back lane

{{Short description|Rear access or service road}}

A back lane, laneway, 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.{{Cite web|url = https://www.surrey.ca/city-services/758.aspx|title = Back Lanes|website = City of Surrey|language = en-US|access-date = 2016-04-18|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160416031211/http://www.surrey.ca/city-services/758.aspx|archive-date = 2016-04-16|url-status = dead}}

In American "service alley rights-of-way are typically 16 feet–24 feet wide, measured from property line to property line".[https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/16/the-american-alley-part-1-a-hidden-resource Strong Towns: The American Alley, Part 1: A Hidden Resource]

The name frequently survives as a street name in a much enlarged urban settlement (there is an example in Wheldrake), but it is common for the back lane to be reduced to a narrow pathway.

Back lanes were often found in a planned medieval village running parallel to the main street at the other end of burgage plots.{{Cite journal|last = Slater|first = Terry R.|date = 2004|title = Planning English medieval 'street towns': the Hertfordshire evidence|journal = Landscape History|volume = 26|issue = 1|pages = 19–35|doi = 10.1080/01433768.2004.10594560| s2cid=129559866 |issn = 0143-3768}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/research/umrg/membersfiles/terry/hertfordshire_evidence.pdf |title=Planning English medieval 'street towns' |last=Slater |first=Terry R |date=2004 |website=School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences – University of Birmingham |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040906000907/http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/research/umrg/membersfiles/terry/hertfordshire_evidence.pdf |archive-date=September 6, 2004 |url-status=dead }} 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.