Seagrave Road

Up to 1760, Seagrave Road did not exist. The road itself is a product of Sileby's Enclosure Act, when a new road to Seagrave was carved out of the former open fields. It replaced a number of other trackways, one of which is still in use today. This is the path from Swan Street that heads past the Memorial Park and pavilion and then glides through the Heathcote Drive estates skirting Highgate School and the Egg farm to Seagrave.

After the road was constructed little development except for new farms built off the road occurred for a century or so. Quebec and Belle Isle farms were the dominant features of the new fielded landscape.

In the 1870s land off Seagrave Road was quarried for lime by J S Furniss with three lime kilns constructed to process the excavated stone. The remains of these works are shown on the 25 inch 1884 Ordnance Survey map of the area.

Expansion of the village spilled over onto Seagrave Road from the 1880s. Half a dozen houses are listed in the 1881 census, and only twelve in 1901. Besides the farms the largest building here was the second of Sharpe's brewery maltings buildings.

Building land was put on the market by speculators such as Albert Ball, a Justice of the Peace from Nottingham. In 1908 he purchased a number of fields here and divided them into smaller plots to be re-sold or mortgaged. These schemes were attractive to locals as opportunities like this were hard to find elsewhere in the village. New owners often built a pair of properties on their plots, one for themselves and the other to rent or sell. By 1911 there were almost 40 houses here.

The success of these early small ventures kick started residential ribbon development along the road, which later spilled over into estate construction. These processes are still happening today, albeit on a much larger scale. Early projects such as Jubilee Avenue (1936) and the Greedon Estate (1947-8 onwards) were later joined by the Heathcote Drive estate in the late 1960s and 1970s.

As with other parts of the village, factories appeared after the First World War with Ginns and Spencer and Willetts taking up residence on either side of Park Road. Egg production has been undertaken by the Crawley family on the site of the former Belle Isle farm since the 1970s.