Ilkeston - A Longfield Lane Circuit
w/e 28 January 2007
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

Old maps of 1894 show Longfield Lane linking Little Hallam with Hallam Fields. In those days Hallam Fields was known as Little Hallam Fields and there are no buildings shown on either side of the lane. Instead there were a number of long narrow fields especially going down the hill on the south side and I suspect that it was these that gave rise to the name Longfield Lane as the area developed. The Ilkeston Local History Society's website says an ancient name for the lane was Bindage Meadow Road but this name has been lost in the mists of time. This walk starts at the Little Hallam end of the the lane and passes along both sides of it before returning to its junction with Quarry Hill Road (above). We'll begin by descending Quarry Hill Road (left) and taking the signed footpath (right) near the bottom.

The path passes below the Hallam Fields Junior School where the hillside has been terraced to accommodate playgrounds and sports fields.

This was something of an exploration for us as this is one of the few footpaths in Ilkeston we have never trod before. It leads between the school playing fields and gardens of the properties on Longfield Lane on the left and the Quarry Hill Industrial Site on the right into a fairly recently developed housing estate. Although it looks dry and firm underfoot, the recent heavy rain had left one short patch near the estate that turned out to be ankle deep in mud! And there was no way round!

The appearance of the housing estate is no different to any that have been built in the last ten to twenty years ( and maybe even longer) as developments like this are being cloned all over the place. This image could be anywhere in the country but you'll have to take my word for it that this is Malthouse Road, Ilkeston

One thing that probably does set this development apart from similar sites is the fact that it provides an access to the Longfield Lane Allotment Gardens (left). Many similar allotments in other areas of the town have succumbed to national building concerns and have themselves become housing estates. Leaving the estate via Harrow Road (right) we crossed Longfield Lane into Frederick Avenue (above).

Frederick Avenue (left) is part of another housing estate, the Middleton, but this one is typical of developments between the wars and dates from the 1930s. A left turn at the end of Frederick Avenue into Queen's Avenue took us back to Longfield Lane (right) where we turned right to climb back up the hill past the junior school again, this time on the top side, to return to the Quarry Hill Road junction.

Home Miscellaneous Walks Index Special Features Index Terms & Conditions of Use This website is copyright but licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence. Please credit the photographer Garth Newton, or add a link to these pages.