A Sentimental Journey - No. 05
Ilkeston To Cossall - Part 4

w/e 17 February 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.

We've now reached the final leg of our sentimental journey from Ilkeston to Cossall and in this part we will follow Derek Thorpe's suggestion from the Nottingham Canal into the village itself. To start the walk again from the Market Place before proceeding from here, click here.

Mill Lane


We start this final section of the walk at the canal and continue up the hill that is Mill Lane.
Muddy Path

At the brow of the hill where the lane levels out, there is a footpath on the left across the field into the village but heavy overnight rain had left standing water and muddy conditions underfoot.
Mind The Puddles

Church LaneWe opted for what appeared to be the lesser of two evils and continued along Mill Lane although from the number of puddles we had to negotiate, this may not have been the best option. Mill Lane leads to Church Lane and meets it at a right angled bend in the road (right). The Monk's Way route that we had followed previously in the opposite direction carries straight on but to reach the centre of the village, we must turn left to follow Church Lane to another right angled bend. The name of the village is derived from "Nook of land of a man called Cott" the old English words being "Cott" and "halh". It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Coteshale.
Willoughby Almshouses

Schoolhouse & Church CottageAs we turn the corner in the centre of the village the Willoughby Almshouses come into view. These are named after George Willoughby who executed a deed in 1685 stating that he had erected a hospital for four poor men over 60 and four poor women over 55 and that it was conveyed to twelve trustees, together with more properties in Derbyshire. Among other conditions, all eight residents were to be single and were liable to be turned out if they married or misbehaved themselves. To the right of the almshouses is the old schoolroom and Church Cottage (left), the former home of D H Lawrence's fiancée, Louie Burrows.
Village Centre

Crossing the road and looking back we can now see what has become an iconic view of the village and St Catherine's Church, parts of which date back to the thirteenth century. The centre of the village is now designated as a Conservation Area and it was here that part of the TV adaption of Lawrence's 1915 novel "The Rainbow" was filmed. Lawrence renamed the village Cossethay in his book.
End Of The Road

Continuing through the village we come to another sharp bend and as far as we are concerned it is the end of the road for Derek's sentimental journey. The almshouses are just visible above the vehicle in this picture but if you would like to see a closer view of them plus some more images from the Open Gardens event held in May 2002, there is a page of images (click here) plus a link to more photos at Webshots.

To return to Ilkeston from this point in Cossall there are numerous alternatives. We could of course continue along Church Lane and return via Cossall Marsh and Ilkeston Junction which is, in fact, what we did after taking these photos. We could have retraced our steps through the village and back down Mill Lane. Derek's route that we have followed in this part is shown on this map by the yellow line and marked A-B-C in pink letters. Joanne Apergi's sentimental journey which is the same as Derek's to point A follows the canal towpath to D before crossing the field to cut out the loop of the canal. We will be picking up Joanne's walk in Sentimental Journey No. 6 in the vicinity of D but to combine Derek's and Joanne's routes, we could follow the light blue dashed line from C to B (the second picture from the top on this page) and then continue via another footpath to D. The picture below shows the footpath from the end of Derek's route looking from C towards B - and it doesn't look at all muddy from here!

Footpath

Cue song:- Never thought my heart could be so yearny. Why did I decide to roam?
Gotta take that Sentimental Journey, Sentimental Journey home.


If you have a sentimental journey of your own that you would like featured, email a few details to me.

Home
Back to Sentimental Journeys 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.