both of which seem to have been parallel with Soar Lane, and to have run down towards the river. There was one large plot of land in Walkercrofts, bounded by these ditches and dykes, which lay between the Northgate and the river, known as the Pingle. Its memory is still preserved by Pingle Street. It was described by Nichols as "a large close on the side of Northgate Street, towards the bottom of Soar Lane, edging on the Soar westward not far from the North Gate," and is marked on most of the old plans of Leicester. The word was used in the Midland Counties to denote any small enclosure, and there were other "pingles" at or near Leicester. One at Nottingham was known as Friars' Pingle, "Le Frere Pyngile." On the eastern side of the North Gate in the Parish of St. Margaret, were other lanes and paths, among which were Buxton Lane, parallel with the highway, and perhaps corresponding in part with what was formerly known as Paradise Lane, and a path over a ridge or dyke, known in the 15th century as " Abbot's balk,"
II. THE EAST SUBURB.
The East Suburb, which was far the more important of the two, and was often referred to as "the Suburb," contained the Church of St. Margaret, which was annexed as a Prebend to the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, and the populous districts of Belgravegate and Humberstonegate. Most of the land comprised in the Suburb was the fee of the Bishop of Lincoln, whose Grange lay south of St. Margaret's Church.
The main thoroughfares were Churchgate, Gosewellgate, Belgravegate, Gallowtreegate, and Humberstonegate. Archdeacon Lane, which runs east from Churchgate, a little south of St. Margaret's Church, is mentioned in 1465 ; and Plowman Lane, which also led out of Churchgate, is referred to at the beginning of the 14th century.
Most Churches had a lane of approach, sometimes called the "churchgate," as St. Martin's Lane was called; but the thoroughfare which came to be, and still is known as Churchgate, par excellence, is the road leading to St. Margaret's Church from the south outside the East Wall. A deed of the year 1478
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