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Second plaque marks Portland Hotel and former station
Chesterfield and District Civic Society’s second plaque to be unveiled in July marks the Portland Hotel and the adjacent, but 1973 demolished, Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway Station. The latest in the society’s blue plaque series was unveiled on 23 July by Wetherspoon’s area manager Joe Argyle, with the society’s chairman Howard Borrell. The…
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Views expressed on new powers to help combat empty high street shops
Our Chairman, Howard Borrell, has contributed to an article in the Derbyshire Times, which looks at the possible opportunities and downsides of a new power for local authorities, designed to combat high street vacancies. High Street Rental Auctions is designed to help them to take control of empty properties, renting them out to local businesses.…
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Town trails available
We are sometimes asked if there is a trail available looking at Chesterfield town centre. We’re pleased to advise that there are, in fact, two and they can both be downloaded for free. One of our committee members, local historian Janet Murphy, has written two trails. One looks at Chesterfield’s black and white buildings, the…
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Successful 18 April members’ meeting
Chesterfield and wider area initiatives, issues, problems and opportunities were discussed with Chesterfield Borough Council’s Economic Development Chief, Neil Johnson, at our members’ meeting on 18 April. We’ll be circulating details of the discussion threads to our members in due course. We also received some suggestions about the future format of meetings such as this,…
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Member meeting on 18 April
At our member (and guests) meeting on Thursday 18 April Neil Johnson, Head of Economic Development at Chesterfield Borough Council, will be the speaker. Neil will be talking about current and planned developments in the borough. There will be a question and answer session following his presentation. It will also be a chance to have…
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Rethinking Chesterfield town centre
We’ve made available some of our thoughts on issues facing Chesterfield town centre. These were originally published in the run-up to a well-attended public meeting we held back in February 2023. We’ve slightly edited these, but think they still represent a good starting point on looking at and identifying the issues facing our town centre.…
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Visitor Information Centre set to close
The Society is very disappointed at the decision to close the Chesterfield Visitor Information Centre (VIC). We feel it is not clear how the supposed ‘digital’ delivery aimed at providing information in future will actually work. It can’t, for example, replace the availability of such things as hard copy leaflets that have been available at…
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Our latest Blue Plaque – 87 New Square
Information on our latest ‘blue plaque’ to be unveiled at 87 New Square, at the beginning of February. The latest in the Chesterfield and District Civic Society’s ‘blue plaques’ series has been kindly sponsored by Leverton UK Ltd. They are responsible for the restoration of the plaque’s destination – 87 New Square – and its…
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Plaque update – Portland plaque gets OK
We are delighted to have received approval from J.D. Wetherspoon, as owners of the Portland Hotel, to install a plaque to commemorate both the hotel and the adjoining Market Place station of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway. The Portland served in part as refreshment rooms for the new station. This will join a…
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Revitalising Chesterfield town centre
We are taking another look at the problems, issues and challenges our town centre in Chesterfield has in this post. ‘Revitalising the Heart of Chesterfield’ Several weeks ago the Civic Society was invited to take part in a walkover of the town centre as part of a scheme to improve the ‘public realm’ between the…
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