The present plan within this area of Bawtry (consisting of classic 'burgage plots' perpendicular to three linear streets running north to south with a regular grid formed by interconnecting streets) is generally accepted to relate to the replanning of a new town by Robert de Vipont lord of the manor in the late twelfth to early 13th century (Cumberpatch and Dunkley, 1996). The principal road within the plan is 'High Street' with its long narrow market place with Top Street (fossilising the course of a former Roman road) and Church Street forming subsidiary parallel streets also functioning as 'back lanes'. The prosperity of the settlement seems to have lain in its role as an inland port with the navigable river Idle forming the eastern edge of the settlement until construction of the railway in the 19th century. Unknown legibility of earlier landscape. Most current buildings are of post-medieval date but some have possible 17th century or earlier timber framed elements (Magilton 1977, 11).