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The Chesterfield &
District branch covers an area of 280 square miles in
the North East of Derbyshire in a mainly rural location,
which includes parts of Britain's most beautiful and
most visited National Park - The Peak District.
West
of Chesterfield
Chesterfield and East
We carry the campaign
from Chesterfield to Cromford, Whitwell to Winster and
all points in between. Whether it’s just popping down to
the local, joining a trip organised by our tireless
socials team or delivering our bi-monthly ‘InnSpire’
magazine (a sort of paper round with ale), Chesterfield
& District Branch are out there, at the coal face of
supping, checking out the real ale scene.
There is a wide range of real ales available in the area
including a strong presence from regional breweries such
as Burtonwood, Wolverhampton & Dudley and Hardy &
Hansons of Kimberley. Smaller independent local
breweries that are also represented in the area include
Chesterfield's own Townes Brewery and Whim of
Hartington.
 Our
branch logo represents Chesterfield's famous landmark,
the Crooked Spire of St. Mary and All Saints church,
which stands proudly in the centre of the town. The
distortion of this eight-sided structure, which rises
228’ and leans 9’4” from its true centre point, has been
subject to superstition over the years. It is most
likely due to the fact that when it was being built in
1349 the Black Death hit the town. It is thought that
few skilled craftsmen survived that terrible plague that
knew how to season the wood. The survivors built the
spire out of green timber, which over the years has
distorted under the 32 tons of lead roof tiles!
An alternative explanation is the combination of the
heavy lead cladding, unseasoned timbers inside and
joiners who were probably most certainly over-seasoned
in the many hostelries which surround the church!
Superstitions are many and varied some saying it was the
devil that, pausing for a rest during one of his
flights, clung to the spire for a moment. Incense from
the church drifted upwards and the devil sneezed,
causing the spire to twist out of shape.
Chesterfield owes much of its prosperity during the
industrial age to the great railway engineer George
Stephenson. Opposite the crooked spire is the small but
appropriate Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery. Which
is home to exhibitions depicting the story of the town,
from the arrival of the Romans to the first days of the
market town, the industry of the 18th century and the
coming of the “father of the Railways” George
Stephenson.
You may be surprised to learn that Chesterfield is home
to one of the earliest canals in the country the
Chesterfield Canal. After the success of the Bridgewater
Canal in 1763, the businessmen of Chesterfield looked to
link the town with the River Trent via Worksop and
Retford in Nottinghamshire. Construction work began in
1771, just a year before its builder James Brindley died
whilst surveying the Caldon Canal. The biggest
engineering project along the length of the canal was
the Norwood Tunnel at some 2,850 yards long; it took 4
years to build. Opened in 1775, the tunnel was
subsequently closed in 1908 after some of the roof had
collapsed. The towpath of the canal is open to walkers
along the Cuckoo Walk, much of which is through quiet
secluded countryside. The Chesterfield Canal is
currently being renovated and reopened.
Background and
brief history of the Chesterfield Canal
 The
Chesterfield Canal was opened in 1777 and was 46 miles
in total from Chesterfield to West Stockwith on the
River Trent, via Staveley, Killamarsh, Worksop and
Retford. It has 66 locks ( the sixty-sixth only being
built in 1999!), and one major engineering feature which
is the 2880 yard Norwood Tunnel, whose collapse in 1907
severed the canal into two halves, effectively the
Derbyshire section (11 miles) being separated from the
section in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire (35 miles).
While much of the canal became derelict, the 26 mile
section from West Stockwith to Worksop was saved by the
campaigning of the Retford and Worksop Boat Club in the
1960s and has since been fully navigable. Most of the
canal in Derbyshire was sold off by British Waterways to
local landowners in the 1970s, although a significant
four mile section from Chesterfield to Staveley was
acquired by Derbyshire County Council in 1989.
Three miles out of Chesterfield on the main A61 is
Whittington where you will find the Revolution House.
During the 17th Century the building was an alehouse
called the Cock & Pynot (‘Pynot’ being the local dialect
word for magpie). It was here that three local noblemen
took shelter from a storm and planned the over throw of
James II in favour of William of Orange. The Glorious
Revolution took place later in the same year, November
1688 and it was in the year of its 250th anniversary
that this modest cottage was turned into a museum. This
tiny cottage with thatched roof, flower beds and garden
gate is open to the public and features period furniture
and changing programme of exhibitions. A new alehouse
was built behind the Cock & Pynot and is open today, the
Cock & Magpie.
Daniel Defoe, the 18th-century journalist and author of
works including Robinson Crusoe, toured the Peak on
horseback. He admired Bakewell but was unimpressed by
Matlock, writing that he had reached the town by a
‘base, stoney, mountainous road’. In Defoe’s opinion,
the Peak was ‘inhospitable’, ‘a howling wilderness’ and
‘the most desolate, wild and abandoned country in all
England’. On the other hand: ‘however rugged the hills
were, the vales were everywhere fruitful, well
inhabited, the markets well supplied, and the provisions
extraordinarily good; not forgetting the ale which
everywhere exceeded, if possible, what was passed, as if
the farther north the better the liquor’. He also
thought the peak mining folk the greatest wonder of the
Peak.
We hope you enjoy your visit and that you will find
something of interest.
This webpage was last updated on
Tuesday, 01 July 2008
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