The Hallam Fields
Industrial Trail - Part 3 - To The Canal
w/e 18 September 2005
All
this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
In Part 3, we continue along Hallam Fields Road to the Erewash
Canal.
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I have to admit that the thought of taking photographs for this
stage of the Industrial Trail did not fill me with any great
enthusiasm. I am not sure that the extension of Hallam Fields
Road from Crompton Road down to the Erewash Canal has been formerly
adopted and the pot holes in the road surface, the lack of pavements
on either side and a general uncared for feel did little to change
my opinion. Bricks have become dislodged from the top of the
Great Northern Railway bridge which crossed the Stanton branch
line and sidings. The view (inset) along the route of the old
line towards the Gallows Inn Playing Field shows only that it
has become overgrown or built on and no evidence of its former
use remains.
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Just beyond the bridge on the right hand side there now stands,
as the sign tells us, the works of a "Timber Engineer".
From a historical point of view however, the wall along the frontage
is more interesting for this is all that remains of the Hallam
Fields Church of England School site. This view will no doubt
be almost unrecognisable to anyone who has been away from the
town for some time as an email I received only a couple of weeks
ago from Jan Wasley, now resident in America proves. In it he
wrote, "I recall that one could go past St Bartholomew's
Church down a small dead end road that ultimately led to a primary
school where from time to time there would be theatrical productions.
I dimly seem to recall an amateur production of Oklahoma."
The school was actually demolished in 1976 after being used as
a Sunday school. It had closed as a day school in 1939 due to
its proximity to the ironworks, a prime target for German bombers
in the Second World War.
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The school had originally been built on the site of Job Severn's
farmhouse and between the school and the bridge over the Erewash
Canal at the bottom of Hallam Fields Road (above), were bricklayers'
and plumbers' shops which offered fine views of the New Works
furnaces in Stanton Ironworks.
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Looking back up Hallam Fields Road today, the view whilst still
industrial bears, little resemblance to that of Stanton's heyday.
The time office and power house were adjacent to the canal bridge
but the only constant now from years ago is probably the tower
of St Bartholomew's Church. That beacon in the distance on the
corner of the then Crompton Street would be where early Stanton
workers and their families who arrived by canal from the Black
Country would head to make their homes in the cottages there.
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And it would have been somewhere near here, Hallam Fields Lock,
seen from the bridge over the canal that those early workers
would have disembarked. The next lock along the Erewash canal
at Gallows Inn was also used as a disembarkation point.
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I
have made several comparisons between the scenes of earlier times
and today in this part but zooming in over the lock gates revealed
a view of a narrow boat that is almost timeless. Even so, I suppose
comparisons can still be made for I imagine this tranquil view
would have had a much busier countenance around two hundred or
so years ago. The Erewash Canal was opened in 1779 at a cost
of £21,000 but was abandoned in 1930. It was used again
in the war years between 1939 and 1945 and, still navigable,
it is now used mainly for leisure activities. Our route from
here is not in the direction of these views but the opposite
way towards Sandiacre.
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