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market town and unparished area in Derbyshire, England
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Chesterfield is a market and industrial town in the county of Derbyshire, England. It is 24 miles (39 km) north of Derby and 11 miles (18 km) south of Sheffield at the confluence of the Rivers Rother and Hipper. The wider Borough of Chesterfield had a population of 103,569 in the 2021 Census. The town itself had a population of 76,402.
It has been traced to a transitory Roman fort dated to approximately AD 80-100. The name of the later Anglo-Saxon village comes from the Old English ceaster (Roman fort) and feld (pasture). It has a sizeable street market three days a week. The town sits on an old coalfield, but little visual evidence of mining remains since the closure of the final town centre mine nicknamed "The Green Room". The main landmark is the crooked spire of the Church of St Mary and All Saints.
Chesterfield was in the Hundred of Scarsdale. The town received its market charter in 1204 from King John, which constituted the town as a free borough, granting the burgesses of Chesterfield the privileges of those of Nottingham and Derby. In 1266, the Battle of Chesterfield saw a band of rebel barons defeated by a royalist army.
Elizabeth I granted a charter in either 1594 or 1598, creating a corporation of a mayor, six aldermen, six brethren, and twelve capital burgesses. This remained its charter until the borough was reshaped under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. It originally consisted only of the township of Chesterfield but absorbed some surrounding townships in 1892. There was a major extension when the borough absorbed New Whittington and Newbold urban district in 1920. Chesterfield's current boundaries date from 1 April 1974, when the Borough of Chesterfield was formed under the Local Government Act 1972 by amalgamating the municipal borough of Chesterfield, the urban district of Staveley and the parish of Brimington from Chesterfield Rural District.
Chesterfield benefitted much from the building of the Chesterfield Line – part of the Derby to Leeds railway (North Midland Line) begun in 1837 by George Stephenson. During the work, a sizeable seam of coal was discovered while the Clay Cross Tunnel was constructed. George then founded the Clay Cross company producing coal, iron ore, and limestone.
During his time in Chesterfield, Stephenson lived at Tapton House, remaining there until his death in 1848. He is interred in Trinity Church. A statue of him was erected outside Chesterfield railway station in 2006.
The population in 1841 was 6,212 inhabitants.
Local government in Chesterfield has a two-tier structure. At the upper tier of services such as consumer protection, education, main roads and social services is provided by Derbyshire County Council. At the lower tier, housing, planning, refuse collection and burial grounds are provided by Chesterfield Borough Council. There are two civil parishes in the borough, Brimington and Staveley.
Derbyshire County Council has 64 county councillors and Chesterfield Borough Council 40 local councillors, both elected every four years.
The borough council uses armorial bearings originally granted to the previous borough corporation by letters patent dated 10 November 1955. The blazon of the arms is as follows:
Gules a Device representing a Pomegranate Tree as depicted on the ancient Common Seal of the Borough the tree leaved and eradicated proper flowered and fructed Or and for the Crest on a Wreath of the Colours Issuant from a Mural Crown Gules Masoned Or a Mount Vert thereon a Derby Ram passant guardant proper. Supporters: On the dexter side a Cock and on the sinister side a Pynot or Magpie proper each Ducally gorged Or
The shield is based on the borough's ancient common seal, believed to date from the earlier 16th century. The seal depicts a stylised pomegranate tree. When the arms were formally granted, the College of Arms expressed the view that the plant had been adopted by the town as a symbol of loyalty to the crown, as it had been a royal badge used by Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, and Mary Tudor. The crest depicts a Derby Ram, representing the county of Derbyshire, and a mural crown, suggestive of a town wall and thus borough status. The supporters represent the Cock and Pynot Inn, Old Whittington. The now Cock and Magpie Inn (53°16'13.1"N 1°25'34.3"W) is next to Revolution House, which was the site of a meeting between conspirators against James II in 1688. Among those meeting there were the Earl of Danby and Devonshire, marked by ducal crowns round the supporters' necks. The two birds stand on a compartment of rocks and moorland. The motto is "Aspire", a punning reference to the crooked spire of the parish church.
In March 2016 the borough council began a bid to join the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, which was due to receive devolved powers. Derbyshire County Council opposed this and sought legal advice. In June 2017 Chesterfield Council withdrew its application, but is now a non-constituent partner.
Chesterfield lies at the confluence of the River Rother and River Hipper at the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield, in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is sometimes described as the "Gateway to the Peak", with the Peak District National Park to the west of the town.
Nearby areas of the South and West Yorkshire Green Belt can serve to block urban sprawl. Other local greenfield frameworks include "strategic gaps" to maintain the openness and landscape qualities of large open areas, and "green wedges" penetrating urban areas with recreational facilities.
The wider Chesterfield Urban Area had a population of 112,664 at the 2021 Census, this included the town of Chesterfield along with its surrounding suburbs and the outlying villages and towns of Wingerworth, Staveley, Cutthorpe and Holymoorside.
Chesterfield is part of the Chesterfield constituency; the Member of Parliament (MP) is Toby Perkins (Labour). The local council for Chesterfield is Chesterfield Borough Council.
