Stanley is a village located roughly halfway between
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
and
Ilkeston
Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...
in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
, England.
The village is part of the
Stanley and Stanley Common Local Government Parish,
Stanley Common being a separate village a little to the North. Since 1974 it has been part of the
Borough of Erewash
Erewash () is a local government district with borough status in Derbyshire, England, to the east of Derby and the west of Nottingham. The population of the district as taken at the 2011 Census was 112,081.
It contains the towns of Ilkeston, ...
.
History
Stanley may well have been a Saxon settlement. By the seventeenth century it had a reputation like neighbouring
West Hallam
West Hallam is a large village and civil parish close to Ilkeston in the county of Derbyshire in the East Midlands region of England. West Hallam has had its own parish council since 1894 and, since 1974, has been part of the Erewash borough. Th ...
for Catholic sympathies at a time when Roman Catholics suffered oppression. Stanley Grange Farm once belonged to
Dale Abbey
Dale Abbey is a village and civil parish in the borough of Erewash in Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England, 6 miles north east of Derby. The population of the civil parish on the 2011 census was 1,351. Formerly known as Depedale or Deepda ...
and as a Catholic School was raided twice – in 1637 and again by Parliamentary forces in 1642 during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
.
Originally an agricultural area, by the late 19th Century the main local employer was the coal industry, although brickmaking and some quarrying also took place.
Stanley railway station was opened in 1876 by the Great Northern Railway but was renamed West Hallam to avoid confusion with another station on the line. The station closed in 1964 and the last local colliery, the 'Stanley Pit' ended deep seam mining in 1959 and closed completely in 1961.
Stanley also contained the depot of
, a local bus service and tour operator. One of the hundreds of bus companies originally set up using surplus military vehicles after the First World War, Felix ran as a small independent operator until 2012.
St Andrew's Church
The present Church of England Church of St Andrew dates from the 12th Century, though the site is believed to be a Saxon one. St Andrew's contains a few Norman features, but was greatly restored in 1875. The font dates from the fourteenth century.
The Church gates commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee of 1887, and the churchyard contains a memorial (erected in 2004) to the five aircrew who lost their lives when an experimental high-altitude RAF Wellington Bomber disintegrated above Stanley in 1942 following a loss of cabin pressure.
Derbyshire War Memorials
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Village amenities
Stanley has a pub (The White Hart), village shop/Post Office, a village hall, a hair salon, a primary school and a physiotherapy clinic.
Notable people
* Richard Felix (born 1949), television personality, historian and paranormal investigator.
See also
* Listed buildings in Stanley and Stanley Common
References
External links
Stanley Village Trail on Ilkcam.com contains more detailed information and photographs
Stanley & Stanley Common Parish Council
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Villages in Derbyshire
Borough of Erewash