The civic society’s latest blue plaque marks the birthplace of organised walking football – at Chesterfield Football Club’s stadium.

The blue plaque was unveiled in a ceremony at the SMH Group Stadium on Wednesday 17 July 2024. The plaque is situated on the exterior of the East Stand, near the Chesterfield FC Community Trust’s facility – ‘The Hub’. For it is the Trust which introduced walking football – the fastest growing sport in the world.

The club – nicknamed ‘The Spireites’ – hosted the first Walking Football Association European Championship in 2019 and the International Walking Football Federation World Championship in 2024.

Chesterfield FC Community Trust CEO John Croot is credited as the inventor of walking football. He attended the ceremony, along with senior walking football figures and members of the civic society.

Civic society chairman Howard Borrell comments; ‘We are pleased to have assisted the club’s community trust in commemorating the birth of walking football, which is playing a positive role in so many people’s lives, not just in Chesterfield but across the globe.’

The plaque at Chesterfield football club has been generously sponsored by the club’s community trust.

The society has one new plaque to unveil on 23 July at the Portland Hotel – commemorating the hotel and the one time adjacent Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway station. A replacement plaque on North Midland House, a building just outside Chesterfield Railway Station, will also be fitted in the next few days – both paid for by East Midlands Railway Community Trust.