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Laxton or, as it often appears, Lexington - in its earliest form Lexintune - was already a thriving centre when William the Conqueror's forces invaded England in 1066. The Romans built a villa or farmstead in the area known today as Fiddlers Balk in West Field. Bone, pottery, charcoal, and a number of coins, have all been found on this site, and the settlement itself may date back to between the first and fourth centuries A.D. Later evidence of occupation is provided by Laxton's name, which is Anglo-Saxon, although the Danish influence on agricultural terminology (in such words as syke, toft, flatt, gate and wong) points towards a mixed society. Field names suggest that much of the modern parish was once woodland, and considerable clearance must gave taken place in the early middle ages to accommodate a growing population.

With an adult male population of around thirty-five possibly 100-120 people were living in the village, perhaps in homes along what seems to have been the original village street, running roughly today south from the Dovecote Inn to the point where the Moorhouse road peels off to the left. This is a sheltered area, unlike the ridge on which most of the later village was built. It also provides a reasonable drainage slope. The Domesday entry suggests that the people of Laxton were probably cultivating about 720 acres of arable, that they had 40 or more acres of land for mowing, and woodland to provide pannage (acorns and beechmast) for pigs, fuel, and building timber.

Click on the thumbnail above for a larger view of the Laxton Open Fields