Ilkeston Town Walk - Stage 15 - The
Market Place (South End)
w/e 16 November 2003
Our walk around the town has now reached
the Market Place which is often the focal point for many and
varied activities. Markets are held here twice a week on Thursdays
and Saturdays with a Farmers' Market on the fourth Friday each
month. The October Charter Fair fills the Market Place and the
surrounding streets and the St George's Day parade in April and
Remembrance and Christmas services in November and December respectively
are also held here. But on the hazy November afternoon that this
image was captured, the main interest was centred outside the
Town Hall where Christmas lights and decorations were being erected
ready for the switching on ceremony later in the month.
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Most of the southern end of the Market
Place is occupied by the library. Built nearly a hundred years
ago, the library looks almost the same today, apart from some
unsafe pediments that have been removed and the Christmas tree
decorations of course, as it did all those years ago. A library
for the town had first been suggested as far back as 1879 but
it was not until after a gift of £7500 by the Scottish-American
industrialist Andrew Carnegie, that the library became a reality.
The stone panel above the entrance bears the words "Carnegie
Free Library".
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Inside the entrance, on a wall to the right,
the opening of the library by the Duke of Rutland in 1904 is
commemorated. In 1904, readers selected their books from lists
and it was not until 1922 that they were allowed to browse the
shelves themselves. Today along with the books, maps, videos,
DVDs, music CDs and talking books on both cassette tapes and
CDs may be borrowed. The library has a children's section and,
on the upper floor, a reference library. Large print editions
are available for the visually impaired and a number of PCs throughout
the building allow public access to reference material and also
to the internet. As the library approaches its centenary, the
people of Ilkeston can thank Mr Carnegie for his generosity but
I doubt very much that he could ever envisaged the impact his
donation would make.
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 Adjacent
to the library on the corner of Market Street stands the Church
Institute. This building was erected in 1883/4 for the Mutual
Improvement Society under the patronage of the Duke of Rutland.
Today most people will be more familiar with the Corner Cafe
and the Ilkeston Sewing Centre that now occupy the premises even
if they have seen the wording on the gable end (left). What is
perhaps not so well known though, is the repeat of the words
"Church Institute" picked out in terracotta tiles on
the side of the building (see below).
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Immediately in front of the library is the town's Cenotaph.
This was erected four years after the Great War in 1922 as a
memorial to the Ilkeston folk who gave their lives in that conflict.
Now it also commemorates those who fell in Second World War.
Two services were held at the foot of the Cenotaph this week
and poppy wreaths were laid in their memory (see inset). A Remembrance
Day service took place last Sunday and another on Tuesday 11th,
Armistice Day.
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It was also on Tuesday that the BBC Bus rolled into town and
parked, along with the BBC Radio Derby car on the Market Place to
cover the Armistice Day service. Traffic restrictions normally
prevent vehicles being parked on the Market Place these days
except for special events but seeing the bus parked there reminded
me that, in the not too distant past, all the local bus companies
used the Market Place as a terminus for many of their routes
and the northern end was, for a time, marked out as a car park.
Other stages of the "Town Walk"
may be seen by following the links from the Archives page.
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