Town in Derbyshire, England
Chesterfield
Its church spire twists like a corkscrew, folklore blames the Devil, and the town's football team is named after it. Meet Chesterfield, gateway to the Peak District.
Key information
- County
- Derbyshire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- The Crooked Spire, its huge open-air market and George Stephenson's final years
- Famous people
- George Stephenson, Gordon Banks, James Brindley
About Chesterfield
The spire that went the wrong way
Chesterfield's most famous feature is a church spire that looks as if someone wrung it out like a wet towel. The spire of the Church of St Mary and All Saints rises about 228 feet (69 metres) and twists a full 45 degrees. It also leans roughly 9ft 6in (2.9 metres) away from true centre. It was added in the fourteenth century, and the likely culprits are practical ones. The builders used green, unseasoned timber and didn't brace it properly. Then the lead covering was fixed over it, and the sun's heat did the rest as the wood dried and warped. Folklore prefers a better story. One tale says the spire twisted in surprise the first time a virgin was married at the church. Another blames the Devil. Neither explains why the spire has stayed up for around 650 years, but both get told to every visitor.
A market older than most countries' constitutions
Chesterfield's market is recorded from 1165, and King John granted the town its market charter in 1204. Traders have been setting up in the town ever since. Its open-air market is among the biggest in England, with rows of stalls spread beneath the Crooked Spire. The Market Hall, a grand Victorian building from 1857, sits alongside it. The market still shapes the town centre's rhythm, with stallholders, bargain-hunters and the smell of hot food arriving on the same days they have for centuries. The name itself goes back further. Chesterfield grew up around a Roman fort, and the 'chester' part of the name is the old English word for just such a site.
The railway pioneer who retired to Chesterfield
George Stephenson, the engineer behind Rocket and the 'Father of the Railways', spent his last years at Tapton House on the edge of town. He had good reason to be in the area, because he'd been working on railways and coal there. He died in 1848 and is buried in Holy Trinity Church in Chesterfield. Earlier, the town had been part of another transport revolution. The Chesterfield Canal, surveyed by the great canal builder James Brindley, opened in 1777 and carried coal, lead, stone and iron out towards the River Trent. That industrial muscle is why Chesterfield grew from a market town into a working town of coal mining, engineering and ironworks.
The Spireites and the goal that never was
Chesterfield FC, founded in 1866, are known as the Spireites, naturally. They were among the earliest clubs in the country, and they played at Saltergate until moving to a new ground in 2010. The legendary England goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who won the 1966 World Cup, began his professional career with the club in the 1950s. But the club's most famous day came in 1997, when Chesterfield, then a third-tier side, reached the FA Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough. In the match, a Chesterfield shot hit the underside of the bar and bounced down. Many thought it had crossed the line, but no goal was given. The game finished 3-3, and Chesterfield lost the replay 3-0. It's still the closest a club from outside the top two divisions has come to an FA Cup final in modern times, and locals still debate the goal.
The house where a revolution was plotted
Just north of the town centre, at Old Whittington, stands the Revolution House. In 1688, local noblemen are said to have met at what was then an inn to plan the removal of James II, the plot that became the Glorious Revolution. Today the building is a small museum. The town also acts as the eastern doorway to the Peak District, with moorland, gritstone edges and stately houses within easy reach. Chatsworth lies a short drive to the west. And if the name Chesterfield makes you think of a leather sofa, the buttoned sofa takes its name from an Earl of Chesterfield. It's a different kind of fame to a twisted spire, but a similar sense of shape.