Watch: Our town through time - a brief history of Chesterfield's original Royal Hospital

In this 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.

Museum records show the institution that would be become Chesterfield Royal opened in a tiny house on St Mary’s Gate, opposite the Crooked Spire church, on June 12, 1854.

With space for just ten patients at a time and poor ventilation to manage the spread of germs, it soon became apparent that a bigger and better facility was needed.

The site of Durrant Hall – the former home of a prosperous merchant family at the corner of Holywell Street and Durrant Road – was purchased from the Duke of Devonshire for £100, and the house demolished.

Before the creation of the NHS, healthcare provision was patchy at best for most people, so on the day the foundation stone was laid for their new hospital, local shops closed and the community celebrated with a parade.

From around 600 patients in 1860, demand continued to grow and the hospital complex developed thanks to contributions from collieries, manufacturers and rail companies where workers agreed to a deduction of up to a penny a week.

Many of the original hospital ward names are still in use today, named after some of the wealthier early donors, such as Eastwood, Markham, Manvers, Staveley, Murphy and Barnes. In 1919, King George V gave permission for the hospital to use the word Royal in its name.

Many of the later structures on the site are now long gone but the original hospital still stands as a testament to a town that cared for one another.

Philip said: “This is the original building, from 1859, of what became Chesterfield North Derbyshire Royal Hospital.

“Chesterfield didn’t get a hospital until the 1850s, apart from the infirmary attached to the workhouse, built in 1840, which was on Newbold Road and ended its days as Scarsdale Hospital.

“The Royal Hospital was a voluntary hospital until 1948. This building closed in 1984 when the hospital moved to the present site in Calow. The building has since been converted to corporate offices, which is what it remains today.”