Ilkeston - Manners Link
w/e 10 April 2011
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
It's only a short distance along King George Avenue from Victoria
Park to the Rutland Recreation Ground but there is an alternative
route by way of a former railway line that runs from Manners
Avenue to West End Drive and this is the start at the Manners
Avenue end. The route in the opposite direction leads to Heanor
Road and the whole length is called the Manners Link.
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This quiet shady path is now a popular route with many people
but less than fifty years ago it would have rattled to the noise
of steam engines as they picked up speed on the old LNER line
from Ilkeston to Derby. Today the path leads between the housing
on the left (with a school further on) and the Manners Industrial
Estate to the right.
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The only thing speeding along the route this afternoon though
were a variety of butterflies that settled from time to time
to soak up the warm spring sunshine. Our senses were given an
additional treat here with the smell of freshly baked bread from
a unit on the industrial estate.
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As well as the butterflies, spring is apparent in a number of
other ways including the trees that are bursting into life with
new growth. I'm no expert but could this be a maple? It was near
here that the railway line was once crossed by a footbridge that
gave access to allotments via a footpath from Drummond Road and
Victoria Park.
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Daffodils are still flowering profusely all over the place but
this small clump was the only sighting of them along the path.
Look closely and you will also see a couple of tulips. These
flowers could possibly be remnants from the allotments but nearby
on the other side of the path a small area has been planted with
a variety of shrubs and flowers near the access to a new housing
estate so an overflow from there seems a more likely explanation.
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About halfway along the path a branch line to Stanton Ironworks
met the main railway line and a signal box stood nearby. Quite
naturally the position was named on old maps as Stanton Junction.
The Manners Link now follows the route of the branch line and
with the blossom to the left, the signs of the season continue.
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Across the Pewit Municipal Golf Course to the right more blossom
is visible in the distance. The peace was disturbed only by the
sound of mowers as workers tended the greens and the fairways
and the occasional thwack as a lone golfer proceeded round the
course.
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The Manners Link ends at West End Drive which long ago before
the houses were built was called Pimlico Lane running all the
way from the Market Place.
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Opposite the houses on West End Drive is the lower part of the
recreation ground (the rec) or, as the powers that be now like
to call it, the Rutland Sports Park.
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Our final image is from the opposite end of the rec near Oakwell
Drive and this view of the bowling green which is looking in
exceptionally good condition at the moment ready for the matches
that will be played here in the coming months.
For a few images of the Manners Link in the opposite direction
between Manners Avenue and Heanor Road see the Ilkeston Town Walk Part 25.
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