Laxton, Nottinghamshire
| Laxton | |
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 Laxton
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| Laxton shown within Nottinghamshire | |
| Population | 449 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | SK717673 |
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| District | |
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| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NEWARK |
| Postcode district | NG22 |
| Police | Nottinghamshire |
| Fire | Nottinghamshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Laxton is a small village in the civil parish of Laxton and Moorhouse in the English county of Nottinghamshire, situated about 25 miles northeast of Nottingham city centre. The population of the civil parish (including Ompton and Ossington) at the 2011 Census was 489.
Laxton is best known for having the last remaining working open field system in the United Kingdom. Its name is recorded first in the Domesday Book as Laxintone, and may come from Anglo-Saxon Leaxingtūn, meaning the "farmstead or estate of the people of a man called Leaxa". It is possibly the namesake of the town of Lexington, Massachusetts, and thus ultimately of all the other towns named in the United States.
The village has the remains of a Norman motte and bailey castle (Laxton Castle) and is also the site of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre. In addition, there are the remnants of a substantial system of fish-ponds, presumed to have belonged to the castle or to the manor house built later on the site of it, two mediæval mill mounds, and ridge-and-furrow earthworks. St Michael the Archangel's Church, Laxton, mostly dates back to the 12th century; after this, the earliest known standing structure is a farmhouse dating from 1703. Most of the village's architecture sits firmly in the local vernacular tradition, with nearly a fifth of the buildings dating from the 18th century, and around 40% from each of the 19th and 20th.
Conservation Status of Laxton
'Laxton Fields' has been designated a target area for Higher Level Stewardship by Natural England to promote conservation of the historic landscape and biodiversity.
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