Potter Street

The van is embedded in the wall on Potter Street.  The date of the Derby Telegraph report is 3 October 1930. When the Fair, or Statutes, "Statits" locally, came to the village, the owners of the various stalls used to park their vans in Lodge Lane.  Mr Wright speaks of a Causeway being built below Mr Cox's gate, which was opposite Leysick Lane (Drury Avenue).  A "Causeway" is the pavement, known locally as the "Causy" (with a soft "s" as late as the early 1930s by older people.

The newspaper report quotes ' A well-known Spondon family had a remarkable escape from injury last night when a motor living-van, owned by Mr W Robinson, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts, one of the caterers for the Statute Spondon Fair which is to be held in Potter Street, crashed into part of a house. A large portion of a high brick wall, and a outhouse which adjoins the kitchen, was wrecked. The house is occupied by Mr F Stretch, and the van was embedded in the wall. We had hardly got a few yards from the van when it started to move', Mrs Robinson told a 'Derby Telegraph' representative. 'We were all powerless to save it. If any of us had been on the front, we should probably have been killed, as the front portion of the van was wrecked.'People living in nearby houses, hearing the crash, ran out, and one of them told the Derby Telegraph representative that he felt the vibration, an ran out, wondering what had happened. 'If the van had cut into the wall a few yards farther on, it would have crashed right into the living room of Mr Stretch's house', he added. A large traction engine owned by a fellow-caterer was used to haul the van clear of the house. A large party of children, who were a little farther down the hill, also had a remarkable escape.