Ilkeston - Avenues And Alleyways
w/e 15 October 2006
All this week's
pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
With only a passing nod to Tony Christie for his
hit song, I thought I would take a look at some of Ilkeston's
avenues and alleyways at the southern end of the town around
Larklands and Little Hallam. An avenue in its British usage is
defined as a broad road or street, often with trees along the
sides although in Ilkeston I would suggest that there are more
'avenues' without trees than with.

That's
not to say there aren't any tree-lined streets in Ilkeston. There
are many but it's just that they are not all called 'Avenue'.
Greenwood Avenue (above) is probably a reasonable example of
the definition being wide and tree-lined but Birch Avenue (off
to the right in the centre of this image) and St James Avenue
and Smedley Avenue further along on the left are not only treeless
but are not what you would call 'wide' either. The road entrance
on the right is the main access into Erewash Square but this
can also be gained via an alleyway (right). Whichever 'Avenue'
you look at in Ilkeston there is usually an alleyway in fairly
close proximity.
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Towards Hallam Fields off Corporation Road there are Cromwell
Avenue and Trowell Avenue and on the other side of Corporation
Road on the Middleton Estate, you'll find three more - Eleanor,
Benner and Frederick. Frederick Avenue at its junction with Queens
Avenue can be seen in the top right hand corner of the triptych
above but none of the avenues mentioned here are tree-lined.
It is an interesting fact that of the three almost parallel roads
that link Little Hallam Lane and Longfield Lane, namely Queens
Avenue, Kingsway and Garden Avenue, it is only the one not called
'Avenue' that is lined with trees. There is another link between
Longfield Lane and Little Hallam Lane though and that is by the
alleyway that leads to Birdcroft Lane (above left) and near the
bottom of Queens Avenue, another alley (bottom right) leads off
Little Hallam Lane to Inglefield Road.
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Also off Little Hallam Lane and cutting through to Cavendish
Road is another alleyway (left and right above) and this passes
across the end of Catherine Avenue (centre) - not what you would
call a broad road but it is an avenue lined with trees. Across
Cavendish Road the path continues up past the South East Derbyshire
College to Field Road and Nottingham Road.
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Another alleyway (above right) also links Cavendish Road with
Nottingham Road and interconnects Whitworth Road with Lower Whitworth
Road whilst on the opposite side of Cavendish Road heading back
toward Little Hallam Lane, we find another avenue that IS lined
with trees - Kirkby Avenue (left).
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This alleyway leads off Park Drive to Kensington Gardens and
Park Drive of course leads directly to Park Avenue and Park Cemetery.
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 From the gates of the cemetery and looking
back along Park Avenue, we can see once again that this is one
of the tree-lined avenues but it does seem that the people responsible
for naming the roads over the years did not deem this a necessity
when deciding whether to call a particular road 'Avenue' or not.
From the cemetery, an alleyway (right) off Millfield Road (tree-lined)
leads towards Heathfield Avenue and guess what - no trees there
either! Contrary or what? But that's Ilkeston for you!
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