In Part 3 of our walk we look at the area around
the Springfield Mills building. We resume our walk around Sandiacre
near the footbridge over the River Erewash and our route from
there will take us along Cross Street, left into Bridge Street
in front of the large Springfield Mills building seen below and
then right along Canal Street to the Erewash Canal towpath.
I would be the first to admit that this will not be the most
attractive part of our walk but is worth a look for its historical
value. Also a cold day with a thin film of mud on the road, a
scaffold shrouded building and a building site on the left do
little to enhance the photographic qualities of the area but
it did allow the opportunity to see most of the Springfield Mills
building which has not always been the case as Cross Street used
to be lined by terraced houses. Hidden at high level behind the
shrouding in a stone surround is a clock and as we shall see
later, there is a similar clock on the other side of the building
in a brick surround.
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 A
short detour to the right on meeting Bridge Street takes us to
Gas Street which runs parallel to Cross Street. There were also
terraced houses along here and as the name implies, the Sandiacre
Gas Company was once here. It later became part of the Long Eaton
Gas Company and operated on this site from the late 1800s for
many years. Due to the major regeneration work in the area, including
the new housing development and the conversion of the Springfield
Mills into apartments, I wonder what the future holds for the
connecting bridge across the road at the junction of Gas Street
and Bridge Street. I hope that it will be preserved.
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Returning down Bridge Street to regain our intended route we
can now see, where the scaffolding has been removed, the ends
of a number of tie rods. Springfield Mills was built in 1888
as a four storey tenement lace factory and was designed to be
let separately so that businesses could "start up"
here. It would seem the "start up units" for businesses
today are nothing new. Part of the design of Springfield Mills
was to incorporate the tie rods as seen above. This was because
the lace making machinery shook the building so much that the
rods were incorporated to hold the structure together. As the
building is now being converted over 110 years later into less
stressful apartments, the rods have served their purpose well.
On the end of each rod, the initials TH can be seen. These stand
for Terah Hooley, the local entrepreneur for whom the factory
was originally built.
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The name is repeated around the corner in Canal Street above
the door of another building.
That building is the two storey office block which is noteworthy
for its fine brickwork. Terah Hooley lived for a time in Risley
Hall in the adjacent village. The Hall now been converted into
a luxury hotel (shown below).
The former Risley Hall.
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Canal Street is a very short street and Terah Hooley's office
building is adjacent to the Erewash Canal towpath (complete with
swans). At its most prosperous the twelve mile long canal built
between 1777 and 1779 was one of the most successful in Britain,
transporting coal from the Erewash Valley. The coming of the
railway though changed all that and now the canal is used mainly
for recreational purposes. We'll follow the towpath a little
way and pick up the walk again a little further north in Part
4 of our walk around Sandiacre.
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Near the large chimney seen in the previous picture the rear
of Springfield Mills is the other clock I mentioned earlier.
At the moment sight of it from the towpath is still obscured
by scaffolding, but seen here with a zoomed shot taken from the
other side of the canal on Town Street the clock, this time in
a brick surround, can clearly be seen. I think maybe a return
visit is called for when the renovations are complete and both
clocks can be seen in all their glory.
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