Icon of a bygone era

In 1960 the Staveley Iron and Chemical Company, which had been taken over by Stewarts & Lloyds Limited was merged with the Ilkeston-based Stanton Iron Works to form Stanton and Staveley Ltd. In 1967 Stewarts and Lloyds became part of the nationalised British Steel Corporation, Stanton and Staveley also being incorporated.

We live in what was the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfield, prior to the bitterly controversial and troubled closure of the mining industry by the Margaret Thatcher and John Major Tory governments.
A feature of our townships nowadays - in what were once thriving mining communities - is to preserve iconic mementos of the industry, and this one, of an old-style railways coal truck, stands proudly today in a major traffic roundabout in Ilkeston.