Not a lot is known of older history of the road, but in the church burial register is an entry for March 11th 1911 recording the burial of “an unknown man” who “died by the roadside”. Curiously his age is boldly stated to have been 72 years.
The Leicester to Peterborough Turnpike eventually became the A47 and as an important link from Leicester to the Great North Road (A1), was eventually designated as a Trunk Road.
With the ever-increasing volume of traffic the A47 soon became a very noisy feature in the village. It is reported as one of the reasons for the closure of the magistrates’ court, which used to be held every month on the first Friday. The court, known as the East Norton Petty Sessions, was moved to Thurnby in 1962, but had closed completely by the end of that decade. It was about this time that the A47 was straightened around the cross roads providing a service road for the houses along the A47 to the east, but claiming some of the garden from the bungalow on the corner of Hallaton Lane. This was just a foretaste of improvement work to come.

The Turnpike

East Norton is situated on the ancient Leicester to Peterborough road, which became a Turnpike in 1753/4. There is a reference to the Turnpike on the charity board in the church. This is reported in the church history page of this website under ‘Charity Board’.

The Crawler Lanes

In 1980 the Department of Transport proposed to make some improvements to the road layout at East Norton in the light of the many accidents that had occurred on the chicane at the western end of the village known as Fiddler’s Green. They also proposed to construct a third lane on the eastern approach, similar to the one already constructed on Lanclose Hill to the west of the village. This was intended to enable the overtaking of lorries struggling up the hill by the old railway station. They again suggested raising the speed limit through the village to 40 mph. The proposed bypass having been shelved due to the expense of construction in “geologically unstable ground”. 

Residents were not happy with this proposed scheme and in February of 1981 the Parish Meeting resolved “That this Parish Meeting opposes the DOT’s schemes to straighten and widen the A47 trunk road, and supports the provision of a bypass.”
In March of the same year the Rt Hon John Farr MP (later Sir John) tabled questions to the Rt Hon Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Transport, seeking abandonment of the straightening and widening schemes in favour of a bypass. The reply was that no funds were available for a bypass and that “a less ambitious improvement” was required at the western approach to reduce the number of accidents.

Owners of the properties on the north side of the A47 through the village became particularly anxious when a spokesman for the DOT suggested it would be cheaper to purchase and demolish their homes in order to widen the road, than it would be to build a bypass. This almost certainly would have happened because the houses would have prevented any widening of the road through the village. The result would have been a “bottle neck” especially with customers’ cars parking at the village shop/post office.

In June 1981 Compulsory Purchase Orders were issued to enable work to start on the construction of the Crawler Lane on the eastern approach by the old station. The Parish Meeting lodged objections, which led to the announcement in October 1983 that a Public Enquiry would be held in December. The Parish Meeting prepared the case for objection based on the “bottleneck” argument. However, in October 1983, just before the enquiry, the DOT announced that due to revised design standards for trunk roads, an affordable bypass for East Norton would now be possible. Plans for the bypass were issued. The Parish Meeting continued with the objection to the crawler lane on the grounds that it should not be constructed until after the planned by-pass was on the ground. The Enquiry was held in the Town Hall at Uppingham. The DOT won the case and the Parish Meeting was left with the task of ensuring that the promised bypass was built as soon as possible.

The approach from the West

The date of the photo above left showing the old Uppingham Road by the church is not known, but the photo above right shows the view from a similar position in August 2007. Note how much the road has been widened and re-aligned over the years, and a foot-way created alongside.

The approach from the East

Similarly the date of the photo on the above left is not known, but taken long before the straightening of the old Uppingham Road which created a service road to these cottages. The photo on the above right was taken in August 2007 well after the by-pass had removed heavy traffic from the village.

The image below shows the road in 2021 after the residents were able to purchase the former service road (originally the A47) and extend their gardens up to the former A47 realignment. 

The Bypass

In October of 1984, almost a year after the public enquiry into crawler lane construction, the route of a proposed bypass was confirmed. Original plans were to have a bypass open at both ends of the village, but these were replaced by a plan to have only one access from the west end and to close off the old road to the east. It was considered dangerous to have westbound traffic crossing eastbound traffic at the brow of the hill between the village and the old station.

In September 1987 soil surveys were completed and by October 1988 the draft orders were published. There were some objections raised by local landowners but these were all resolved by March of 1989. On St Georges Day, April 23rd 1990 the construction workers from Midland Oak moved into the village setting up a site office and compound to the north of the A47 just off Hallaton Lane. Apart from the construction of the carriageway, there was also the culverted watercourse to be strengthened to take the extra water that was expected to be drained from the new road into the Eyebrook. The tall streetlights were replaced with columns of a more appropriate height headed by high-pressure sodium lamps giving a much more acceptable colour and intensity. Some new lights were provided along Hallaton Lane at the same time, at the request of the residents.

The new road finally opened on October 27th 1990 and some residents formed an impromptu party in what had now become a quiet village street, formerly a noisy trunk road.
As part of the de-trunking works the foot-ways by the old road in the village were widened thus making the carriageway narrower to encourage vehicles to pass through the village at lower speeds. A ‘nose’ of grass area was formed at the old cross roads which formed a small green area
By November 1991 it was becoming obvious that deceleration lanes were necessary at the Hallaton and East Norton turns from the new road. The Hallaton turn was reconstructed first to be followed by the East Norton turn in January 1993.

The bypass gave the villagers a renewed pride in their village street. A street clean-up was organised to remove the debris resulting from many years of trunk road traffic passing through, and later some planting of daffodil bulbs and trees.

In 2004 a more ambitious planting scheme of more trees, daffodils, crocus, and bluebells, has been supported by a ‘Shire Grant’ from the Leicestershire County Council.