Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
I've made this fading then and now video showing how Chaddesden has changed using a top-down view from 1948 lined up with a 2026 view, hope you enjoy my video and please leave a comment if you do. These are based on vertical aerial photos taken looking straight down from a plane.
Until I made this then and now video, I found it hard to visualise precisely where the Derby canal used to run around this section, but now you can clearly see where it ran.
I have centred the view over where Chequers Lane bridge used to be located over the former Derby Canal.
I find it quite an interesting one to watch as it fades back and forth as you can sort of still see today where the canal used to run as there are lots of bits of rough land and buildings that have been built up to the edge of where the canal used to be.
To get your bearings: This is a view of the south-western part of Chaddesden, today this area seems to be called Derwent on some maps.
Nottingham Road travels directly across both views. Derbyshire Cricket ground is just out of view top left.
The Pentagon Island is just off to the left of the view and the A52 can be seen bottom left. The former Derby canal snaking up and across the 1948 view.
Points of interest :
In the 1948 view you can see Chequers Lane bridge which carries the road over the Derby Canal. This is where the gates are in 2026.
Those set of gates lead into an overgrown area at the back of a load of derelict buildings.
One of those derelict buildings is 63 Nottingham Road which is quite a distinctive building built around 1800 for Navigation Brewery, in 1893 it was
being used by Derby Brewing company Limited. By 1899 it was acquired by Stretton's Derby Brewery, just two yeas later the brewery was liquidated, after
which it became a bottling station. Around 1950 it became Derwent Press Ltd and this survived until 1994. It was then used by Pentagon Gym and that
lasted until 2013. Going by the state of the building complex its been left to rot since then with all the windows being fully boarded up by 2024.
Just out of shot on the left backing onto the canal at 66 Nottingham Road was The Welcome Tavern, built in 1874 and demolished in 1965.
In the 1948 view it looks like there used to be a large building along St Marks Road with a courtyard in it, in 2026 this seems to have all been
demolished and replaced with new houses and a new road called Huntingdon Green. What year did that happen?
In the 1948 view there used to be a large factory with a chimney where today Sawley Park is, this as named after Sawley Packaging, which was formerly The "Chaddesden Works".
William Fletcher established a lace works around 1900 on Nottingham Road after parting ways with his brother. The site featured a two-story brick mill extending toward the former Derby Canal which is what you can see in the old photo.
By 1910, the factory expanded significantly with dozens of go-through and plain net machines, doubling departments, and repair shops, employing over 250 workers at its peak, Chaddesden Works officially ceased in 1968.
The former mill and surrounding buildings on Nottingham Road were taken over by Sawley Packaging in 1969 (subsequently associated with Rolls-Royce and later Daher), the site functioned as a packaging and industrial facility for over three decades until operations wound down around 2003. In 2010 It was turned into a modern industrial estate named Sawley Park.
I wonder when all those allotments south of the Derby canal were removed and built on, any idea?
Streets featured in my then and now video : Chequers Lane, Nottingham Road, St Marks Road, Francis Street, Beaufort Street, Cornwall Road, Brian Clough Way (A52), Wayzgoose Drive,
Huntingdon Green, Clinton Street, Sawley Park.
View A : 16th April 1948
View B : Google Satellite view 2026
Hope you enjoy it and feel free to share the link to my video to anyone interested.
Best viewed on a large computer screen or smart TV as this is recorded in 4K resolution with great music so a real waste watching it on a small phone screen. Did you know you can cast it to your smart tv from the YouTube app?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music Credits :
'The Restoration' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
youtube.com/watch?v=22KHaYz8Row
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've made this fading then and now video showing how Chaddesden has changed using a top-down view from 1948 lined up with a 2026 view, hope you enjoy my video and please leave a comment if you do. These are based on vertical aerial photos taken looking straight down from a plane.
Until I made this then and now video, I found it hard to visualise precisely where the Derby canal used to run around this section, but now you can clearly see where it ran.
I have centred the view over where Chequers Lane bridge used to be located over the former Derby Canal.
I find it quite an interesting one to watch as it fades back and forth as you can sort of still see today where the canal used to run as there are lots of bits of rough land and buildings that have been built up to the edge of where the canal used to be.
To get your bearings: This is a view of the south-western part of Chaddesden, today this area seems to be called Derwent on some maps.
Nottingham Road travels directly across both views. Derbyshire Cricket ground is just out of view top left.
The Pentagon Island is just off to the left of the view and the A52 can be seen bottom left. The former Derby canal snaking up and across the 1948 view.
Points of interest :
In the 1948 view you can see Chequers Lane bridge which carries the road over the Derby Canal. This is where the gates are in 2026.
Those set of gates lead into an overgrown area at the back of a load of derelict buildings.
One of those derelict buildings is 63 Nottingham Road which is quite a distinctive building built around 1800 for Navigation Brewery, in 1893 it was
being used by Derby Brewing company Limited. By 1899 it was acquired by Stretton's Derby Brewery, just two yeas later the brewery was liquidated, after
which it became a bottling station. Around 1950 it became Derwent Press Ltd and this survived until 1994. It was then used by Pentagon Gym and that
lasted until 2013. Going by the state of the building complex its been left to rot since then with all the windows being fully boarded up by 2024.
Just out of shot on the left backing onto the canal at 66 Nottingham Road was The Welcome Tavern, built in 1874 and demolished in 1965.
In the 1948 view it looks like there used to be a large building along St Marks Road with a courtyard in it, in 2026 this seems to have all been
demolished and replaced with new houses and a new road called Huntingdon Green. What year did that happen?
In the 1948 view there used to be a large factory with a chimney where today Sawley Park is, this as named after Sawley Packaging, which was formerly The "Chaddesden Works".
William Fletcher established a lace works around 1900 on Nottingham Road after parting ways with his brother. The site featured a two-story brick mill extending toward the former Derby Canal which is what you can see in the old photo.
By 1910, the factory expanded significantly with dozens of go-through and plain net machines, doubling departments, and repair shops, employing over 250 workers at its peak, Chaddesden Works officially ceased in 1968.
The former mill and surrounding buildings on Nottingham Road were taken over by Sawley Packaging in 1969 (subsequently associated with Rolls-Royce and later Daher), the site functioned as a packaging and industrial facility for over three decades until operations wound down around 2003. In 2010 It was turned into a modern industrial estate named Sawley Park.
I wonder when all those allotments south of the Derby canal were removed and built on, any idea?
Streets featured in my then and now video : Chequers Lane, Nottingham Road, St Marks Road, Francis Street, Beaufort Street, Cornwall Road, Brian Clough Way (A52), Wayzgoose Drive,
Huntingdon Green, Clinton Street, Sawley Park.
View A : 16th April 1948
View B : Google Satellite view 2026
Hope you enjoy it and feel free to share the link to my video to anyone interested.
Best viewed on a large computer screen or smart TV as this is recorded in 4K resolution with great music so a real waste watching it on a small phone screen. Did you know you can cast it to your smart tv from the YouTube app?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music Credits :
'The Restoration' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
youtube.com/watch?v=22KHaYz8Row
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
