Chesterfield

Chesterfield is a market town in northeastern Derbyshire, east of the Peak District. Its planned medieval market place grew west of the older settlement around the parish church. A royal charter in 1204 confirmed the town as a borough and gave its burgesses trading privileges; the market brought together people from the surrounding countryside.

The parish church of St Mary and All Saints has a distinctive twisted and leaning spire, probably completed in the fourteenth century. Between 1500 and 1800 Chesterfield prospered through commerce and crafts including leatherworking and brewing. Rebuilding changed its houses and workshops, but much of the medieval street pattern endured. In 1598 a new charter gave the town the right to elect a mayor, and Ralph Clarke became its first holder of the office.