Stapleford - Part 1 - Napoleon to World War One
w/e 27 July 2008
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
 Stapleford
is one of Ilkeston's nearest neighbours so it is perhaps a little
surprising that it has not featured more on the site previously.
That is probably explained by the fact I have based previous
Village Trails on leaflets produced by Erewash Groundwork Trust
and Stapleford, being in Nottinghamshire, did not benefit from
such a leaflet. However whilst researching something else recently
I discovered that the Stapleford and District Local History Society
with sponsorship from the Stapleford Town Council, had published
a similar leaflet titled "Stapleford Town Trail" which
could be purchased for a nominal charge of £1 from the
Stapleford Library.
Although Stapleford is classed as a town, this walk will concentrate
mainly on the central area and fits nicely into the Village Trails
section on Ilkeston Cam. My own personal knowledge of Stapleford
is somewhat limited so armed with a copy of the leaflet, an empty
card in the camera and my trusty navigator by my side, let's
begin our exploration of Stapleford starting at The Roach.
During the 1940s, 50s and 60s my dad worked for Barton Transport
and I'm sure on many occasions his destination was The Roach.
Originally I thought this was the name of a pub but I have never
seen such an establishment bearing that name although I believe
there may have been one about a century ago. For many years it
remained a puzzlement to me why this crossroads where the main
north/south route between Ilkeston and Long Eaton met the east/west
road from Derby to Nottingham should be named after a fish but
it was only an idle curiosity and I never tried to find out why.
Since those far off post war years, signs have been erected near
the crossroads and I have discovered that the name has nothing
to do with fish at all but is derived from the French word "roches"
meaning "rocks". This dates back to the Napoleonic
Wars when French prisoners were put to work excavating rocks
from the nearby hillside for use in the repair of roads. The
crossroads became known as "La Roche" - puzzle solved!
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On one corner of the crossroads between Nottingham Road and Toton
Lane is Stapleford's Police Station which opened in 1906. This
stands of the site of Eaton's Farm.
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On the opposite corner between Derby Road and Church Street is
the Nottingham Building Society. From here we will head off to
the left along Derby Road but the completion of our circular
walk will return us to The Roach via Church Street. Before we
continue though it is worth recalling that this site was once
occupied by Frederick Augustus Attenborough's bakery. Included
in Frederick's offspring was a son also called Frederick but
with a middle name of Levi. This second Frederick fathered two
sons - Richard Samuel born in Cambridge in 1923 and David Frederick
three years later in London. These two grandsons of the Stapleford
baker are better know to us today as the actor, director and
producer Lord Richard and his younger brother Sir
David, the broadcaster and naturalist. (Now there are
Attenboroughs in my wife's family tree - I wonder if we're related
....)
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As we begin our walk along Derby Road the Stapleford Town Trail
leaflet advises us to notice the late nineteenth century decorative
brickwork. This example above is on the left but there are also
many examples to be seen in the upper storeys of the shops opposite.
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 One of
those shops opposite is the Hyper Store. From this angle the
store looks like two shops but at some time they have been linked
together and you can enter by one door, wander around the inside
and exit by another. The store is of interest historically as
it was once the lodge to Stapleford Hall. Now whether that's
the building on the left or the right I'm not sure but by accessing
the rear of the shops via Warren Avenue and Cyril Avenue, it
is possible to see two original circular windows. Warren Avenue
takes its name from the family that owned the Hall and we shall
return here later but for now we must continue along Derby Road.
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We started this part of the walk with the Napoleonic Wars at
The Roach and we'll conclude this first part at the newly created
Memorial Square and World War One. The square was only created
in 2000 being opened on the 1st August that year, and to give
it its full name, it is the Walter Parker VC Memorial Square.
It honours the Lance Corporal, a Stapleford resident who was
awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and devotion
to duty in the First World War's Dardenelles campaign at Gaba
Tepe, Gallipoli on 1 May. 1915. A search on the internet will
reveal several sites (Anzac and Royal Marines to name but two) that give
an account of Lance Corporal Parker's actions but briefly he
led a party of stretcher bearers through heavy machine gun fire
to carry supplies to an isolated forward position. He was seriously
wounded but continued to help evacuate wounded troops. After
being invalided out of the Marines in 1916 he returned to Stapleford
where he died in 1936 and was buried in Stapleford cemetery.
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