Poplar Farm has a stone base which probably dates back to the abbey. It was much altered in 1975 but the stairs are original; it too used to be thatched. The old Methodist Chapel was founded in 1791, but nearly destroyed by fire in 1844; it had been rebuilt by 1846; it was rebuilt yet again in 1902, a little further away from the road than the original. A very tongue-in-cheek article in the Ilkeston Pioneer of September 1857 pokes fun at a placard inviting people’s attendance to hear two sermons preached at two o’clock in the morning, by one M. Pickard of Mapperley Brook.

On the corner between Manor House and the old Institute, where the two modern houses now stand, there used to be a rambling old thatched cottage:  I have seen an old photograph of this very picturesque cottage, which was presumably in poor repair. The White Cottage, the last house before the church, was built in the early 19th century by Miss Hollingworth’s mother’s grandmother, for £37 plus10/- for the pigsty; it used to be considerably smaller than it is now. The Bungalow, once the village Institute, was built in 1845 for the use of the Odd Fellows Society; it was eventually taken over by Stanton Estates under manager Scopes and became a private house, occupied by Mr Freeman.

There is a record that in 1846 the dwellings were mostly brick and thatched. Another old house, Abbey Croft, next to the Chapel on its north side, used to belong to the Hollingworth family; its south end was built by Miss Maud Hollingworth’s father’s cousin. Several of the original farms have now ceased to function as farms, and their outbuildings have been converted into dwellings; most of them appear to be Victorian in date. The Carpenter’s Arms pub was built by Miss Hollingworth’s father’s uncle John Hollingworth, and on the site of the flats at Cross Lea there used to be a cottage occupied by the school caretaker.
  
When the ownership of Dale village passed into the hands of Stanton Estates in the early 20th century, no building was allowed in the village. The village suffered some depopulation because derelict houses were not rebuilt. Eight houses, however, including the dame school, were built at the Moor (making a total of 14 houses down there) and one on the inside of the bend before Woodpecker Hill; houses reverted to estate ownership on the occupant’s death. During these years of Estates ownership all the houses were painted in ‘Stanton green’.  

This situation continued until 1952, when two council houses were built by Stanton Estates; in 1967 St Norbert’s House was built by Aldred, an Ilkeston builder, because the land on which it stands was owned by Ind Coope. The Estates did not own quite all of the Dale area: other bits were owned by Drury Lowe and Mapperley Colliery. This probably accounts for the building of Harvey Cross’s house at the T-junction close to the Cat and Fiddle windmill, in early 1939.