Chesterfield

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Chesterfield is a historic market town and local government district in Derbyshire.

It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper.

Including Staveley, the population in 2001 was 100,879, although the town itself was 70,260.

It is Derbyshire's largest town, although the county town of Derbyshire is Matlock in the Derbyshire Dales.

Around 250,000 people live in the immediate area nearby including Dronfield, Bolsover, Staveley, Shirebrook and Clay Cross. It is located at 53°34′N 1°25′W on the A61, fairly close to the M1 (via the A617 to junction 29).

It received its market charter in the year 1204 from King John and around 250 stalls can still be found in the town centre every Monday, Friday and Saturday.

Chesterfield benefited greatly from the building of the Chesterfield Line - part of the Derby to Leeds railway (North Midland Line), which was begun in 1837 by George Stephenson. During its construction, a sizeable seam of coal was discovered during the construction of the Clay Cross Tunnel. This and the local ironstone were promptly exploited by Stephenson who set up a company in Clay Cross to trade in the minerals.

During his time in Chesterfield, Stephenson lived at Tapton House, and died in 1848. He is buried in Trinity Church. In 2006, a statue of Stephenson was erected outside Chesterfield railway station.

Chesterfield is perhaps best known for the "Crooked Spire" of its Church of Saint Mary and All Saints and is why the local football team is known as The Spireites. The spire is both twisted and leaning, twisting 45 degrees and leaning 9 feet 6 inches from its true centre. The leaning characteristic is believed to be the result of the absence of skilled craftsmen (the Black Death had been gone only 12 years prior to the spire's completion), insufficient cross-bracing, and the use of unseasoned timber.

There have been other explanations: One is that the spire was so shocked to learn of the marriage of a virgin in the church that it bent down to get a closer look. Should this happen again, it is said that the spire will straighten and return to its true position. Another is that a Bolsover blacksmith mis-shod the Devil, who leaped over the spire in pain, knocking it out of shape.

Chesterfield is the location for the headquarters of the local newspaper, the Derbyshire Times.


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Local economy

The area sits on a large coalfield and in the past there have been many coal mines, including: 

   * Clay Cross
   * Arkwright
   * Bolsover
   * Grassmoor
   * North Wingfield
   * Holmewood

From 1981 to 2002, 15,000 jobs in the coal industry disappeared and not a single colliery remains open, although open cast mining continued at Arkwright until a few years ago. Many of the sites were restored by contractor Killingleys for Derbyshire County Council.

Very little evidence of the industry remains today; a cyclist and walkers route, the so called "Five pits trail" now links some of the former collieries and most of the sites are now indistinguishable from the surrounding countryside.

Within the town itself, large factories and major employers have disappeared including: 

   * Bryan Donkin's
   * Chesterfield Cylinders (now Alma Leisure Park, includes Cannons Health Club, a Cineworld, Frankie and Benny's, McDonalds, Hobby Horse pub, and a Blockbusters)
   * Markham & Co. (The Channel Tunnel between England and France used Tunnel Boring Machines manufactured here. The factory site is now a private housing estate).
   * Dema Glass (site for Chesterfield's new football ground, which is now currently in development)

Others have downsized significantly: 

   * GKN plc
   * Robinson's (has demolished several buildings and cut thousands of jobs)
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Queens Park Leisure Centre

Chesterfield has a vast array of leisure, entertainment and social facilities. The Queens Park is located within the town centre and recently benefited from a multi-million pound programme of investment. Also on the outskirts of the park is Queens Park Leisure Centre, which has a large swimming pool and gym, several indoor courts (for a variety of sports) and several more outdoor tennis courts


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Vicar Lane

Vicar Lane
Enlarge
Vicar Lane

The shopping opportunities in Chesterfield are sizeable. Vicar Lane was redeveloped in 2000 to become a pedestrianised, open-air shopping area, that involved most of the existing buildings being demolished. The project was so large that two new streets were created in its development.


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The Precinct

In the 1980s a large area, between the Low Pavements and New Beetwell Street was completely flattened to build "The Pavements" shopping centre, more commonly known by local residents as "The Precinct". It has entrances located opposite of Chesterfield Market and escalators lead down to New Beetwell Street. An enclosed bridge links the site to a multi-storey car park built at the same time.

Chesterfield Library's main entrance is located just outside the Pavements. The library spans several floors and was built as part of the development.


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Town Centre

Chesterfield has retained many of its town centre from the pre-war era. As previously discussed, Chesterfield is home to one of the largest open air markets in Britain, the stalls sitting either side of the historic Market Hall. In the middle of town, a collection of narrow and old streets make up "The Shambles", which houses one of Britain's oldest pubs.

Near Holywell Cross is Chesterfield's largest department store, known to local as "The Co-op" but more correctly "The Chesterfield and District Co-operative society". Their buildings occupy the majority of Elder Way and include an enclosed bridge over the street.


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Food and Drink

Cuisine available in the area includes Chinese, Indian and Thai restaurants and takeaways. Several night clubs are located around the town, predominantly towards "The Doughnut", more correctly called "Holywell Cross Car Park". Scattered around the town are many bars and pubs, and out of town the "Brampton Mile" provides 13 pubs on a one mile section of Chatsworth Road. Tradition dictates that anyone "doing the mile" has at least one drink in each pub.


