First Impressions
No. 09 - Part 02 - Awsworth Road
w/e 09 February 2025
All of this week's pictures were taken with a Nikon D3300
The impression of the first
part of Awsworth Road is one, apart from the football ground,
of being an industrial area but from here on, the character of
the road begins to change.
Residential properties opposite the entrance to the New Manor
Ground and the Canal Vue Care Home straight ahead are the first
signs of that change but the industrial area continues on the
left beyond the traffic lights.
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Those traffic lights control the flow of traffic across the narrow
hump back bridge over the canal. The canal of course is another
sign of the industrial past being the "motorway" transporting
goods at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The Canal Vue
Care Home, seen here on the left on the other side of the canal,
stands on the site of the Bridge Inn which also had buildings
at the rear where horses that towed boats along the canal were
stabled overnight.
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Alongside the bridge is Barker's Lock, one of fourteen on the
Erewash Canal between the River Trent and the Great Northern
Basin at Langley Mill and the start of the Cromford Canal.
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Further evidence of the industrial past are the rows of terraced
properties that would have housed workers at the nearby Bennerley
Mine and also the Bennerley Iron Works. Now newer properties
have sprung up to create a mix of residential properties.
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The mix of properties continues all the way along Awsworth Road
and about half way along, it's some of the newer ones that stand
on both corners of Ebenezer Street. A Methodist Chapel once stood
on the far corner.
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With its chapel, corner shops and pubs, Awsworth Road was once
a little community in its own right and The Little Acorn pub
still trades from here. Formerly the pub/restaurant was called
The New Ponderosa and before that The Victoria Inn.
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Nearing the end of Awsworth Road, the mix of housing continues
and there are also a number of small businesses as well as some
independent shops.
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Many corner shops in other parts of the town have succumbed to
larger national enterprises but the corner shop is still alive
and well on Awsworth Road.
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Industry returns at the top of Awsworth Road with the Booths
Industrial Estate on the former Booths Hosiery Factory situated
on the left (see Picture The Past for aerial view of the factory). The most striking feature though, where Cotmanhay
Road joins Awsworth Road from the right, is the Holy Trinity
Church. From here Awsworth Road continues but now it is called
Granby Street. The church stands on a plot of land between Granby
Street on the left and Factory Lane on the right, "factory"
being another reference to the town's industrial past.
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Granby Street used to continue straight ahead to join Heanor
Road at the bottom of Bath Street, the main road up the hill
to the town centre, but when Chalons Way was built, it was diverted
to the left to meet the new island at the northern end of Chalons
Way. And that completes our nine roads into the town.
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