DISCOVER CHESTERFIELD, Derbyshire

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

. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. It is Derbyshire's largest town, although the county town of Derbyshire is Matlock in the Derbyshire Dales.

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

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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 remained there until his death in 1848. He is interred 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 twelve 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-shoed the Devil, who leaped over the spire in pain, knocking it out of shape.

A new landmark is being erected on the outskirts of the town - the Solar Pyramid, which will be built by the side of the M1 at Poolsbrook.

Chesterfield's current boundaries date from April 1, 1974, when under the Local Government Act 1972, Chesterfield took in the urban district of Staveley and the parish of Brimington from Chesterfield Rural District.

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


ENTERTAINMENT AND LEISURE IN CHESTERFIELD

• 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.
  
  
• 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 and it now plays host to major brands, such as Woolworths, BHS and Argos [5]. It is located near the crooked spire.
  
  
• 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", with larger shops including Somerfield and Boots. 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, at yet another exit that is next to McDonald's with steps leading down to New Beetwell Street. The library spans several floors and was built as part of the development.
  
  
• Town Centre: Despite all the aforementioned development, 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 Chesterfields 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.
  
  
• 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 infamous "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.
  
  
• 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. Famous acts to appear of late include Ricky Tomlinson and Patrick McGuinness.
  
  "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.

TRANSPORTATION

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.

Stagecoach plc are the predominant operator of buses, the only other significant operators are TM Travel and Trent Barton. A new coach station was recently built, with services provided by Megabus and National Express. The Stagecoach depot at Stonegravels is notable for its size and many vehicles stored there are not in regular use. Several firms operate taxi services.

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


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. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) hosted the event with interest from brewers of gluten free beer from all parts of the globe.


From Wikipedia.org

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