# Back lane

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A **back lane**, laneway, [alley](/source/Alley) or back alley is a service or access road behind houses or, in a commercial district, which was created for deliveries and parking, amongst other things.[1] In American "service alley rights-of-way are typically 16 feet–24 feet wide, measured from property line to property line".[2] The name frequently survives as a street name in a much enlarged urban settlement (there is an example in [Wheldrake](/source/Wheldrake)), but it is common for the back lane to be reduced to [a narrow pathway](/source/Trail).

Back lanes were often found in a planned medieval village running parallel to the main street at the other end of [burgage plots](/source/Burgage_plots).[3][4] There may be a back lane on each side of the main street which, together with the main street itself, provides a rectangular framework for the development of the village. Although the burgage plot was used for small-scale activities such as livestock or orchards, the back lane frequently divided the village from the main agricultural area such as the [open fields](/source/Open_field_system).

## References

1. ["Back Lanes"](https://web.archive.org/web/20160416031211/http://www.surrey.ca/city-services/758.aspx). *City of Surrey*. Archived from [the original](https://www.surrey.ca/city-services/758.aspx) on 2016-04-16. Retrieved 2016-04-18.

1. [Strong Towns: The American Alley, Part 1: A Hidden Resource](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/16/the-american-alley-part-1-a-hidden-resource)

1. Slater, Terry R. (2004). "Planning English medieval 'street towns': the Hertfordshire evidence". *Landscape History*. **26** (1): 19–35. [doi:10.1080/01433768.2004.10594560](https://doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2004.10594560). [ISSN 0143-3768](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0143-3768). [S2CID 129559866](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:129559866)

1. Slater, Terry R (2004). ["Planning English medieval 'street towns'"](https://web.archive.org/web/20040906000907/http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/research/umrg/membersfiles/terry/hertfordshire_evidence.pdf). *School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences – University of Birmingham*. Archived from [the original](http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/research/umrg/membersfiles/terry/hertfordshire_evidence.pdf) on September 6, 2004.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Back lane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_lane) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_lane?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.