A Sentimental Journey
- No. 05 (also No. 06)
Ilkeston To Cossall - Part 1
w/e 27 January 2008
All
this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
Gonna take a Sentimental Journey, Gonna set my
heart at ease.
Gonna make a Sentimental Journey, to renew old memories.
It was Derek Thorpe, an ex-Ilkestonian now living in Western
Australia who first suggested a series under the title of "A
Sentimental Journey" and he wrote to say "My choice
for a sentimental journey would be from St Mary's Church down
by the Park Cemetery, Monks Way, Potters Lock up Monks Walk to
the Top Canal and on to Cossall Village and Church area."
About the same time Joanne Apergi (née Millership) contacted
me from Greece with a couple of sentimental journeys of her own,
one of which at Cotmanhay we have already featured. For her second
journey she wrote "My dad would say to us on a Sunday
morning 'C’mon let’s go for a little walk' and we’d
be gone 2-3 hours. We’d start off from home, being Burns
Street, we would go down by Kwik Save (as it was then), down
to 'Illy 'Olies, past the entrance of Park Cemetery – there's
a gitty down there near Millfield Road. We would go down to the
allotments to Potter’s Lock then along the train bridge
(waiting for trains as my brother was a train spotter back then),
up to the first swing bridge and ....." this is where
it follows a different route to Derek's.
As you can see the first part of Joanne's walk follows an almost
identical route as Derek's suggestion and it is this route we
will be following in our fifth journey as we follow Derek's route
into Cossall. Then we will return to the swing bridge and continue
as number six following Joanne's route along the Nottingham Canal
towards Trowell before circling back into Ilkeston.
We'll begin then on Ilkeston Market Place with this view down
the street that Joanne recalled as being her home, Burns Street,
as seen between the Scala Cinema on the left and The Moon and
Sixpence pub (formerly The King's Head) on the right.
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 Turning
through ninety degrees so that the pub is now on the left we
can also see St Mary's Church which is Derek's starting point.
Our route from here is across the Lower Market Place and along
Anchor Row, the footpath that is visible immediately above the
red and white 'No Entry' sign. From a little closer (left)  the building
with the dark glass frontage is J. D. Wetherspoon's "The
Observatory" - another pub that stands on the site from
where Kwik Save once traded. Anchor Row leads to the Erewash
Museum but on this occasion we cannot go inside as the museum
is closed every January to allow for maintenance and the preparation
of new exhibitions for the coming year. Instead we must pass
straight by the entrance to the steps (right) down to the underpass
beneath Chalons Way.
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In fact we have a choice of routes here - either down the steps
or around the sloping path but both routes arrive at the same
place. From here to the cemetery we are following the same path
described in 2002 at the beginning of the Town Walk and later we shall be returning
to the Monk's
Way walk to Cossall but in the opposite direction.
The path and steps converge at the underpass which I was pleased
to discover was surprisingly litter free - this is not always
the case. The litter was absent but the graffiti, much of it
distasteful and/or obscene, was still there and on view for all
to see. When Joanne and Derek walked this way Chalons Way had
not been built.
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As we continue beyond the underpass, the land to the right was
once the orchard for Dalby House. Dalby House now houses the
Erewash Museum whilst behind the trees and bushes on the left
are the buildings of Chaucer Infants School.
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It is worth taking you time and being quiet along this stretch
of the footpath as it has become something of a natural nature
reserve. Robins and blackbirds are often seen and bird song can
almost always be heard in the treetops. On a more unsavoury note
I once saw a rat here tucking into scraps left by someone for
the birds. The litter that I mentioned earlier also accumulates
along this path and can only exacerbate the rodent problem although
some of the resident squirrels are only too happy to strike a
pose for you.
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The path opens out onto 'Illy 'Olies or as the council deem to
call it Chaucer Old Park. I was pleased to see that Joanne spells
'Olies the same way as me although as it is derived from the
hills and holes caused by earlier mineral mining I did wonder
whether it should be 'Oleys. It is not "Hilly Hollies"
as quoted in a recent consultant's report on the council website
as this suggests it is a derivative of "holly" which
it is most definitely not. I think we'll stick with 'Olies. The
chapel in the distance is at the Park Cemetery and we'll pick
up Joanne's and Derek's sentimental journeys near the cemetery
gates.
Cue song:- Never thought my heart could be so yearny. Why
did I decide to roam?
Gotta take that Sentimental Journey, Sentimental Journey home.
Continued in Part 2
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