Although the development looks akin to a model village, it was constructed in 1905 to house 362 orphans. It finally closed in 1960 and is occupied now as private housing. Formerly the land was agricultural in nature and comprised the top half of three thin strip fields. The area may once have been part of a medieval open field system. It has been identified as possibly being part of the medieval town fields of the village of Hallam (Scurfield 1986, 165) Legibility of the strip fields is invisible. The footpath at the north of the polygon is marked on the 1st edition OS map of 1855.