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Chesterfield Leasing

Did You Know?

This is Chesterfield's oldest pub, The Royal Oak, in the Shambles. Parts of the building are said to date back to the 12th century and it is thought to have once been a rest house of the Knights Templar, a military order who made their name during the crusades in Jerusalem.

In Medieval Chesterfield workers of one type usually lived in one street. So knife smiths lived in knife smith. Glumangate was where the minstrels lived. (Gluman or gleeman was an old word for minstrel). The street name ‘gate’ is from the old Danish word ‘gata’ meaning street. It has nothing to do with gates in a wall. Saltergate was the gata or street where salt was bought from Cheshire.

In the 16th century the wool industry continued in Chesterfield but in the 17th century it declined. However leatherworking continued to prosper throughout this period and in the 18th century, there was an important brewing industry in Chesterfield. However, it remained a quiet market town.

Granted, the Visitor information centre sits in the shadow of the crooked spire, the town football club’s nickname is the Spireites, and the motto on Chesterfield’s coat of arms is the punningly clever Aspire. However, a closer look at that coat of arms will reveal other reasons to visit this area.

The Elizabethan charter is kept at Chesterfield museum another reason to visit. The shield on the coat of arms is a pomegranate tree, adopted by the town as a symbol of loyalty to the crown. This alludes to a further attraction: the Pomegranate Theatre, the oldest civic theatre in the country.

The cock and magpie (pynot in local speech) either side of the shield is a reference to the local pub the Cock and Pynot where, in the late 17th century, three noblemen plotted what became known as The Glorious Revolution. That hostelry, now Revolution House.

Before you start planning your visit, let me advise you to avoid Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays, otherwise you’ll miss out on arguably Chesterfield’s main attraction: its age-old market in the beating heart of the town which continues to prosper under the watchful gaze of the handsome Victorian Market Hall.

Remarkably, Renishaw Hall is one of five stately homes within a ten-mile radius of Chesterfield, the other four being Chatsworth, Haddon, Hardwick and Sutton Scarsdale Hall. Bolsover Castle, too, is less than six miles away.

You couldn't possibly imagine this happening today, but in 1266, the Lord of Chesterfield and the Earl of Derby fought with royalist forces, who used wagons to smash their way into the town. Blood was spilled and the royalists won the battle.