Erewash Museum

The museum opened in the 1980s, and focuses on the history of the Erewash area, with exhibits covering the Second World War, archaeology, and the Stanton Ironworks. The building that houses the museum is named the Dalby House after one of the families who inhabited it, and has served as a school and a private dwelling.

(view of the main entrance of the Dalby House)

And so on November 22nd, we travelled to Ilkeston to take a look around the Museum to help gather some inspiration for our own works that will be exhibited in one of the rooms there.

To get to the museum, we walked through High Street, which showed us Ilkeston's different types of architecture on the buildings and churches. We also took pictures of the areas around us that we liked so that it would give us some inspiration for our works that we would be putting on display.

(St. Mary's Church in the town we walk past)

(a bollard by the museum)

Upon first walking up to the museum, my first impression is of how historic the house and its surroundings look, as it was built in the 1800s, deriving its name from the owner, John Dalby. And on the inside of the house we saw some patterns on the ceiling above us as well as a stained glass door that leads us to the exhibits.

(part of the kitchen area)

Walking through the exhibitions, we saw many rooms, such as the kitchen that has been frozen in time so that the public can see what it was like to be in that room when the house was in its prime, during the 1800s. All of these details in each of the rooms gave us some more inspiration for our own works and what it could be based from as well as what materials we could use. For me, I have been inspired by some works that are in a room at the museum, which consists of silhouettes of tree leaves in front of the sunset, therefore I am going to do my own version of this sunset piece with a silhouette of the church (above) instead.

We got some in-depth knowledge of the area around us from the Stanton Ironworks and World War II exhibits, with some artefacts that we could take a look at.

'Sherwood Foresters

In both world wars many local men joined the Sherwood Foresters regiment.

WWI

Altogether, some 140,000 men, served with the Regiment during the war. Nearly all were from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire - 11,409 never returned home.

WWII

The Sherwood Foresters fought bravely in many battles across the world during the war. battalions from the regiment were involved with the evacuation at Dunkirk, in France, and at the battle of El Alamein, in northern Africa.'

'By 1939 war had once again broken out under the dictatorship of Hitler, Nazi Germany had invaded large parts of mainland Europe. Britain declared war on 1st Seplember after Germany had invaded Poland.

British forces would fight in Europe, Africa and Asia, on land, sea and air in a war that would engulf the entire world and cost millions of fives.

Men between 18 and 41 were called up as soon as war was declared. By the end of the war conscription had widened to include men up to 51 and women between 20 and 30.

Air Raids

The summer of 1940 saw Germany bomb targets across Britain. The plan was to weaken Britain to the point where the German military could carry out a full invasion.

The Royal Air Force successfully defended Britain and no invasion took place. However, cities across the country suffered terrible damage and many thousands of people died.

Bombs were dropped in this area on 27th - 31st August, the 4th September and 30th September.

Stanton Ironworks was the main target because of the important work being carried out there but residential areas such as Shipley and Sawley were hit.

Thankfully there were no reported deaths, but there was much damage to property.'

The Stanton Ironworks Company, later called Stanton and Staveley, Invested in local young people by laking on apprentices. In 1947 the Training Centre was opened.

Trainees would usually spend six months there before moving to the ironworks. One day per week would also be spent at the Ilkeston College of Further Education learing theory.

In the 1960s boys were encouraged to spend a month in the Lake District climbing, swimming, and sailing, in the hope that it would develop leadership skills and produce well-rounded employees.

The work was hard and often dangerous but the ironworks offered young people a chance to gain employment and learn skills. Many started out as apprentices in their teens and stayed at Stanton for all of their working lives. It was common for several generations of one family to be working at the Ironworks at the same time. Skills and knowledge were passed down helping to build a legacy of community and family at Stanton.

Gold watches were presented to long serving employees. 30 years' service for male workers and 25 years service for female workers, By the1960s over 3500 gold watches had been given by the company.