The Hallam Fields
Industrial Trail - Part 6 - Old Men And Pipes
w/e 22 January 2006
All
this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
A couple of days after I visited Hallam Fields for the images
on this page, the weather turned colder but much brighter. The
sun even shone and I was tempted to return and retake the photos
but in all honesty the subject matter is such that I don't think
the pictures would have been much better. To make the images
slightly more palatable therefore, I'm asking you to imagine
the scenes under a clear blue sky in this, the penultimate part
of the Hallam Fields Industrial Trail.
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We pick up the Trail close to the Wild Weed Vetch sculpture (see
Part 5) where the Nutbrook Trail veers right to leave its route
along the Erewash Canal and pass in front of Big Shop and Butcher's
Shop which were part of Stanton's New Works Foundry.
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 With the New Works Foundry on
the right the area now on the left of the Nutbrook Trail was
the Nutbrook Spun Plant. In the heyday of the Stanton, the area
would be teeming with men, many of them employed in the large
Shell Shop building. It is thought that the name may have originated
from the production of shell bodies during the First World War.
It was here in the pipe pits that the phrase that 'Stanton only
produced old men and pipes' was coined due to the hard work required
in the foundry buildings. Despite the derelict appearance of
the area, businesses still operate from here and walkers and
cyclists make good use of the tarmac path that wends its way
between the remaining buildings.
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Through the fence the remains of what appear to be pipe moulds
give just a flavour the former industry and hard labour that
was part and parcel of the site.
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Where the Nutbrook Trail meets the road, there is another large
building on the right.This was the South View Foundry and it
was here that semi mass-produced experimental work, ranging from
three to eighteen inches diameter, saw the light of day. In days
gone by there were also tar dipping tanks near here and the air
used to be laden with the fumes. To this day, Danny Corns who
wrote the notes for the leaflet on which this series has been
based, admits to still loving the smell of tar.
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The road through the works from Hallam Fields towards Sandiacre
has always been a private road and to retain that status, it
was a legal requirement that vehicular access to it had to be
restricted for one day per year. This usually took place on Boxing
Day each year so as to cause the least amount of inconvenience
but since the demise of Stanton Ironworks, permanent barricades
have been erected. Many of the old structures that stood in this
area have been demolished including Stanton's first purpose built
medical block which was erected in 1919 about 100 yards from
here on the left on what was then known as Ambulance Road.
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Our route though is to the right along where the road narrows
to meet the bottom end of Crompton Road. The narrow part of the
road is where a low level railway bridge once crossed whilst
the black and white posts on the left indicate the continuation
of the Nutbrook Trail towards Kirk Hallam and eventually its
northern end in Shipley Country Park. On the right until 1943
there were nine houses that had stood there since being built
and named as South View in 1868.
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