Chesterfield & District Local History SocietyWe hope you have a good Christmas and New Year. Please note that we don’t meet in December or January. Our next meeting will be on Monday February 17th 2025. This meeting will be our AGM followed by Jamie Mather, who will be speaking about ‘Wingerworth Stone Sawmill: How archaeology revealed a forgotten local industry’. This was […]
We are sorry that we are currently only able to update this website intermittently. Please see our Facebook page for current news from the society
Our latest newsletter is available to download via this post – below.
Our Chairman David McPhie writes. Last year I did an illustrated talk for CADLHS on ‘100 Years of Chesterfield Music,’ but quite seriously over-ran my allotted time span, covering the early Dance Band years of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, the Queens Park Hotel Folk Clubs during both Roger Buck and Graham Blankley’s eras, my […]
We are very sorry to report the death of David Howes, aged 84, which occurred at the beginning of August. David was a great supporter of CADLHS. A frequent speaker at our meetings until a few years ago, he will be remembered for his knowledge, particularly relating to shops and businesses of old Chesterfield. He […]
Our latest newsletter is available by clicking on the download button below – on this post. This edition includes an article by Graham Baldwin, where he remembers the service given to residents in Chesterfield up to the late 1960s on refuse disposal. ‘Anyone born before 1960 will remember “Dustbin” but how many will really know […]
We had a great time at the Festival of Archaeology day on Sunday 28 July at Hardwick Hall. Our exhibition stand was about Roman Chesterfield. Compiled by Janet Murphy, it highlighted just some of the archaeological excavations carried out around the town centre, but how a really coherent study of these is still awaited. Some […]
In this post we highlight the end of an era for coal by rail through Chesterfield which occurred in late June 2024. In a September 2023 post we highlighted the probable end of the transportation of coal for power generation along the Midland Mainline. Now that has actually occurred, with a journey from Doncaster to […]
Our latest Cestrefeld Journal (number 9) has just been published. It contains the usual varied content (see front cover photo below) and it’s priced at £6 (£3 for members) for 38 pages. You can pick up a copy at our meetings or contact us on how to obtain a copy by post – secretary@cadlhs.org.uk.
In this post we take a look at a largely and perhaps surprisingly unmarked event – the great changes to local government across England and Wales which occurred on 1 April 1974. We’ll focus particularly on the Chesterfield area. The pattern of local government Until April 1974 the pattern of local government in England had […]
In this post we look at the history the former courthouse near the railway station, on Brimington Road and Malkin Street, which is currently (28 January 2024) being demolished. The building is to be replaced by a temporary car park until some form of firm proposals are developed for its replacement. Latterly part used by […]
One of our recent newsletters focusses on George Yeldham Ricketts (who was later known as George Yeldham Wilkinson) and his part in the history of the Tapton House estate. Think of Tapton House and most people are aware of George Stephenson and the Markham family but fewer know about Ricketts. Now, thanks to new research, […]
Our picture here shows a once common commodity – a humble coal train – passing through Chesterfield railway station on 18 November 2006. But what future is there for this once common commodity? A short news article in September 2023’s Modern Railways magazine puts the decline of coal into some context, with the comment ‘…the […]
At one time the bane of railway enthusiasts but generally loved by the travelling public, the end is in sight for timetabled Inter-City 125/High Speed Train sets on regular public services passing though or calling at Chesterfield. First introduced on the north-east/south-west (Cross-Country) route through Chesterfield in September 1981 – their last timetabled trains look […]
Our ‘Chronology of Chesterfield’s History’ has received the first part of a make-over designed to make it easier to access, contain additional information and be more accurate. Read about these developments in this blog. Changes The chronology now comprises an introduction with separate date range pages. These comprise: Background to the changes Explains CADLHS Chairman […]
Just prior to the First World War, the ‘Chesterfield Yearbook and Directory’ for 1913 published a brief review of industry in the Chesterfield area. Though by no means a complete list, it does summarise just what manufacturing could be found in the area during this period. IMPORTANT WORKS. Messrs. Robinson and Sons, Wheatbridge Mills. Manufacturers […]
Here’s a small scrap of Chesterfield’s history, courtesy of our secretary. It really is just a scrap of paper, probably simply an advertising flyer designed be given to a recently bereaved family planning a loved one’s commemoration. Notice the inscription; ‘sacred to the memory of a departed friend’. There’s a matching verse at the bottom […]
Our new Cestrefeld Journal has been published and is now available. Find out more about what’s in our eighth edition in this post. We’ve a varied series of articles in our Cestrefeld Journal number 8 (for 2023). Ranging from Harry Launder’s connection with Chesterfield, Whittington glass, Chesterfield Congregational Church history to the Slack family, those […]
Chesterfield’s Remarkable Women by Janet Murphy tells the stories of 50 women who have links with Chesterfield. It’s still available, priced at £8.50, all proceeds from sales will go to Ashgate HospiceCare. Published by Bannister Publications it is available from them either over the counter or online, or from Chesterfield Visitor Centre, Ashgate Hospicecare shop […]
Paul Allonby has very kindly sent us the results of his research on New Whittington’s Harry Young. We’ve published this on our Facebook page and placed it in our ‘History Resources’ section on this website, where you can download this sad story. You can also download it as a pdf from the bottom of this […]
Our colleagues over at the Chesterfield & District Civic Society have been looking at the history of Dunston Hall, as part of a planning application response. Part of the out-buildings, the subject of the application, comprise a number of cruck frames – a type of timber construction. The civic society concludes that: ‘the survival of […]
You may well know that David McPhie – our society chair – has wide-ranging interests including music. You might also know that he published a book ‘Sounds in the shadow of the Crooked Spire’ with Ian Lee in 2018. But in case you don’t know all this – a reminder that a few copies are […]
Our July 2022 meeting heard about how the Avenue Carbonisation and Chemical Plant, Wingerworth, was decontaminated in the 2000s. As a background this post looks at the opening of the works in the 1950s, through to closure and decontamination. A slightly edited version of this account is available to download as pdf form the page […]
David McPhie As a child, I travelled the length and breadth of the northern half of the extensive railway system of the time in my pursuit of engine numbers (a pastime frequently known quite derisively as trainspotting). However, my more mundane everyday outings were reserved for Chesterfield itself, either from one of the three stations […]
As we gear up (or perhaps start to relax(?)) for the Christmas period we thought a brief look at how things were 60 years ago, in December 1962, might be of some interest. This is courtesy of that once well-loved Chesterfield institution, the yearly TP Wood’s Almanac. Time to get your almanac It’s around this […]
Can you help Ben Hawkins in his restoration of an Ernest Shentall lorry of 1914? In 2008 Ben, from the Birmingham area, purchased a Dennis chassis from Mick Giles (another Dennis enthusiast). The chassis is stamped number 3539; revealing it was supplied to Ernest Shentall of Chesterfield for his wholesale fruit business. The lorry – […]
We think that these three photographs were taken during reconstruction of the former Midland Railway’s Horns Bridge structure in 1932, though we’d welcome your comments. We don’t know who the young lad is, being watched by the railway worker above, in our second photograph, but the third photograph gives a view, from the track of […]
We’ve published a new historical trail of the town centre. You can download this two-sided full-colour A4 leaflet at the bottom of this post and via the page we’ve created, accessible by our menu above – ‘Town walking trails’ Written by our Vice-Chair Janet Murphy and designed by CADLHS member David Charlesworth, the new trail […]