A Sentimental Journey
- No. 09
Sandiacre - Down Memory Lane
w/e 18 January
2009
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.
 There's
a shop at Sandiacre on the Longmoor Road to towards Long Eaton
that trades under the name of "Memory Lane" and the
Village
Trail around Sandiacre that we followed in 2005/6 caused
David Roberts to take his own trip down Memory Lane from his
home in South Wales to the time in the 1940s and 50s when he
lived with his parents in this corner of Derbyshire. Following
that series part by part caused David to recall his childhood
in the post war years and put pen to paper to produce a hard
copy (or more correctly, fingers to keyboard to create an electronic
file) recording his memories for posterity.
David has now sent me a copy of his "Memories of Sandiacre"
which I have incorporated into the original series but he also
recollects some places that were not covered in that series.
This Sentimental Journey will follow an alternative route back
from Sandiacre Lock to the village centre instead of retracing
our steps as we did in the final part of the series. We'll begin
here near the end of Lock Lane close to the Erewash Canal.
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The lane rises up to cross over the Derby Canal where these boats
are moored, close to its junction with the Erewash. The continuation
of the Derby Canal in the opposite direction to this view is
now filled in and has been converted into a footpath but the
bridge over it is still intact.
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From the bridge Lock Lane swings to the right to follow the Erewash
Canal and some of the old houses that David recalled are apparent
on the left.
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Now running parallel with each other both the lane and the canal
pass under the A52, recently named Brian Clough Way in honour
of the former Derby County and Nottingham Forest manager. The
A52 of course is a post 1950 construction and would not have
been there in David's time in Sandiacre, although many of the
properties on the left will have changed little.
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Looking back from the junction of Lock Lane with Longmoor Road
bridges carrying the A52 can be seen crossing both roads.
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  But turning 180 degrees from the previous
picture brings another of David's memories into view - the cricket
ground. The ground may not have changed much in the last half
century but much of the housing that surrounds it is new. As
is the pavilion (left) that now graces one corner of the ground
which is accessed via a pair of fine gates (right), again probably
not stored in David's memory banks.
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David does recollect though that the cricket players would proceed
along Longmoor Road and head for the White Lion pub after games.
The cricket ground, the green patch above the orange van, can
be seen here from the village centre where Longmoor Road joins
what was the main Nottingham to Derby route prior to the construction
of the new A52.
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 The White Lion where cricket club
meetings were also held in the late 1940s is just visible here
above the vehicles on the right and is on the Derby road out
of Sandiacre. To the right of the picture above is Town Street
which again runs alongside the Erewash Canal at Padmore Moorings
(right). David, who is now more or less housebound in his South
Wales home, doubts that he will ever be able to walk along Town
Street again. Maybe he won't but maybe, just maybe, these few
images will rekindle a few more memories of the time he spent
here all those years ago. Thanks for sharing that time and those
memories with us David.
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.
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