Curiosities
A rare survivor
A ticket to Ilkeston’s Vauxhall Gardens Long time Society member and local literary legend John Titford (one half of the team which brought you 'Ey up Mi Duck') was lucky enough to spot this item...
Ilson adverts
How many of these businesses of years gone by do you remember?
Death of a Crimean War veteran
William Clements (1824-1909), Extracted from the Ilkeston Pioneer, 30 April 1909 "The small remaining band of Crimean veterans was further depleted on Saturday by the death in Ilkeston of Mr William...
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...
Goodbye, Bessy Ling
Good-bye, Bessy Ling, Good-bye (Click red link to download audio file) By Peter Cave This is a surprise: sheet music written and published in Ilkeston. The melody and arrangement was by Amos...
An Edwardian Autograph Album
This item was discovered during a house clearance by the late Colin Greaves, who very kindly allowed us to reproduce it here. It originally belonged to Beatrice Elizabeth Brooks, one of ten children...
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,...
