Looking back at Chesterfield's history with historian Philip Riden
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00:00Hello, I'm Philip Ryden. I'm the editor of the Victoria County History in Derbyshire,
00:05and I have a long-standing interest in the history of Chesterfield, my hometown.
00:09I've been asked to say something about some of the more interesting buildings in the town centre.
00:14I'm standing here in the garden of Eldiard Chapel. This is the oldest non-conformance place of worship
00:19in Chesterfield, built in 1694. There used to be a Quaker meeting house just a few yards away
00:25on Saltergate, whose site is now occupied by the multi-storey car park. This chapel on Eldiard
00:32was built by a dissenting congregation who later divided into Independents and Presbyterians.
00:39They both went their separate ways, although both denominations are still represented in
00:43Chesterfield, and this chapel was taken over in the early 19th century by the Unitarian Church,
00:48who still worship here. In the 1820s, a two-storey school building was added on the Saltergate
00:55frontage of the property, but the meeting house itself remains relatively unaltered as a very
01:00nice example of the first generation of dissenting meeting houses in towns like Chesterfield.
01:06Here in Saltergate, behind me, you can see the big Wesleyan Methodist Church of 1871. This isn't the
01:14first Methodist Church in Chesterfield, but since the 1870s it's been the central Methodist Church,
01:19the first the Wesleyans and now the United Methodist Church. It's a classical building,
01:26whereas the majority of chapels in Chesterfield are Gothic rather than classical. It's still in use for
01:32worship today. Behind me is the Primitive Methodist Church of 1881. Like the Wesleyan Methodist Church
01:39on the other side of the donut roundabout, it's the successor to several smaller buildings dating from
01:45the earlier 19th century. It makes a contrast with the Wesleyan Building, whereas that's
01:50a classical stone-fronted building. This is Gothic built in brick with some stone decorations. It was
01:57closed many years ago, has been used for various things and has now been empty for several years,
02:02awaiting somebody to find a new use for it.