Site record MDR5551 - Stanton Iron Works - the 'New Works'

The 'New Works' blast furnaces were built at Hallam Fields in 1872-4 on a low-lying freehold site on the opposite side of the Nutbrook Canal to the 'Old Works' (SMR 26507). Five open-top furnaces were constructed, 40 feet high, equipped with pipe stoves for heating the blast and blown by new reciprocating engines. An immense 190ft chimney was also built. Three of the furnaces were rebuilt at a greater height after 1889 and the stoves and engines were rebuilt in about 1900, but otherwise this plant continued to serve as the company's main source of pig iron until the late 1920s. By the 1920s the five blast furnaces were badly out-of-date and uneconomical. They were replaced by three larger furnaces, accompanied by an automatic haulage system. (1) Shown as 'Hallam Field Works (Iron)' on the 1st ed. 25" OS map of c. 1880, standing by the side of the Erewash Canal. (2) By 1900 the works had extended southwards to the Nutbrook Canal, and are named as 'Stanton Iron Works'. (3) The site of the now much-reduced Stanton Ironworks. There had been iron working on the site since the 1840s [south side of the Nutbrook Canal - see SMR 26507] but much of the site is now semi-derelict. There are a few 19th century shops remaining but no trace of the blast furnaces of any era. Still intact are the ornate company offices of 1914 adjacent to Ilkeston Road and the later laboratories and exhibition centre. Parts of the private railway network are still in use but it is only a tiny fraction of the once extensive network which linked the company's enterprises at Stanton and Dale. (4)