ABOUT CHESTERFIELD AND THE CHESTERFIELD POST
The Chesterfield Post is Chesterfield's very own online news, sport and community resource.
You'll find all you need here - the latest Chesterfield news, sport and life together with community and local issues covered in depth.
We will be adding Audio and Video interviews and articles as well as text based news
pages.
You can write articles for us as a blog if you have stuff to share, or just browse our pages to read, see and hear what's going on in Chesterfield - and get involved and heard yourselves.
Our kids aren't left out either, there's news of gigs, films, clubs and reviews and chats about stuff that's important to you.
We're also spending regular time with our MP's, Councillors and the Mayor to find out what's happening in and around YOUR town.
Our Editor is a Chesterfield girl, born and bred, and we think our town is pretty special and we're very proud to share it with you.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT CHESTERFIELD TOWN
Famous for its Crooked Spire, Chesterfield is a medieval market town and is a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of the city of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. It is Derbyshire's second largest town, although the county town of Derbyshire is Matlock in the Derbyshire Dales. Around 250,000 people live in the Chesterfield urban area including Dronfield, Bolsover, Staveley, Shirebrook and Clay Cross and forms part of the Sheffield City Region.
It is surrounded by some of the loveliest and unspoilt countryside in the county and is built over a Roman site which is also on top of an Iron Age fort. The Romans probably settled here because the area is rich in natural minerals like coal, lead and tin.
In Domesday, the town was known as Cestrefeld meaning 'open field', and its early prosperity was largely a result of its role as a market town, which served the whole of the north east of Derbyshire. The market still remains an important part of the towns economy. Every Monday, Friday and Saturday, more than 250 stalls crowd into the town centre, enabling the visitor to purchase almost anything. There are new local businesses popping up all the time, such as GoStore self storage Chesterfield who opened part way through 2018.
The 19th century saw Chesterfield developing rapidly into an industrial centre, especially with the coming of the railway. It was George Stevenson who supervised the construction of the Midland Line through the town, as he had done earlier with other Derbyshire towns. Today Chesterfield can boast excellent communications from all directions by both road and rail. It is close to the M1 motorway, the Midland Railway station is only a short distance from the town centre and there is a comprehensive bus service.
In the middle of the market is the Victorian market hall which is open throughout the week providing shopping facilities and function rooms. Nearby is a part of the town known as the Shambles which originally dates back to the 12th century. The shamble's narrow streets are both quaint and home to good shops, tea rooms and an interesting timber framed pub called the Royal Oak. A sign ouside, records the fact that a pub has been sited here since 1772 and before that, a rest house for 'the knights templar, a band of crusaders'.
The Tourist Information Centre is housed in a new building, beside St Mary and All Saints church in Rykneld Way. It moved from the old Peacock Centre, now a coffee bar, several years ago. It is open all year Monday to Saturday 9 am-5 pm (Winter) and 9 am-5.30 pm (Easter to October). Tel: +44 (0)1246 345777/8.
The peaceful Queen's park has been the focus of much of Chesterfields leisure since Victorian times. It provides a boating lake, gardens, children's play area and is occasionally used for county cricket matches. There is also a modern sports centre, providing facilities for squash, badminton, swimming, tennis and other sports.
George Stephenson is buried at the Holy Trinity church on Newbold Road. Chesterfield's popular Pomegranate Theatre in Corporation St started life in 1879 as the Stephenson Memorial Hall in tribute to George Stephenson. The Pomegranate also spent a part of its life as a cinema and as the Chesterfield Civic Theatre before becoming the Pomegranate in 1982. See their website and our theatre pages for more information on exhibitions and performances held at the Pomegranate.
Chesterfield is synonymous with the crooked spire on top of the church of Our Lady and All Saints. It gives Chesterfield its identity. Built, along with much of the rest of the church in the 14th century, it was straight for several centuries before it began to twist, probably as a result of unseasoned timber being used for its construction. It now leans nearly 9ft to the south and is still moving.
The large church is a fine cruciform building consisting of an aisled nave of 6 bays, a central tower, transepts and a 2 bay chancel, flanked by a chapel dedicated to St Katherine to the north and by a Lady chapel to the south. There are a further 2 chapels, one to the Holy Cross, the other to St Peter. The many chapels are due to the numerous guilds which once existed in the town, the oldest of which, the guild of Our Lady and the Holy Cross, was founded in 1218. The lady chapel contains a series of alabaster tombs of the Foljambe family. A particularly fine one is that of Sir Godfrey Foljambe and his wife.
The history of Chesterfield is exhibited in the town's Museum and Art Gallery, which can be found in St Mary's Gate. The museum is open Mon-Sat (except Wed), 10am-4pm
Some facts about Chesterfield excerpts from Wikipedia and DerbyshireUK
