Let's Go To Chesterfield

Neighbourhood know-how, people and places

- Liz Hall and David Marley

Despite being Derbyshire’s largest town – the population is around 104,400 and there’s lots of new housing on the outskirts – at its heart Chesterfield still feels like a friendly, welcoming market town. It has a distinctive character with unique sites to explore and is an immensely satisfying place to shop. The words ‘award-winning’ seem to recur, whether you’re talking about its park, shops, businesses, museum, market hall, four-star Casa Hotel or even ice cream. There are also plenty of superlatives linked to the town: largest parish church in the county (with twistiest spire), oldest civic theatre, oldest pub, biggest outdoor market, and so on.

Having its own railway station with excellent mainline services and great bus and road connections make it an easy place to get to and a popular stopping place for visitors to the Peak District, which is just 15 minutes away. We arrived via the less travelled but beautiful B6013 from Belper, which winds above the valley offering tantalising glimpses of stunning views before joining the A61. I always find the traffic islands on the outskirts of the town centre confusing, but that’s probably me, and it’s well worth persevering. Head for the centre and there are well-signposted car parks and two multi-storeys with reasonable charges.