Awsworth - A Step Back In
Time
w/e 13 March 2022
All of this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
We're now into the 21st year
of Ilkeston Cam and as time goes on it gets more and more difficult
to find somewhere locally that we haven't been to before. It
is though 19 years since we last walked through Awsworth even
though it is only a couple of miles from Ilkeston so a return
visit to the main street through the village is long overdue.
It's also a step back into family history as my paternal grandparents
lived here. More about that follows but to be honest, very little
appears to have changed since our visit in 2003 - there's a link
to those images near the bottom of this page.
The telephone kiosk has been removed, the flowers are different
and the hedge has grown somewhat but little else has changed
at the crossroads where Cossall ends and Awsworth begins at the
signpost on the corner of Westby Lane and The Lane.
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The first road on the left from
The Lane is Middleton Street and if you strip away the road markings
and the modern vehicles, I imagine it looks pretty much the same
as it did at the turn of the last century. And this is possibly
where the family history comes in. The building on the left has
a sign which says "The Old Off Licence" and on the
right is a shop which now trades as a fast food take-away.
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Back in the 1901 census my grandfather Joseph Newton at the age
of 24, is shown as living at "The Shop" and his occupation
is a baker. I remember there being talk in the family of him
being a Master Baker and I have a strong suspicion that the shop
in question was one of these on the corner of Middleton Street.
I'm leaning towards the Off Licence being the shop in question
but it needs further investigation.
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On the other side of The Lane is the United Methodist Free Church
which opened in 1884. Apart from a lick of paint it looks very
similar to our 2003 visit and I imagine it is little changed
since its first construction. I can also imagine Joseph, his
wife Hannah and some of their nine children worshipping there.
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Some of the children may also have attended school in Awsworth
but it wouldn't have been this one which is of much later construction.
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A parking area is now set aside in front of the school but if
any of my ancestor's did attend school in Awsworth, it would
have entailed a walk along The Lane towards the northern end
of the village.
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That walk would have taken them past the site of what is now
the Village Hall and the entrance to the Recreation Ground.
The Infant School, now a Day Nursery, stands a little further
on past the Village Hall.
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And just around the corner on Main Street as The Lane has now
become, the former Awsworth Board School of 1878 still stands
near the top of the hill.
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Across from the old school is St Peter's Church where a path
from the road to the church passes the village's War Memorial,
inscribed on three sides with the names of about 30 men who died
during the Great War. More names of those lost in the Second
World War were later added to the plinth.
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Further down the hill Croft Crescent leads off Main Street and
The Crown Inn, which like the Methodist Church, has benefited
from a coat of paint since 2003, still looks pretty much the
same. I remember though back in the 1960s visiting one of my
Dad's brothers (14 years his senior) and his family who lived
in a cottage on Main Street. That cottage has now been demolished
but The Crown would have been his local.
I never knew my paternal grandparents. They both died in their
early forties over a quarter of a century before I was born.
My Dad was orphaned at the age of 5 or 6 and was brought up in
Cotmanhay, Ilkeston by an "aunt" but I still feel that
strong family connection to Awsworth every time I pass through
it. Of course these days, most people by pass the village along
the A6096, Shilo Way and as we can see from these images from
2003, the old road through the village
has changed little since then. In fact parts of that route have
hardly changed since Joseph baked his bread there over 120 years
ago. I wonder if it will still be the same in another 100 odd
years.
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