Village Trail
Current position - March 7th 2025
The benches for the trail have been installed. The lecterns are in production and are due to be installed this month. The wood carved ox for London Road is ready and awaiting installation. We are arranging temporary CCTV over the area where the Ox and Plough artwork will be. This may slightly delay installation. The website content for each point of the trail is currently being drawn up so the live pages on our website are work in progress.
The Village Trail is a circular two-mile walk around the historic village and conservation area in Balderton. It has stopping points every few hundred yards, providing benches and information boards. The Trail links many of the footpaths and public rights of way in Balderton.
The project received £50,000 in 2024/25 from the UK government through the Shared Prosperity Fund, via a competitive grant application process managed by Newark and Sherwood District Council. The application was made by Cllr. Simon Forde on behalf of Balderton Parish Council, in partnership with Newark Sustrans Rangers, a voluntary group that, among other work, maintains the cycle path along the old railway line.
The application fell under the Communities and Place funding category, to support active travel and tourism. To justify this, several points mark the Commonwealth war graves in St. Giles churchyard; RAF Balderton’s role during the Second World War in, among other actions, Operation Market Garden to liberate the Netherlands (i.e., the Battle of Arnhem, or “The Bridge Too Far”); and Sir Frank Whittle’s team based in Old Hall from 1943 to 1944 to develop jet engines; and the role of John Hunt in converting Fiji to Christianity.
The funding bid also emphasised benefits to residents: benches to assist the less mobile; a route that would encourage exercise; and information boards and a sculpture that present the long history of the village—back to Lady Godiva and the Domesday Book.
The boards are richly illustrated with old maps and photos that date back to the early twentieth century.
Each information board takes a different topic, including medieval agriculture and social systems; care for the poor; insights into daily life centuries ago; struggles between villagers in Balderton with their counterparts in Claypole and Long Bennington; buildings that are now lost, including a pinfold, malthouses, and a pub; two bypasses of the Great North Road (the 1725 London Road turnpike and the 1960s A1 Newark bypass); and the village’s industrial past (Worthington-Simpson pump factory).
We do not claim that Balderton is particularly special, but it does show a fascinating portrait of everyday facets of a small Midland village that can be traced back over more than a millennium.
Further reading:
Balderton Local History Group, Balderton in Times Past, ed. John Samuels (Workers Educational Association, 1992). Some copies are available for purchase at the Village Centre for £5. This book is quoted at various points in the Trail.
Credits:
Simon Forde (district and parish council, Balderton South Ward, 2023-) for the concept, historical information, implementation and all the texts on the information boards.
Alan Hudson (Newark Sustrans Rangers) for the funding bid and ongoing advice
Ian Lawrence (Deputy Church Warden, St. Giles Church) for providing historic photos and information.