Since the cessation of coal mining, the economy around Chesterfield has undergone major change. The employment base has moved from the primary and secondary sectors towards the tertiary. The area sits on an old, large coalfield which had many collieries, including those in outlying areas which were historically part of Chesterfield Rural District: Clay Cross, Arkwright Town, Bolsover, Grassmoor, North Wingfield and Holmewood.
Between 1981 and 2002, 15,000 jobs in the coal industry were lost and all collieries closed, although open cast mining took place at Arkwright Town for a few years from November 1993. Many mine sites were restored by a contractor for Derbyshire County Council. Little evidence of mining remains. A cyclists' and walkers' route, the "Five Pits Trail", links some former mines; most are now indistinguishable from the surrounding countryside.
In the town, large factories and major employers have disappeared or relocated. Markham & Co. manufactured tunnel boring machines such as the one used for the Channel Tunnel. It was bought out by Norway's Kvaerner and later merged with Sheffield-based Davy. Its factory on Hollis Lane is now a housing estate; the former offices were turned into flats and serviced office suites. Dema Glass's factory near Lockoford Lane closed; the site is now host to a Tesco supermarket and the Proact Stadium, the home of Chesterfield Football Club. GKN closed its factory and the site is being turned into a business park.
Other companies have downsized sharply. Robinson's, makers of paper-based packaging, divested its health-care interests, which led to a marked fall in the workforce and facilities in Chesterfield. Trebor, once based on Brimington Road near Chesterfield railway station, merged with Bassetts sweets of Sheffield, was later taken over by Cadbury and relocated to a modern unit at Holmewood business park. The earlier factory site is now developed as part of a mixed residential and commercial site.
Manufacturing employment has fallen by a third since 1991, though the proportion of employees in manufacturing is still above the national average. Today, smaller firms are found on several industrial estates, the largest being at Sheepbridge. Business located on the estate includes SIG plc subsidiary Warren Insulations, Franke Sisons Ltd (founded in 1784 in Sheffield and among the first to manufacture stainless steel kitchen sinks in the 1930s), Rhodes Group and Chesterfield Felt.
Between the A61 and Brimington Road, there is a 40-acre (160,000 m2) development site resulting from Arnold Laver relocating to a modern sawmill at Halfway, near Sheffield. The former sawmill has been demolished, and is now a mixed residential and commercial development called Chesterfield Waterside.
There is a Morrisons on the junction of Chatsworth Road (A619) and Walton Road (A632), a Sainsburys on Rother Way (A619 for Staveley), and a Tesco Extra on the junction of the A619 and A61 (known locally as Tesco Roundabout). The Institute of Business Advisers is based on Queen Street North. Chesterfield Royal Hospital is on the A632 towards Calow and Bolsover. It has the only accident and emergency department in Derbyshire outside Derby.
The Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Branch of the RSPCA is located in the town, and serves the North East Derbyshire area.
The Royal Mail's Pensions Service Centre is near the town in Boythorpe Road, in Rowland Hill House, which also serves other administrative functions. There is a Post Office Ltd building in the town at West Bars called Future Walk. Formerly this was Chetwynd House, now demolished and replaced by the new building.
The town centre of Chesterfield has retained much of its pre-war plan. Chesterfield Market is one of the largest open-air markets in Britain, the stalls sitting either side of the Market Hall. In the middle of town, a collection of narrow medieval streets makes up The Shambles, which houses the Royal Oak, one of Britain's oldest pubs.
Near Holywell Cross is what was (until 2013) Chesterfield's largest department store, the Co-operative or Co-op. The main building opened in 1938, and now occupies the majority of Elder Way, including an enclosed bridge, and part of Knifesmithgate. Here the façade is in the mock-Tudor style fashionable in the 1930s, which still dominates the north side of Knifesmithgate. In 2001, the Chesterfield and District Co-operative Society was incorporated into a larger regional Midlands Co-operative Society Limited, now the biggest independent retail society in the UK. Owing to a decline in retail sales, the large home and fashion Co-op department store closed at the end of July 2013, The area has had some redevelopment with a Premier Inn and retail stores now open.
In the late 1970s the area between Low Pavement (in the Market Square) and New Beetwell Street was redeveloped to build "The Pavements" Shopping Centre, known by some as The Precinct. The existing buildings were demolished except for the façades on Lower Pavement. The shopping centre was opened in November 1981 by the Prince and Princess of Wales. It has entrances opposite Chesterfield Market and escalators leading down to New Beetwell St and the bus station. An enclosed bridge links the site to a multi-storey car park built at the same time, adjacent to the town's coach station.
Chesterfield's multi-storey library stands just outside The Pavements in New Beetwell St. The building was opened in 1985. In annual figures compiled by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy it ranked fifth in the UK for number of loans in 2008, rising one place on the previous year. The area beside the library was redeveloped, but retains the old narrow passageways while accommodating small shop units and offices.
On 27 June 2007, the Somerfield store in the Precinct was gutted in a fire in which the roof collapsed, a few shoppers suffering minor injuries. The fire reportedly started after a welding torch being used to repair flood damage had been left ignited. It started at 13:10 on 27 June and was not extinguished until 23:30 that day. After the fire, Somerfield decided to cease trading in Chesterfield. The unit re-opened in September 2008 as a Tesco Metro store.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Chesterfield, Derbyshire”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.