Ilkeston

Ilkeston, Derbyshire, is one of a chain of market towns in the Erewash Valley near to the border with Nottinghamshire. It was dependent on the coal industry but this has now changed to light engineering.

It was always been said that you do not bother to come to Ilkeston unless you have a specific journey to make. This is not helped by the lack of any primary routes in the town. The M1 passes by the east, however apart from Trowell services there is no way on or off the motorway in the area. The town is ideally placed for communting between Nottingham and Derby, but the main A52 route between the two cities passes to the south of the town. A new railway station was opened for the town in 2017, enabling better tranport links to places like Nottingham and Sheffield. The Erewash Canal used to be an important link to the River Trent, but it nowadays used for pleasure craft.

Not to be forgotten is the annual charter fair - held some two weeks before Goose Fair in Nottingham.

On the edge of the town is the Stanton Ironworks later known as Stanton and Staveley. Despite its name it produced pre-stressed concrete as well as pig iron. As far as iron was concerned it was used in such projects as the London Underground and can still be seen on your local man-hole cover. The concrete was used for lamposts. Both items are suitably labelled with the manufacturer's name. The massive site is now being converted to a Manufacturing Park.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A609	Belper, Derby (A608)
A609	Motorway M1 South, Nottingham
A6007	Motorway M1 North, Heanor,
A6096	Kimberley
A6096	Spondon
B6007	Local Road	Not signed