Stapleford - Part 7 - Through The Years
w/e 25 January 2009
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
  And so we
reach the final part of our walk around the town centre of Stapleford
and although this is probably the shortest leg in terms of distance
being only about a couple of hundred yards (or meters if you
prefer) in total, it does span the centuries between one of Stapleford's
oldest artifacts and one of its newest buildings. We saw the
Saxon Cross (left) in the previous part and leaving the churchyard
our route is now along Church Street (right) back to The Roach
where we started the walk.
One of the first buildings of note is on the right hand side
and is the Arthur Mee Centre which is now part of the Broxtowe
College, Arthur Mee of course being the celebrated journalist
and author born in the town. Originally this was the Stapleford
Board School and as can be seen from the date in the stonework,
dates from 1880. Back then it cost the princely sum of £4,800
for the whole school but today you probably wouldn't get much
change from that amount for just a section of the fancy brickwork
that adds so much character to the buildings.
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The Arthur Mee Centre is bounded on one side by Isaac's Lane
and this image from the lane probably encapsulates better than
any other the time span covered in such a small area. To the
left is the nineteenth century school with its decorative brickwork;
in front is the twenty first century plainness of the Stapleford
Care Centre whilst to the right the concrete and glass architecture
is of the twentieth century library.
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The library was built in the 1980s and replaced the original
Carnegie Library built in 1906 that we saw on Warren Avenue back
in Part 2.
The guide that we have been following for this walk intimates
that more can be learnt about Stapleford's past in the Local
Studies section of the library - so this is the place to come
if you wish to know more.
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  The box-like Care Centre which I have alluded
to several times can be seen here in all its glory but the purpose
of this image is to show the Chequers public house, another nineteenth
century building that replaced an earlier pub on the same site
at the corner of Church Street (left) and Nottingham Road (right).
From that same corner another pub can be seen just a little way
along Nottingham Road.
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That pub is the Horse And Jockey which, like the Warren Arms
on Derby Road (also in Part 2), was a stopping place for the
coach that travelled along the turnpike road between Nottingham
and Derby. That coach service not only carried passengers but
also collected and delivered mail between the cities three times
a day.
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Our journey though is not broken at either the Warren Arms or
the Horse and Jockey but must end as we come full circle, at
The Roach. For all the changes that have taken place in the world
this image above from January 2009 shows little difference to
the one that started this series in July 2008. Seven months have
passed but it is almost as though time has stood still if you
compare the images.
Our journey however has been one into history and as can be seen
from this part alone, has been a journey "Through the Years".
We'll end though where we began with another look at The Roach
with a reminder of our initial delve into history where we found
that the name is a derivation of "La roche" dating
from the Napoleonic Wars when French prisoners were put to work
excavating rocks from the nearby hillside. Little did they know
then that the name would live on all this time.
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