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'Ilkeston' also known as ''Ilson'' is a town in the Borough of Erewash of Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England, on the River Erewash, from which the local authority district takes its name. Its population at the 2001 census was 37,550. Its major industries were formerly coal mining, iron working and textiles, but all these have greatly declined. It is the site of Ilkeston Charter Fair which celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2002.
The town is close to both Derby and Nottingham and is near to the M1 motorway. Although the town lies within Derbyshire, it is closer to Nottingham. The eastern boundary of Ilkeston is only two miles from Nottingham's western edge. Ilkeston is considered by the Office for National Statistics to be part of Nottingham metropolitan area.
Ilkeston was probably founded in the 6th century AD, and gets its name from its supposed founder, Elch or Elcha, who was an Anglian chieftain ("Elka's Tun" = Elka's Town). The town appears as Tilchestune in the Domesday Book.
Ilkeston is one of the few places where the distinctive dialect of East Midlands English is extensively spoken. Ilkeston is referred to as 'Ilson' in this dialect.
The American Adventure Theme Park, a large theme park which closed in 2007, was located near Ilkeston.

Contents

Railway

Notable Residents

References

See also

External links

Railway

For a town of its size, Ilkeston strangely no longer has a railway station, despite having once had three, In fact it is one of the largest towns in England to not have a railway station. The present Nottingham to Sheffield main line (formerly part of the Midland Railway, later the LMS), runs to the east of the town, but Ilkeston Junction station on this line (also known as "Ilkeston Junction & Cossall"), closed in January 1967. Plans to build a new station thought to be close to the old Ilkeston Junction have often been speculated about and announced, but to date little action has been seen on these plans. A short branch from this station to Ilkeston Town station in the town centre closed way back in June 1947. Ilkeston's third station was Ilkeston North, on the former Great Northern (later LNER) line from Nottingham to Derby, closed in September 1964. A major feature of this line was Bennerley Viaduct, a 1,452 foot long, 61 foot high, wrought iron structure which still crosses the Erewash valley just to the north east of Ilkeston. Once threatened with demolition, it is now a Grade 2 listed building, though the removal of the embankments at either end have left it an oddly isolated free-standing structure surrounded by fields. Bennerley Viaduct
== Twin Town ==

★ Châlons-en-Champagne in France. ^[1]

Notable Residents

★ Alf Baker - F.A. cup finalist was born here in 1898^[2]

★ Roland Bainton, historian, was born here in 1894.^[3]

★ Chick Churchill, musician - played Woodstock and I of Wight^[4]

★ Robert Lindsay (actor) was born here ^[5]

★ William Roach actor (Ken Barlow) , was born here ^[6]

★ Ben Roberts, actor lives here (2007)^[7]

References

1. Ilkeston Twinning Association
2. England Statistics for Alf Baker accessed June 2007
3. Roland Bainton at Biography.com accessed June 2007
4. Chick Churchill at Ten Years After site
5. Robert Lindsay biography at the BBC
6. William Roache biography at IMDb
7. Ben Roberts biography at IMDb

See also

Ilkeston Corporation Tramways

External links

★ The Ilkeston Community Homepage

★ Erewash Borough Council

★ Ilkeston Cam pictures of the town and surrounding area

★ Ilkeston folk club

★ Ilkeston arts club

★ Ilkeston ladies Circle

★ The Stanton Ironworks