Watch: Our town through time - a brief history of Chesterfield's chapels and churches

In this new short series, we asked the respected local historian Philip Riden to pick out some of the town’s heritage hotspots and share his insights on how the Chesterfield of today was built brick by brick.

Among the cobbled streets stand three buildings which illustrate how the beliefs and customs of the townspeople changed over the centuries and branched away from the established Church of England.

Elder Yard Chapel, 1964

“This is the oldest Nonconformist place of worship in Chesterfield, built in 1694. There used to be a Quaker meeting house just a few yards away on Saltergate, whose site is now occupied by the multi-storey car park. This chapel on Elder Yard, was built by a dissenting congregation who later divided into Independents and Presbyterians. They both went their separate ways, although both denominations are still represented in Chesterfield, and this chapel was taken over in the early 19th century by the Unitarian Church, who still worship here. In the 1820s, a two-storey school building was added on the Saltergate frontage of the property but the meeting house itself remains relatively unaltered as a very nice example of the first generation dissenting meeting houses in towns like Chesterfield.”

Wesleyan Methodist Church, 1871

“This isn't the first Methodist Church in Chesterfield, but since the 1870s it’s been the Central Methodist Church for first the Wesleyans are now the United Methodist Church. It’s a classical building, whereas a majority of chapels in Chesterfield are Gothic rather than classical. It’s still in use for worship today.”

Primitive Methodist Church, 1881

“Like the Wesleyan Methodist Church, on the other side of the donut roundabout, it’s the successor to several smaller buildings dating from the earlier 19th century. It makes a contrast with the Wesleyan building. Whereas that’s a classical stone-fronted building this is Gothic, built in bricks with some stone decorations. It was closed many years ago, has been used for various things, and has now been empty for several years, awaiting somebody to find a new use for it.”