Adeline describes this part of the road; “On the east side of Stanton Road, before you reached the new Havelock Inn, were two cottages facing the road”.
Cartwrights…
“In the lower one lived Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright, parents of Mrs. W. Gregory, of South Street. Mrs. Cartwright placed a few bottles of sweets in her cottage window, hoping by this way to increase their meagre income”.
The ‘ Cartwrights’ were Richard (1790-1863) and Catherine (nee Swanwick)(1801-1875), and their eldest child Martha, born in 1823, who married engineer and local Methodist preacher William Gregory on April 28th, 1853.
Richard died at this house on November 21st, 1863.
Thus, on the 1871 census, at what was now number 7 Stanton Road, were widow Catherine Cartwright and grand-daughter Agnes Emma Gregory (born in 1862)
Richard and younger brother William Cartwright were sons of Attenborough miller Edward and Mary (nee Hubbard).
William, also a miller, was the first Cartwright to arrive at South Street, Ilkeston about 1840, from Hucknall Torkard where he had married Elizabeth Allcock, daughter of William and Amy (nee Park), in 1832.
The couple were accompanied by their four children and stayed a very short time but long enough for son Thomas to be born in the town.
About 1841 they returned to Hucknall Torkard before moving a few miles eastwards to Epperstone in the late 1840’s.
As William was leaving the town, miller brother Richard arrived from Eastwood to South Street, Ilkeston in 1841, with his wife Catherine (nee Swanwick), daughter of George and Martha (nee Scrimshaw), and accompanied by their five children.
Richard was perhaps replacing his brother in looking after Hobson’s mill in Stanton Road. As a miller, by the nature of his trade, he would travel around from mill to mill. Thus, several of the older children were born in Strelley while son John was born in Eastwood in 1834.
John Cartwright was the youngest surving child and has made several contributions to this profile. He recorded that his arrival in Ilkeston was on June 15th 1841 — just over a week after the Census was taken .
In July 1892 he wrote about his father’s early life in Strelley, in one of a series of letters to the Ilkeston Pioneer: ….
Dr. Norman was a gentleman held in high esteem by my parents, for it was by his skill and care that my father was pulled through a very serious illness whilst living in Strelley Mill. The old mill is there still, but my father’s landlord, Squire Edge, and his friend, the celebrated ‘Jack’ Musters, along with those who followed the hounds 60 years ago, have passed over to the ever-increasing ‘majority’. Well, had it not been for doctor Norman, I should have known nothing of this beautiful world and of this wonderful existence, for I was born years after my father’s illness, not at Strelley (where six out of nine of us first saw light) but at Eastwood, as I once stated before.
When his parents moved on to Newthorpe in Nottinghamshire, John remained working for Thomas Merry in the Market Place shop before moving on to Derby in the late 1850’s.
In his diary of January 24th, 1853, John wrote thus; “This morning I arose at 4 o’clock, and, after reading some time, walked a few times round the cricket ground, the weather being frosty and pleasant” All this before opening shop at seven o’clock.
And on January 26th … “This evening Mr. Merry gave me some advice concerning my future life as regards business; and promised me, if I would trust him, to get me a good situation after he had done with me, or before, if a favourable opportunity presented itself”.
John records that this conversation came about after Mr. Merry had talked with John’s family, and after Joseph Carrier (of Bath Street) had offered John a job in his draper’s shop.
Two days later, a Friday, after completing his day’s work at the Market Place shop, John went to Carrier’s warehouse, off Bath Street, where he wrote out labels for new books purchased for the Ebenezer Sunday School. And then on the following Sunday, Samuel Carrier called on him to ask if he would go to the same school, to take down the scholar’s names and then teach there. After which he walked to Newthorpe (where his parents were living), returning in time for the six o’clock service at the chapel.
John turned down the offer of a job in Joseph Carrier’s shop, chose to remain as a grocer, and at the end of March, 1853, he moved to Derby….. being driven there by William and John Cholerton Merry, sons of his employer. He was initially apprenticed to grocer John Sandars of the Market Place, and when that business was transferred to a Mr Clayton, John was ‘transferred’ with it.
About the early 1860’s he took a position as a travellor and ‘rep.’ for Messrs. George Wheeldon, maltsters of Nottingham Road, Derby, and remained as such for the rest of his life.
And throughout that life John was an enthusiastic cricketer; he was a good all-round player, playing with the Albert Club of Derby, and many other local clubs. One of the founding members of the Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1870, he remained a life-long supporter and at times served as a member of its committee. He was also reputed to be, for some years, the official scorer of the club.
A prolific letter-writer, he contributed significantly to a series of letters to the Ilkeston Pioneer, (1891-1893) under the banner “Ilkeston Fifty years ago”, written by old inhabitants of the town, all men. This led to ‘an interesting event’ at the Town Hall on August 7th, 1893. Two hundred ‘old boys’, coming from as far as London, Bath, Leeds, Sheffield and Newton-le-Willows attended a reunion of Old Ilkestonians. The Mayor, William Merry, presided at the meeting, supported by Edwin Trueman, who was chiefly responsible for arranging the affair. And, of course, John was present. “The proceedings were of a highly convivial character, and the hope was frequently expressed that the gathering would be repeated in future years”.
John also contributed a series to the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, “Reminiscences of Derby”, recalling old residents of the city and their way of life.
By 1899, John had been in bad health for over a year. He returned from a short convalescence at Brighton, went briefly to Matlock, but died ‘from a chest complaint’ shortly after, on September 20th, at his home in Nottingham Road, Derby. On September 23rd he was buried at the Old Cemetery, Uttoxeter New-road, Derby, an event attended by a very large ‘congregation’. I wonder if any of the ‘old boys’ were there ??
It is John’s parents, Richard and Catherine, who are mentioned by Adeline (above), living in the lower cottage. Richard died there, aged 73, in November 1863 and his widow Catherine died there on September 28th, 1875, aged 74.
… Smiths….
“The two cottages in a garden, and facing south, had as tenants Mr. and Mrs. Smith”.
Coalminer Samuel Smith and family were at number 4.
Samuel was born in Cotmanhay in 1829, son of agricultural labourer William and Lydia (nee Limb).
He possibly moved into the Stanton Road area after his 1854 marriage to Catherine Straw who had been brought up in this lane by her parents, sawyer William and Catherine (nee White).
However less than a year later Catherine was dead, following the birth of son William Henry in February 1855.
In 1859 Samuel Smith married again, to Fanny Smith, daughter of Lincolnshire boatman — but Ilkeston-born — Samuel and Mary.
The couple remained in Stanton Road and Samuel died there in February 1898 — at what was then number 18.
Fanny died there in July 1908, aged 67.
… and Burrows.
“Higher up was the old cottage with gable to the road, here lived Mr. and Mrs. Amos (?) Burrows, their two daughters, Sarah and Eliza, and their son Amos”.
At number 3 was Isaac Burrows, framework knitter son of John and Elizabeth (nee Wilcox) who settled in Stanton Road — his cousin Amos was living in South Street.
Isaac’s wife — whom he married in May 1841 — was born Mary Siddons, daughter of John and Sarah (nee Berry) and there were at least nine children including Eliza Ann but no daughter Sarah or son Amos.
Several children died in infancy but sons John and Aaron and daughters Caroline and Eliza Ann survived into adulthood.
In 1874 at the age of 19 Eliza Ann Smith gave birth to illegitimate son John at Number 3 Stanton Road and four years later, when Eliza Ann married coalminer Edward Shelton, her son John also became a ‘Shelton’.
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And there were many Straws of Stanton Road.
