Ilkeston - Changes
w/e 21 August 2011
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
In January last year (2010) I featured several images
of places that had featured in my lifetime and found that many
of the significant buildings such as churches, schools and workplaces
had not only changed but many had disappeared altogether. I've
been on a similar mission this week but all the images on this
page show sites that have changed within the last decade. The
"old" images are shown with the dates they were captured
for comparison with the photos taken from similar positions last
week. Changes take place gradually and it is often surprising
when looking back just how much the landscape has altered.
Charnos factory on Corporation Road was once the site of a major
employer in the town and the iconic structure on the flat roof
was a landmark visible from afar. My mother used to work there
and as I child I attended many Christmas parties in the canteen.
In February 2007 the factory was no longer in production and
stood empty but the site was later cleared to be replaced with
a less than iconic housing estate.
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This recent image taken on Cavendish Road will no doubt not only
surprise but disappoint many people who have fond memories of
the buildings that once stood here. Originally the Cavendish
Girls' School it later became part of the Cantelupe School, an
amalgamation of several other schools in the town before serving
as part of the South East Derbyshire College complex, a role
it was still fulfilling in February 2003. In 2010 the College
merged with and became part of the larger Derby College and the
Cavendish Road site became surplus to requirements. Demolition
has taken place and I believe the site is earmarked for more
housing.
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Housing that has already been built although terminated before
the site was completed due to the economic climate, is on the
former allotments site off Kensington Gardens. Back in September
2004 the narrow track to garages and the allotments was a difficult
place for a fire engine to manoeuvre to deal with a fire in the
said allotments but now that they have been built on, the track
has become a frequently used unauthorised alternative access
to the estate.
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The fire engine that attended the allotments fire was based in
the Fire Station on Derby Road which was still there in June
2006 but now the brand new Community Fire Station stands on the
same site, the engines had temporarily moved to a site on the
Manners Industrial Estate before returning to their base here.
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It's not unusual these days to see another of the emergency services,
ambulances, on Nottingham Road outside the Littlewick Medical
Centre but back in November 2008 only the framework of a new
building stood next to the original doctors' surgery that occupied
part of the site. Since then the new medical centre has been
completed in two phases allowing the staff to move into part
of the new building while the old one was demolished to allow
phase two to be built. In the intervening period the adjacent
Manor Pharmacy façade has also undergone a facelift.
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Long before Chalons Way was built, Market Street joined Park
Road and the corner plot was occupied by the Premier Garage with
the Catholic Club above. To accommodate Chalons Way, Market Street
was truncated, many buildings demolished and the corner plot
became a green oasis and several trees were planted. In autumn
lorries, caravans and trailers transformed the area into a travelling
showmen's village when the Annual Charter Fair took place and
in spring daffodils added a splash of colour as can be seen in
the April 2005 image. Since then the housing development on the
former Hallcroft and Gladstone Schools site has been extended
and blocks of four storey flats now obscure the view.
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Some of the housing development on the schools site can already
be seen in the previous image from 2005 but less than a couple
of years prior to that the view from the footbridge over Chalons
Way showed nothing but the overgrown footprints of the Hallcroft
and Gladstone School buildings. From the same bridge today the
whole site has been transformed with a housing estate whose design
achieved the unenviable distinction of being ranked as one of
the worst in the country.
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In January 2005 another of the town's iconic buildings, this
one on the former Gas Works site in Rutland Street, was still
standing but partial demolition was soon to follow and the site
was eventually cleared and levelled with a promise of a new KFC
outlet to be built. Construction of the said building has now
commenced but if it takes as long to build as the old one took
to be demolished, it could well be a few years yet before it
actually opens for business. By which time of course many more
places in the town will have undergone those subtle, and perhaps
some not so subtle, changes that go by the name of progress.
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