Smalley Common
| Smalley Common | |
| Derbyshire | |
|---|---|
 Modern houses in Smalley Common | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK411426 |
| Location: | 52°58’46"N, 1°23’21"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Ilkeston |
| Postcode: | DE7 |
| Dialling code: | 0115 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Erewash |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Mid Derbyshire |
Smalley Common is a hamlet in Derbyshire, on the A609 between Smalley and Stanley Common.
Morleyhayes Wood is adjacent to the east with extensive farmland to the north and south. Recently it has been redeveloped and amalgamated with Stanley Common. The old village existed for almost 100 years.
History
There is evidence of early coal extraction in the area: "in the High Yates Closes, a group of fields between Bell Lane and Smalley Common, Patrick Richardson, father of Samuel, took a lease of the coals in 1650 from Jacinth Sacheverell of Morley. The early Smalley coal workings extended further south along the higher ground to Smalley Common." [1]
An entry in the Nottingham Road Bill of 1784 includes "the Cross Post upon Smalley Common, (probably at the site of the White Post Inn) in the County of Derby". and in the same year the village is mentioned on the Smalley Common enclosure award map when there is also mention of the road being a turnpike at Smalley Common.[2]
There is also mention of a working windmill in 1880 but no traces remain.
Smalley Common was for many years a coal-mining community which, after some expansion in the early 1900s and up to the late 1970s was a distinct and separate settlement consisting mainly of tied colliery terraces. From 1946 these were rented from the National Coal Board. The majority of the inhabitants gained a living in the local mines, namely Shipley Woodside near Heanor, the Nibby Pit at Stanley, and Mapperley Pit near West Hallam.[3] At this time the main part of the village consisted of four rows of compact terraced dwelling. There were two streets, Spencer Street and Blunt Street, with about 61 identical dwellings and some 19 homes as part of the original linear village along the A609.
Up to the late 1960s, the cottages still had no private garden, no bathrooms and a single outside privy. A map from 1887 shows no trace of the terraces but they do appear on a map from 1901, so they must have been built at some time between these dates, probably for the local coal-mine workers on behalf of a colliery company absorbed by the National Coal Board in 1946. Most of the children from the village attended the Smalley Common Council School, later renamed the Crown Hills Junior Mixed and Infants.
The school, at the top of Crown Hill east along the A609 and has now been converted to private homes.
From about 1954 for several years the area just north of the village as far as the primary school was subject to opencast mining. A picturesque bridleway bounded on each side by tall hedges known to the locals as Swine Lane led to Swine Hill and Swine Hill Wood. These features were regrettably destroyed at this time although the wood has now been replanted. To the north-east of these old workings, nearer to the village of Smalley, opencast mining recommenced in 2008 at Lodge House, despite fierce opposition and a long campaign from those living nearby.