Residents and visitors will be connected with town’s history.

Locations and designs for five sculptures on a new heritage arts trail in Chesterfield have been unveiled in a planning application.

The trail - which has been awarded almost £80,000 from The National Lottery Fund - will feature three freestanding sculptures and two wall-based sculptures. These are proposed for: Northern Gateway enterprise centre (in soft landscaping), corner of Corporation Street (in front of 1435 Chesterfield Theatre), Burlington Street (embedded into future public realm development scheme - Play on the Way), The Shambles (top of Irongate wall) and the Market Hall (rear corner wall).

Innovation is the theme of the artwork for the Northern Gateway enterprise centre where the sculpture will represent the form of an industrial valve manufactured by Bryan Donkin, with the lasercut detail in the centre of the valve shape will reference the Markham & Co Tunnelling Equipment used to build the Channel Tunnel.

The sculpture at the corner of Corporation Street will incorporate a trumpet to represent Chesterfield jazz icon Al Needham who was resident at the Victoria Ballroom on Knifesmithgate for eight years.

Burlington Street’s sculpture will invite the viewer to place their head in the frame to become the ‘people of Chesterfield’. The sculpture has been designed to enable a wheelchair user to interact as well as a child and average height adult. This artwork will be incorporated into the future ‘Play on the Way’ public realm development scheme due to be implemented in 2027.

The artwork proposed for the top of Irongate is themed sports and leisure and inspired by the Weaver’s Tug of War Championship in 1890s featuring a rope as the central element. From this bunting flags hang which will incorporate lasercut detail referencing imagery of: swimming, walking football, dancing, the Cuckoo Boat on Chesterfield Canal, a horse for historic Chesterfield Races, Queens Park cricket, Chesterfield Observatory and the tug of war from 1970s sports days.

Celebration and gatherings will be represented by the artwork proposed for the corner of the Market Hall. This wraparound design takes inspiration from medieval bunting/historic parade banners and bunting flags will incorporate lasercut detail: trade union banners (representing the May Day gala), musicians from parades, the fairground and observation wheel, and elephants from when the travelling circus came to town in 1899.

All five sculptures are inspired by the shape of the pomegranate which features in the town’s crest. The sculptures, designed by Sculpture Works of Wirksworth, will be made of corten steel and stainless steel.

Charlotte Land, community engagement and interpretation consultant, has collaborated with the designers on the sculptures following her extensive engagement workshops with schools and community groups to develop themes for the trail that reflect Chesterfield’s lesser known heritage.

The planning application for the artwork on the corner of Market Hall has been submitted by Chesterfield Borough Council to its own authority for a decision.

Plans for A Sense of Chesterfield heritage art trail were announced in 2025. Community organisations such as Chesterfield Civic Society, Chesterfield and District Local History Society, Chesterfield Canal Trust and Derbyshire Victoria County History have worked together to develop the project.