pigbed or building purposes or used for cores. The sandpit face was 40 feet in height and the overburden reached about 13 feet.

In spite of all this industry, the population of Dale remained relatively constant through the 19th century. Records tell us that in 1801 there were 73 houses, with 414 people, and 83 families; in 1811, 76 houses, 412 people and 77 families; in 1831, 84 houses, 407 people with 84 families and 113 men aged over 21; in 1846, the village had 94 houses and 400 inhabitants, (198 male, 202 female) with a rateable value of £1617 12s.; in 1895 the population was 399 people and the rateable value £2681, and in 1899 the population had remained the same, but the rateable value dropped to £2670. The village must have presented a very different aspect from the rural idyll of today, with tramways and chimneys and the noise of heavy industry. So a contemporary comment is all the more surprising: ‘We wondered in our hearts whether a visit to the Crystal Palace would teach a better lesson than low-lying Dale can afford.’ Also surprising is the Pioneer’s remark in 1854 that there was no pub in the village.

In 1912 Stanton Ironworks bought all but the church lands and the two schools in the villages of Stanton and Dale Abbey. From 1912 to 1919 the ironworks was managed by Mr Charles Wright; in 1919 an Estates Department was inaugurated, under Mr A.F. Holden. Coal mining continued in Dale through the First World War, but the seams were worked out by 1920, and the 70 foot high chimney was demolished on 22nd June of that year; the school log for that day reports taking the children to see the disbandment of the colliery and the fall of the chimney.

An extant map of the extent of the estate of Stanton Ironworks in 1955 includes all of Dale Abbey village, Boyah Grange and quite a bit of the Hagg Farms area north of the Spondon to Ilkeston road. Miss Hollingworth recalled there being a wheelwright and blacksmith’s shops at Dunnshill at the western extremity of the Dale valley.