Town Walk 2025 - Part 03 - Park Cemetery to Park Road
w/e 12 October 2025
All of this week's pictures were taken with a Nikon D3300
This part equates to Stages 05 and 06 of the original
Town
Walk from 2002 and 2003.
In Part 05 of the original Town Walk I wrote "Although
the first burial took place here in 1892, the cemetery's chapel
was not built until 1910." I could have added that the
twin chapels at Park Cemetery as seen here from Cantelupe Road,
are Grade II listed buildings.
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Looking back towards the road from in front of the chapels the
building opposite, now a Health Centre, used to be the town's
maternity home which I always knew as Parkhurst. Apparently the
correct spelling however was Parkhyrst but that's of no consequence
now as it is called Brooklands. Inside the grounds of the cemetery
is one of the town's three War Memorials, the other two being
on the Market Place and at The Stute in Hallam Fields.
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Built on the parkland that once stretched down from the town
centre to the River Erewash, the hills and holes caused by mineral
extraction that gave rise to the nickname of Chaucer Old Park,
on the other side of Cantelupe Road, are even more apparent in
the cemetery. There are also many impressive headstones in the
older part of the cemetery.
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In 2003 I included a picture from just outside the cemetery of
a snowy scene on Cantelupe Road taken the previous winter. Now
in the autumn of 2025, the trees in full leaf present a much
more restricted view.
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Also in 2003 I included two images of the fingerpost on the corner
of Park Crescent and Park Drive and stated it deserved two as
"it is part of our heritage". Back then
it was topped with a crest that said "Borough of Ilkeston"
but sadly the passage of time has not been kind to the post.
Its condition has deteriorated and the circular top has gone
altogether.
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This is a similar view to the one taken about 23 years ago along
the tree lined Park Avenue and proves my observation then that
the view of the chapels at the cemetery would be obscured
by the trees until the autumn.
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In the original Town Walk I made a short detour down Park Road
from the end of Park Avenue and will do the same again. I will
also make a slight deviation to the original route when we return
here from the detour. Instead of continuing up Park Road, we
will turn to follow Park Drive directly to Nottingham Road for
reasons that will become apparent later.
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The detour took us "to where Park Road turns left
and the sub Post Office stands on the corner" of Green
Lane. There have been many changes since "the
ancient route to Nottingham was possibly one of the 'green roads'
dating back thousands of years" and one of the most
recent , although it still dates back a few years, is
the fact the the building on the corner has undergone a few structural
alterations, had a coat of paint and is no longer a sub Post
Office, but is now a convenience shop.
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Standing on the corner opposite the shop is this building which
didn't even get a mention in the original Town Walk. It was formerly
All Saints' Church and was built in 1913 on the site of the Larklands
Mission, one of two tin tabernacles in the town. A search on
the Picture the Past website will reveal two images of the buildings
from the early 1900s before and after the rebuilding. Nowadays
it serves as a nursery for young children and is called the Toddlers'
University.
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Returning to the crossroads in 2003 we turned "our attention
to the Sudbury Almshouses on the corner of Park Road and Park
Avenue" but these days the growth of the shrubbery in
the intervening years has made a view of the building much more
difficult.
It's still possible though to read the memorial to Alderman Francis
Sudbury J.P. the first Mayor of Ilkeston. From here we originally
continued up Park Road to Lime Street and then reached Nottingham
Road via Graham Street and Orchard Street but this time the route
will take us directly to Nottingham Road, as I intimated earlier,
along Park Drive in the next part.
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