepherer de Suneton, who appears in the tax return for 1283, may have been the ancestor of the Seffrey family, who were the builders of Mothersoles in about 1490.     

We now come to Knox Lane, a very ancient road, although its present name only dates from the 18th century. It seems likely that this was actually Knock's Lane, relating to a Bardwell family of the time called Knock. Before this, however, it was known as the Holloway; it appears by this name in the will of John Cowpere in 1440, and in many other documents during the following three centuries. It is probably connected to the little-known fourth manor of Bardwell, the manor of Holgate Hall, 'gate' having the same meaning as 'way'. This manor is mentioned in a survey dating from about 1290, and in 1504 it was held by Roger Darcy, the holder of the three main Bardwell manors. Although the extent of Holgate Hall manor is unknown, some of its land seems to have lain in the fields behind the Green Man, and Mansard House, in its earlier form, once belonged to this manor.     

Continuing on our way, as we pass the old Green Man, we enter a strip of road that, within living memory, used to be called the Carnser. This is a Suffolk dialect word for a causeway, or a pathway above wet land, and it extends as far as the church corner.

Here, the road becomes Quaker Lane, derived from the Quaker Meeting House which was set up by Thomas Turpin in 1723. The Rector, David Davenport, refers to it by this name in his farming daybook of 1798, but no doubt it had been in use long before that.    

Quaker Lane leads us to Littlemore Green, the other focus of mediaeval settlement, which again provided a surname, de Littlemore, for a number of its inhabitants in the 13th century. Several roads radiate out from the Green, connecting the village to other communities, or to the villager's own often scattered pieces of land.

One of these roads, Davy's Lane, represents the oldest lane name still in use today, as it is mentioned in a will in 1652. Although it has sometimes been said that the lane was named after the Davey family, who ran the Six Bells in the 20th century, it is clear that the name is far older than that. It is probable that this is actually a corruption of Doffous Lane; John Doffous, who had land adjoining the lane, died in 1442, and left a meadow to the church for charitable purposes. Known as Doffhouse Meadow, this land was being rented out by the parish at 5 shillings per annum in 1517. One of the purposes at that time of such charitable bequests was to ensure that the name of the donor was remembered, and that his soul was prayed for, and it does seem that the memory of John Doffous lingers on to this day.

Leaving the Green, we pass into Up Street, another name that appears to have its origin in the middle of the 19th century, as of course does School Lane. Before the building of Mrs Dunlap's school in 1855, this was known for a short time as Mill Lane, following the erection of the present windmill there in 1829, but a map of 1730 calls it Harling Bridge Lane. Harling Bridge itself is referred to in 1591, and the name perhaps derives from William de Harling, who paid tax in Bardwell in 1327.     

If we turn off School Lane into the path that runs beside the windmill, we are in part of an ancient way that led across the fields from Bowbeck hamlet and along the footpath now known as Skinner's Lane to the church. This was called the Church Path by John Cowpere in 1440, and later was known as Church Lane, and it is a corpse way, along which the people of Bowbeck would have been carried to their burial places in the churchyard.     

Having reached the church, our brief tour is complete. There are, of course, many more lanes, pathways and drifts, around the village, which had their own names, sometimes continuing for centuries, sometimes changing from generation to generation. Priests' Path, Penny Lane, Calico Row, Maple Tree Way, and the wonderful Foul Sloth Way, are all forgotten, though some of them still exist, now sadly nameless.

Researched by Ruth Stokes