Stanton By Dale -
Part 1 - Starting At St Michael's Church
w/e 13 April
2003
For the information about
Stanton By Dale I am indebted to my wife Sandra who conducted
much of the research, the staff at Ilkeston Library for help
with archived material and the Erewash Groundwork Trust who provided
an excellent leaflet packed with information.
A swathe
of green that is home to a golf course along the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire
border forms a protective barrier between the fast moving 21st
century traffic on the London to Leeds Motorway and a village
with a history that stretches back many hundreds of years.
Stanton By Dale
stands on a hillside but the geography and flora of the area
for the most part, shield the inhabitants from the industrial
development that lies in the Erewash Valley below. Motorists
using the road through the village as a shortcut between the
M1 and Ilkeston could well be familiar with some of the architecture
of the village but it is only on foot and with an inquisitive
eye that more of the treasures come to light. This is the first
in what a monthly series looking at some of the interesting features
in the village that is only a few minutes drive from Ilkeston.
Picturesque views over the Erewash Valley Golf Course (above)
are one of the more obvious delights but our look around Stanton
By Dale will begin at the opposite end of the village at St Michael's
Church.
The tower of
the church is just visible among the trees (immediately above
the lorry in the centre of this picture) from the industrial
site below but is much more picturesque from close quarters.
St Michael's
has witnessed unbroken divine worship on this site that has continued
for over seven centuries. Much of the church dates from the early
1300s when it was either rebuilt or restored but there are several
carved stones from even earlier although the tower was not added
until the late 15th century.
A War Memorial stands in the churchyard commemorating
those from village who lost their lives during the two World
Wars. It is also dedicated to the memory of the seven man crew
of a British Stirling bomber that crashed nearby on a training
flight in 1944. My wife Sandra tells a story from about this
time. As a child in her pram, she was taken by her uncle, 14
years her senior, and some of his friends on a souvenir hunt
when a plane came down near Stanton. It could well have been
this bomber. Police were stopping all the local youngsters and
confiscating the scraps of metal gleaned from the wreck but Sandra
and Co. managed to conceal their pickings in the false bottom
of her pram and passed the checkpoint looking the picture of
innocence. Grandma, to say the least, was not amused and butter
wouldn't melt.......
But to return to our look at
the village today, the approach to the church and the memorial
is by means of a gated drive. Notice the old fashioned style
of lamp on the left of the daffodil lined path and the bird box
on the tree on the right in this picture - providing comfort
for man and beast alike.
A glance over the hedge to the
right reveals a row of almshouses that the motorist passing through
the village would surely miss. Built in phases between 1711 and
1904 the Middlemore Almshouses all appear to have been built
at the same time and only closer scrutiny reveals otherwise.
Each gable end bears a plaque showing the names of the benefactors.
At the opposite end of the drive
to the church is another interesting item from a bygone age.
A large rectangular grooved stone was once part of a cheese press.
It was the upper stone which was screwed down onto another stone
thus forcing liquid out of the cheese placed between them.
Click the links below to see
other pages from this series about Stanton By Dale.
