Curiosities
The Lifeboat Pageant
Extracted from the Ilkeston Advertiser 27th July 1962 By Grant Shaw A highlight of Ilkeston life in 1909. Mr David Martin of 29 Green Lane Larklands sent us this photograph of...
As seen at the Scala
On the Banks of Allan Water By Grant Shaw Beverley Kilby recently gave me some scraps of a 1917 edition of the Ilkeston Pioneer newspaper, and these include the weekly adverts...
Fletcher’s Fizz
By Jeff Wynch William Fletcher came to Ilkeston from his home town of Southwell to set up as a chemist on Bath Street in 1868. Under the Pharmacy Act of that year, the terms...
The first Lord Ilkeston
Sir Balthazar Walter Foster PC FRCP was born to Balthazar Foster and his wife Marian on 17th July 1840. In 1847 the family moved to Foster Senior’s native Ireland, and Foster was educated at...
The remarkable Short Brothers
(a longer read) by Danny Corns Many years ago, former Society Chairman David Harrison told me of a connection between the Short Brothers of aeronautical and flying boat fame and No. 3 Low’s Lane,...
An Ilkeston man in the American Civil War
(A longer read) The complicated life of George Newman George Newman was born in Northamptonshire in September 1834. His father John was a gamekeeper and his mother a dressmaker. The 1851 census...
The remarkable Short Brothers
(a longer read) by Danny Corns Many years ago, former Society Chairman David Harrison told me of a connection between the Short Brothers of aeronautical and flying boat fame and No. 3 Low’s Lane,...
An Ilkeston man in the American Civil War
(A longer read) The complicated life of George Newman George Newman was born in Northamptonshire in September 1834. His father John was a gamekeeper and his mother a dressmaker. The 1851 census...
Who was St John Houghton?
Beauvale Priory, near Eastwood, achieved fame when its one-time Prior, John Houghton, became the first English Catholic Martyr. Born in Essex in 1487, he was educated at Cambridge, where he took a...
Ilkeston Street and Place Names
Many of the old areas, back alleys and side streets which were recorded in the various censuses, Civil Registration records and church and chapel registers, have long since swept away during the...
Bits and Bobs… An Ilson Miscellany
If you don’t have access to Facebook you won’t be aware of the large number of posts on various topics which appeared during the Covid lockdowns. Grant Shaw made one a day for over four months,...
