A Sentimental Journey
- No. 06
Cossall To Ilkeston - Part 4
w/e 24 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.
The route of this
sentimental journey was suggested by Joanne Apergi but the first
three parts of Joanne's walk are identical to the route from
Ilkeston to Cossall suggested by Derek Thorpe which we covered
in Sentimental Journey No. 5. Those three parts took us as far
as the old swing bridge position on Mill Lane and marked at point
A on the map opposite. To retrace those first three parts from
Ilkeston Market Place
click here.
Derek's route continues from A and is shown by the yellow line
through B to conclude in Cossall Village at C. Joanne's route
however turns right and follows the towpath alongside the Nottingham
Canal as far as the second swing bridge location at D. I suggested
an alternative way at the end of Sentimental Journey No. 5 using
the footpaths across the fields shown by a light blue dashed
line to combine the two routes to return to Ilkeston but whichever
way we reach it, we'll begin this part at point D and continue
from there.
This first picture showing the footpath indicated by the light
blue line between B and D on the map above also shows that the
former swing bridge has been replaced by a simple footbridge
over the Nottingham Canal.
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Turning to the left at the same position, we can see the towpath
at the side of the canal which would be our approach if we followed
Joanne's route from Mill Lane. Whichever way we reach this point
we must now climb over the stile on the left to take a shortcut
across the fields picking up the towpath again on the other side
of a loop in the canal.
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The canal of course follows the contour line
around the hillside but our shortcut drops down into a small
valley and then rises up the embankment opposite. At the bottom
of the valley a drain runs through the field in a concrete channel
(left). The approach is by a grassy path but once crossed, the
rise to the canal is on soil or when I crossed it, cloying mud
(right). I was about two inches taller when I reached the far
side!
This field is known locally as Tormental or Tor Mental Field
and I was intrigued by the name and its origin. One dictionary
definition of "torment" is " something that causes
great bodily or mental pain or suffering" and as schoolboys
in the 1960s this would have been an apt description of this
part of our cross country runs but I hardly think that distant
schoolboy memories would be sufficient for a field to be immortalised
in folk history.
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I searched the local library and museum and contacted
the Local History Society for an answer but none seemed forthcoming.
Internet searches too turned up nothing until I found a picture
by "Lenton Sands" at Flickr of the Tormental Field Steps in 1984. I wrote to
Mr. Sands and then all fell into place when I received his reply
and also an answer from Stephen Flinders and Danny Corns (Local
History Society). As the saying goes "I love it when a plan
comes together" and it certainly did with their answers.
So with thanks to all three this is the answer:
The Tormental Field was a popular 19/20th century local picnic
and beauty spot until outcropping destroyed it in the early 1950s.
Mr. Sands remembers it in his childhood as being a sloping grassy
field with a winding stream
and bushes and trees for shelter. Children would paddle in the
stream and perhaps catch sticklebacks or even newts. He suggested
that it had come into being by the creation of the canal and
the embankment but it had a character that appeared entirely
natural. The field was known as the tormental field because of
a flower that grew there.
This was borne out by Danny Corns who also mentioned a small
flower and further investigations revealed that it is similar
to a buttercup but has only four petals rather than five. I also
found that the correct spelling of the flower ends til
and not tal and when you search for that, much more
information is forthcoming. There is even a Wikipedia article about it but here are a
few facts about the flower found on another website. It is a
small plant, with bright yellow flowers and woody roots. It flowers
all summer long and has an underground stem that is reddish when
cut and has a rose like smell. A red dye was extracted from it
and used to tan hides in the past. The English name for the plant
comes from the Latin word tormentum meaning pain, which refers
to the use of the underground parts of the plant to relieve stomach
pains and toothache.
I never cease to wonder at what research into a single word or
subject can reveal and it just goes to show once again, that
you are never to old to learn.
The world is
in a constant state of flux and even the steps up to the canal
have been altered since Mr. Sands' 1984 picture but I'll leave
the last word on Tormental Field to him. He wrote "It's
a great shame that such little retreats are lost forever but I fear
that the modern world would have no place for it in its heart
had it survived. After all it had no car park!" Something
else of a more immediate nature that had not survived, probably
due to the cold spell after a period of relatively mild weather,
was a tiny mouse (left) seen as the side of the steps. But after
this diversion into the origins of a name, it's onward and upwards
to regain the canal towpath (right) and follow Joanne's route
towards Trowell.
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The Nottingham Canal is of course,
no longer navigable and much of it has been filled in. The still
water in this section though was ice-covered and water fowl were
standing on the surface (left). The road (right) between Cossall
and Trowell runs by the side of the canal and where it has been
straightened, the old route now forms a small lay-by. This area
has been landscaped and a small picnic area created.
A large sign here also announces that it is the Nottingham Canal
Nature Reserve and the birds obviously know it is a good place
for rich pickings.
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Joanne had written in her email to me "... then we'd
go through Tor Mental field as my dad calls it, on to the top
canal, past the boatmans shed ..." but so far
there has been no sign of the boatman's shed. I don't know for
sure where it was but I strongly suspect that it has long since
disappeared as a little further on, Cossall Road swings towards
Trowell away from the canal and just out of sight in the picture
above and accessed from the corner is a small car park. In fact
the car park has been formed on a filled in section of the canal
and it is from there that we will continue with Joanne's route
back to Ilkeston when we resume in the next part.
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 5
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