First Impressions
No. 08 - Part 02 - Heanor Road
w/e 12 February 2023
All of this week's pictures were taken with a Nikon D3300
This part follows Heanor Road
from its junction with Church Street to just beyond Charlotte
Street.
From the entrance to Shipley Wood, Heanor Road is lined on the
western side by a spur of the wood behind which is an area known
as Shipley Common*. It was on part of the Common that Ilkeston's
Community Hospital was built and which was opened on 10th December
1987 by HRH Diana, Princess of Wales. In August 2009 the hospital
was also visited by Olivier and Tony award winning actor, stage,
screen and television star, Robert Lindsay who returned to his
home town to open a new operating theatre.
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Diagonally across from the hospital entrance is a petrol station
and mini-supermarket which is the equivalent for residents of
the area as a "corner shop".
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There now begins a series of four traffic lights, the first being
at the junction of Shipley Common Lane and also to the Shipley
View Housing Estate. On the corner of the lane and adjacent to
the hospital grounds is the Coppice and Oakside Care Home.
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At the turn of the last century there was no development on either
side of Heanor Road but by the start of the Second World War
it had become lined with residential properties. There was still
open land to the east between the properties and Cotmanhay and
to the west were the fields of Abbotsford Cottage Farm. An aerial
photo on the Picture The Past site
(ref DCCS001660) shows the early development of the Shipley View
Housing Estate in 1970. I remember this well from having to record
the meandering route of an electricity cable between Heanor Road
and the furthest corner of the site through waterlogged fields
armed with nothing more than a clipboard, paper, pencil and 20m
tape measure while bulldozers were ripping up the landscape.
Not the easiest of tasks I can assure you!
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One building that was standing on this part of Heanor Road at
the start of the last century though was the Rutland Cottage
which is shown on a map of 1881. Another map of 1900 shows a
cricket ground behind.
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There is still a small open green space behind the Rutland Cottage
but during the latter quarter of the last century it has been
bounded by the Wardlow Road (to the north of the pub) and Broadway
(to the south) housing development.
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We've now reached the second set of traffic lights and these
are at another entrance to the Shipley View Housing Estate via
Kedleston Drive. The large building on the corner is the Rutland
Manor Care Home but prior to 1988 and the opening of the new
Community Hospital, this was the town's hospital. It was built
in 1893-4, opening in 94, on land donated by Edward Miller Mundy
of Shipley Hall fame. (Picture The Past - DCER001661)
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Across from Kedleston Drive is the former Ebenezer Methodist
Church and adjacent Church Hall. The large notice on the wall
at the entrance to the Hall is now headed "Plymouth Brethren
Christian Church". The Brethren actually purchased the 1936
built church in 2017 but the building has since undergone a major
refurbishment and re-opened as ILKON, a contemporary
arts centre, on 18th January 2023.
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ILKON stands on one corner of Charlotte Street whilst on the
other corner is the Granby Junior School. The School has stood
here for over 140 years having opened in January 1883. There's
a photo of the school and its pupils from about 1890 at Picture
The Past - ref DCER000001. The third set of traffic lights is
just visible in this photo and is at a pedestrian crossing on
Heanor Road.
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The fourth set is near the bottom of Heanor Road but from Granby
School the road steady drops down to the lights. This view from
near the school has changed very little since those early days
of the school with Victorian era houses on the right and allotment
gardens on the left although as we shall see in Part 03, there
has been more development with houses on both sides of the road
since then.
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