Newtown Linford relocation of people when the Ferrers family of Groby turned Bradgate into a deer park. The people who lived within the estate were moved to the "New Town" - or hamlet as it would have been then, at the ford of the river Lin (once located at the junction of Markfield Lane and Main Street). The village was first documented in 1293 and was previously known as "Lyndynford". The villagers were all tenants of the Ferrers family, and later the Grey family. The village is famous for Bradgate Park, a large country park which was home to Lady Jane Grey,
Bradgate Park topped by vertical pales of oak. These first ditchworks cross the River Lyn east of the Little Matlock Gorge. A parker, living in a moated house, was the only occupant, maintaining stocks of deer for the lord of Groby Manor to hunt. The park was greatly extended by the first marquis in the late 15th century, to occupy land previously farmed by both Newtown Linford and the now lost village of Bradgate. Lichen dating of the dry-stone walls suggest that the north and west boundary walls were built in the 17th and early 18th centuries, when Bradgate was still occupied