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The Arts

The Winding Wheel is a multi-purpose venue, hosting concerts, exhibitions, conferences, dinners, family parties, dances, banquets, wedding receptions, meetings, product launches and lectures.

"The Pomegranate" theatre is a listed Victorian building, with a small auditorium, seating around 500 people. A variety of shows are performed throughout the year.

Both venues are owned by Chesterfield Borough Council, and the box office for both is located in the entrance area of the theatre.

Next to the theatre is Chesterfield Museum, again owned by the local authority.


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Sport

Chesterfield FC play at the Recreation Ground (better known as Saltergate).

One of the team's most notable achievements came in April 1997, when they reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, losing to Middlesbrough in a replay following a 3-3 draw at Old Trafford. It turned out to be one of the most controversial games in recent history with Chesterfield having a goal disallowed when referee David Elleray decided the ball had not crossed the goal line from a Jonathan Howard shot, a decision which was later proved incorrect by video replays.

Had the goal stood the club would have progressed to the final of the FA Cup for the first time in its history.

The team has a fierce rivalry with neighbouring Nottinghamshire town Mansfield. In 2006 Chesterfield FC beat Premiership heavyweights Manchester City and West Ham to move into the last 16 of the Carling Cup where they were narrowly beaten on penalties by Charlton.

Also Chesterfield has a competitive athletic team which competes regularly all over England. Chesterfield & District Athletic Club is based at Queen’s Park Annexe - near Boythorpe Road south of the town centre, close to the cricket club. Chesterfield Swimming Club is based at the Queens Park Sports Centre on Boythorpe Road.


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Transport

Chesterfield is located on the Midland Mainline and the former Great Central Railway, with Midland Mainline providing services to London and Sheffield; Virgin Trains to Newcastle, Birmingham, Bournemouth and Edinburgh and Central Trains to Liverpool, Nottingham and Norwich.

As well as railways, Chesterfield had a tramway system, built in 1882, and closed in 1927.

Junction 29 of the M1 motorway links Chesterfield to the motorway network, via the A617 dual-carriageway. Other major roads include the A61 (with a dual carriageway beginning in the town centre and continuing to Sheffield) and the A619 (a major inroad to the Peak District, eventually joining the A6 near Bakewell) and the A632 to Matlock.

The nearest airfield is Netherthorpe Aerodrome, however this not licenced for commercial flights. When travelling by air, passengers usually do so via East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Doncaster Finningley and Manchester airports.


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Education

The borough of Chesterfield has many schools within and around it. There are several secondary schools in the area (most of which are community schools; Hasland Hall, Brookfield, Tupton Hall School, Parkside, Meadows, Netherthorpe, Newbold (which has just moved into a new £17 million modern school), Deincourt and Springwell) almost half have a Sixth Form. There is also a Roman Catholic school, St Mary's Roman Catholic High School, in Newbold.

A sixth-form college, Chesterfield College, is located within a 5 minute walk of Chesterfield railway station and offers many courses.


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Local Colloquial Language

The residents of Chesterfield sometimes refer to Chesterfield as Chez Vegas, C Town, Chezzie, or simply Chez. The local football team are referred to as The Spireites as is anyone who follows them.


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Famous People

Famous people to come from Chesterfield include: 

   * Barbara Castle former Labour Government Minister,
   * Baron Bowden, 
   * Former Royal butler Paul Burrell, 
   * Glamour model Jo Guest, 
   * Actor John Hurt, 
   * Daily Mirror TV Critic Ian Hyland
   * Slick City Guns
   * Footballer John Lukic, 
   * Henry Normal,  co-writer of The Royle Family, co-producer of Saxondale and co-founder of Baby Cow Productions,
   * Composer of theme tunes for Captain Pugwash, News at Ten and All Creatures Great and Small, Johnny Pearson,
   * Lead singer of 1980s band Then Jerico Mark Shaw, 
   * Footballer Bob Wilson.


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Other famous people associated with the town: 

   * Tony Benn — Labour MP for Chesterfield from 1984-2001.
   * George Stephenson — ended his days at Tapton House - now a Chesterfield College campus.
   * The first Archdeacon of Chesterfield was The Venerable Edmond Francis Crosse.
   * Inventor (Cryosphere) Russell Walker.


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Twinnings

Chesterfield is twinned with: 

   * Darmstadt in Germany
   * Troyes in Northern France
   * Yangquan in the Shanxi province of China
   * Tsumeb in Namibia


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International Events

Chesterfield is home to gluten free beer, with the first ever international gluten free beer festival held in Chesterfield in February 2006. The event was hailed internationally as a success, and the organisors are working to repeat the event for 2007. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) hosted the event with the cooperation of Glutenfreebeerfestival.com and brewers of gluten free beer from all parts of the globe have announced that they wish to attend and present their brews to the public at the next Chesterfield event, under discussion between the organisors and the local authority.

Pages linking here


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County:  Derbyshire



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