The medieval settlement of Morton was documented but very small in 1086, but greatly expanded from the end of the Middle Ages onwards, latterly as a suburb of Gainsborough. Its layout is not that of the other small Trent-side settlements north of Gainsborough, being constricted by limited river frontage and perhaps by an early east-west routeway. It appears to comprise a block of properties fronting the river, whose Back Lane has developed into a Main Street; a second core based on North Street and streets and lanes at right angles to the north side only of the east-west routeway that are largely late development. The settlement is sited below Thonock Castle on a great bend of the Trent where shipping first approaches the sold land of Lindsey, and at the end of what appears to be an early east to west routeway picked up by a series of parish boundaries. It was a strategic landing and perhaps crossing point. {1}