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:
- A new introduction and background to the the chronology section of the website, including sources used in its preparation.
- 1 – Early History to 1599. This section has been thoroughly revised. For the first time in the chronology it presents an accurate picture of the development of Roman Chesterfield, the church and the sequence of events leading up to the granting of the borough charter of 1598.
- 2 – 1600 to 1799. A section updated in March 2023, but on which work is progressing ‘behind the scenes’ towards a more thorough revision.
- 3 – 1800 to 1899. Another section updated in March 2023, currently the subject of revision.
- 4 – 1900 to 1999. The final section on which revisions are in progress.
- 5 – 2000 onwards. This section is not substantially populated. At some stage in the future we hope to add more recent events from the year 2000 onwards, but we do not currently have work in progress on this.
Background to the changes
Explains CADLHS Chairman David McPhie; ‘Since the demise of TP Wood’s Almanac in the early 1960s our website has been the only source of a chronology of Chesterfield’s history. We thought it was due an overhaul but when this started we found that some of it, particularly the early history, was out-dated and used old information. Though we did carry out some revisions, including adding illustrations, the whole thing also became unwieldy. So we started work on a revamp, the first part of which we have recently launched.’
‘As the revamp progresses we hope it will become an increasingly reliable resource for those wanting to start their exploration of the town’s history and a useful overview of how Chesterfield developed.’
‘I’d particularly like to thank our webmaster, who has led the project so far, to Janet Murphy and particularly to Philip Riden who has ‘fact checked’ the first part of our newly revised and launched chronology – that up to 1599.’
The chronology was first developed in the 2010s as part of work on the then new CADLHS website. Since 2022 the website has seen some changes, with more to come.
More website developments to come
The chronology will have further page revisions launched in the coming months. An entirely new section, largely curated by David McPhie, focussing on the dance band era in the town, is also under development.
The CADLHS website currently includes access to a wide variety of free local history resources, including walking trails, newsletters, old photographs and other local history information. All this can be accessed from the home page at www.cadlhs.org.uk/