Saturday 19th May 2012
Simon Davidson (below) is one of the most familiar faces in town, if people don't know him, they'll undoubtedly know the shop he owns, 'The Cheese Factory' underneath the Market Hall.
A fixture for 32 years, the shop, and his dad, have, over the years, become synonymous with the phrase 'pound a bag', and until his death late last year Simon's dad could often be seen in his fur hat, selling outside the shop whatever the weather.
Yesterday however, after three decades, Simon and his staff have moved. Not far - just a couple of doors up and into bigger and fresh premises (below).
Opened by the Mayor and Mayoress of Chesterfield, the new shop, at number 10, will offer all the old favourites but also offer Simon room to grow.
An undoubtedly mixed day for Simon, who is possibly one of the best 'on the ground' ambassadors the town has, as he left behind a shop full of memories, but, he admits it's an exciting time for him and he's looking forward to the future.
His dad wasn't far away from anyone's thoughts though, and we lost count of the number of people who told Simon how proud he would have been today.
We spoke to Simon at the opening and he told us of his pride today and his plans for his future in cheese.
 A proud day today?
"I'm very proud, it's great and I wouldn't say it was an ambition but something that happened. My father (Roy, left) - who passed away last year - and I, spoke about moving it before he died and he was very much behind it, so to come to today and the shop be open in all its glory - were all so pleased with it, and people have came in and said so many things about it, how inviting and bright it is and the cheese counter looks fantastic. So yes, a proud day."
You're an established name, and have moved from 2 doors away, why move up here?
"It's all part of the refurbishment of the Market Hall, it is still going ahead - the Council have guaranteed that, it's just been delayed because the contractors were over budget, the Council couldn't afford that so, for the good of the people, the Council have gone back to find another contractor that can come in under budget. They've been told that that's the budget and that's what it should be.
"We've moved up here - we had to move as I ordered some new fridges - £20,000 worth - back in December when we were going to redevelop in February, so come December they delayed it. My fridges turned up in February so I was like 'what do I do with these blinkin' fridges?'
"I talked to the council, they were very helpful and we've moved early and I'm very proud of it. We're a bit nearer the centre of town and it's just what we needed to do. We've been in the other shop for 32 years and it's something we needed to do, bring ourselves into the 21st century and move on."
It's much bigger, more space isn't there?
"Yes we wanted to have more light, all state of the art LED lights. We want to sell local beer and do wholesale. I get a lot of people asking about supplying them but we didn't have the space in the other shop for storage. This gives us the space to do it but there's a lot of hard work ahead - I realise that."
You're a local lad, a familiar face in the town, it's lovely to see a local business grow in these difficult times?
"We're hanging in there, I see Chesterfield as a fantastic town. In my early years I was away from Chesterfield for a while, in the Army and I always thought Chesterfield was a dingy, back end town, but you realise really it's not, it's a fantastic place to be - you come back and think 'wow! what a town we've got here!' It's expanding all the time and there's something to be proud of, The Crooked Spire and the Market Hall and it's something, that in the future, with the developments that are coming, we're going to do well."
And there were a few surprises weren't there during the renovation?
"Yes, myself and my electrical air conditioning bloke Geoff Parker gutted the shop ourselves, we actually manned the pick axes and sledgehammers and we got to work. We took the walls back to the brickwork, back to he electric fuse box.
"The ceilings were lower and when we actually pulled the ceiling down, there was a board over the front of the shop. Under that was a headstone (above), we realised then this was one of the windows to the Market Hall originally and the headstone says 'Geo Thompson - builder'and it is engraved 'Davies and Tew Architects'. That was a fantastic find and we've made the heritage people aware of that - a great centre piece for the shop."
And there are plans for the future, as Simon revealed, "For many years, I've been thinking of things to do and last year, I had word on the cheese grapevine that there was to be a new dairy starting at Hartington, a sort of 'phoenix from the ashes' from the old Creamery.
"I knew one of the gentlemen who was part of it and I was very lucky, as I got a call in January from him and I knew what it was about and my heart was racing!
"Five people had gone into business together to build this creamery and then one of these had pulled out, so would I like to go in and that would benefit them.
"I had a look and they have loads of equipment. So, at the moment we are really busy literally building it. I'm up there 3 days a week, making tea and coffee and sweeping the floor and mixing concrete - all things I've never done before. We've got two full time builders there and me and the other Directors are up there doing what we can. We're a couple of months away, hopefully at the end of July we hope to start producing.
"At the end of September we hope to be selling our own Blue Stilton. We are also going to do other cheeses too, a Pike Hall Blue and a Pike Hall White as it's Pike Hall where the dairy is."
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