Building record MDR5830 - Lace Factory, Belper Street (west side), Ilkeston

SK 466413 Belper Street, Lace factory. Small three-storied mid C19 lace factory on west side of Belper Street. (1) Between 1869 and 1871 Amos Tatham, lace manufacturer and needle maker, built a house and factory abutting the east side of Belper Street (SMR 21623). By June 1877 the 'lace factory' on the west side of Belper Street was nearly complete - power being provided through a tunnel under the road. In 1884 the warehouse and offices abutting the street on the west side and a four-storey factory on the site of the former house were erected. Lace was made on warp machines constucted in Tatham's own workshops, while the machinery building side manufactured all types of needles, as well as guides, hooks, Levers points and carriage springs, needles and shuttles for embroidery machines, and bobbins and carriages for twist machines. The buildings on Belper Street remained in the ownership of Tathams until 1944, although part of the premises was tenanted from the 1920s. In 1944 the hosiery company of Walter Beardsley took possession of the factory on the west side of the road. (2) A lace factory, office and warehouse. The lace factory, which is set back from the street, dates to 1877. The warehouse and office range, which abuts the street, dates to 1884. The warehouse and office range is built of red brick beneath a gabled roof. The front elevation is three storeys tall above a basement. Each storey contains five vertical sashes with polychromatic heads. There is a panelled entrance door with a semi-circular head. The lace factory appears in Palmer's Industrial Landscapes of the East Midlands. (3) Now occupied by Charnos. (4)