Town Walk 2026 - Part 09 - Market Place (East Side)
w/e 18 January 2026
This part equates to parts of Stage 15 and 16
of the original Town
Walk from 2003.
Next to the library is the former Church Institute which for
many years has been occupied by the Corner Cafe. It is still
possible to see the words "Church Institute" in the
stonework on the gable end above the windows.
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Dating from the early 1880s the side of the building that faces
onto Market Street is also occupied by the Ilkeston Sewing Centre
and it is here that the words "Church Institute" are
again picked out in terracotta tiles beneath the upstairs windows.
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In front of the library is the town's main War Memorial.
One of four in the town, this is built in the form of a Cenotaph
and was designed by Ilkeston's own Henry Tatham Sudbury (1877-1959)
a prominent architect and designer responsible for many well-loved
buildings in the town.
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The Grade II listed Cenotaph, unveiled
on January 8th, 1922 originally commemorated
those lost in the First World War but now also includes the name
from the Second World War and 20th century conflicts too. The
town's other memorials are at Hallam Fields, in Park Cemetery
and in the Garden of Remembrance next St Mary's Church on the
eastern side of the Market Place.
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The Garden of Remembrance is approached by a flight of
steps from the Market Place and the memorial stands in front
of the Cantelupe Centre which was built in the churchyard in
1970-71 and opened in October 1972 by the Duke of Rutland. Burials
in the churchyard had ceased in 1852 and headstones affected
by the building work were moved to the boundary wall.
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The large lump of stone in front of the Cantelupe Centre
was thought to be "the base of a mediaeval cross that
originally stood in the Lower Market Place" and a plate
on the stone shows that it "was presented by Mr C Wood
Esq" in 1958. I have since heard that the origin of
the stone has been queried so the jury is still out.
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A small image in Part 16 of the original Town Walk from 2003
showed a plaque on the church's boundary wall that recorded the
"Upper Market Place improvements were opened" following
a pedestrianisation scheme in 1993. Another panel on the wall
titled "An English Timeline ... ... Millennium to Millennium"
offers a brief history of the town from 1000AD to 2000AD.
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The history is in four sections and this is the first one with
three lines added at the bottom from the second for completeness.
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The second section on the panel has information about things
we have already seen on the Town Walk or are yet to see but it
does have a few words about the church of St Mary the Virgin.
It states that the church dates back to 1150AD and that the nave
was extended in 1910 which necessitated the demolition and rebuilding
of the tower closer to the Market Place. It also mentions that
the Garden of Remembrance was opened in 1956. It doesn't mention
the east window of St Mary's nor the Cocker family headstones
from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but they still
look much the same today as they did in 2003 - and for years
prior to that too.
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The fourth section on the panel looks into the origin of the
name of the town and points to other sources for information
about the history of Ilkeston.
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