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There are considerable doubts concerning the early days of Chesterfield FC, one of the oldest clubs in existence. These include the dates when they played at their two grounds (both just off Saltergate), their possible folding at one time, and the relation with neighbouring Spital Football Club. It’s all very confusing.

The formation of the club has been recorded as 1866 though concrete evidence exists only of a formation in 1867. A reconstitution occurred as Chesterfield Town in 1884 and a team went under this name until 1917, followed in 1919 by Chesterfield Municipal, with the reversion to plain Chesterfield a year later.  The early club played on several sites around then, including 2 fields just off Saltergate, it’s only ever permanent home. In the early days it was referred to as the Recreation Ground, which is still its official name, but any references to playing at Spital should be treated with scepticism.

The club’s original members played only friendly matches until 1891 when they turned professional and did not play any matches at all for a time around 1881. Anyway, in 1871 club issued a set of rules, still in existence today, drawn up by club President  John Cutts, a local solicitor and  town clerk, together with Mr C.W Rollinson who was Secretary and treasurer. They were the driving force behind the club at the time. In 1884 the club officially moved to the Recreation Ground, Saltergate which in those days was little more than a mowed, enclosed field with a small cover on the half way line on the Compton Street side.

In the 1892-93 season, Chesterfield’s first team sported a most unusual outfit of patriotic shirts with a large Union Flag (did you know it should only be called a “Union Jack” when it’s flown on the jack mast of a ship?) emblazoned across the front. They were found in the loft of the Spital Hotel by the landlord, who then donated the shirts to the club. The shirts were almost certainly those of the defunct Spital Olympic club.

Other interesting club colours in the early days were cardinal and sky blue, myrtle green and red stripes (reintroduced as an away kit in 2002-03 season) and away kits of black and yellow hoops. The early football league outfits were white shirts with black shorts, followed by black and white striped shirts with white shorts. Following the re-election failure of 1909 the club colours were red shirts and white shorts. Just prior to rejoining the league in 1921, the Municipal run club wore black and white hoped shirts with white shorts. Older fans still remember with affection the outfits from 1928 to 1945 of blue and white striped jerseys with either navy or black shorts. In 1870 the club records show that blue and white jerseys and white trousers were the official dress and despite the numerous changes over the years already mentioned, this traditional outfit has remained as the basic kit since 1945.  It will therefore come as no surprise that Chesterfield are sometimes nicknamed “The Blues”, but more often referred to as “Town”. The crooked spire of the Church of Chesterfield inspired the other more romantic name, ‘The Spireites’ which is the official nickname.

Chesterfield’s arms were granted in 1955. The shield represents a pomegranate tree, taken from the town’s ancient common seal. Catherine of Aragon is thought to have introduced the pomegranate to Britain and the view of the college of arms is that the use of the pomegranate tree is, in fact, a royal allusion to the pomegranate of Granada which was used as a badge by Catherine of Aragon, by her husband Henry VIII and by Mary Tudor.

The crest depicts a ram indicating the town’s association with the county of Derbyshire and the mural crown represents a town wall and is appropriate to a Borough like Chesterfield. The town was one of the first six boroughs of ancient domesne in the country from the Roman days it was called Cestrefeld, meaning ‘the open field near the camp’. The base of rock and moorland signify the proximity of the Peak District. The supporters are a cock and a pynot (or magpie), each wearing around the neck a ducal crown. They represent a public house by the name of ‘The Cock and Pynot’ at Old Whittington and commemorate the scene of a revolutionary plot, hatched here in 1688, by the Earl of Devonshire, the Earl of Danby and John d’Arcy who was the heir to the Earl of Holderness. The motto: “Aspire” encourages people to aim for higher things and at the same time is a punning reference to the famous Crooked Spire of the Parish Church.

Grounds like the Recreation Ground are becoming fewer in number and, with the departure of the Chesterfield Football Club to a new stadium in the summer of 2010, that number became one fewer. Football had been played at the Recreation Ground, on Saltergate, since 1871, but the old place changed beyond all recognition in that time.

Prior to using the Recreation Ground the earliest Chesterfield Football Club – no more than an arm of the cricket club – played at the Recreation Ground. Bear with us: this Rec was a hundred yards or so closer to town than the current place, and Tennyson Avenue runs up the middle of what was the field that was once our home. When the cricket club fell out with the owner of the Rec the club moved a bit further along Saltergate to what was immediately known as the New Recreation Ground. The word “new” dropped out of use over the next ten years or so. Interestingly, it was not until the 1920s that it began to be popularly known as “Saltergate.”

Football shared with cricket until the mid-1890s.Looking around the developed stadium, it was difficult to imagine a cricket field fitting in the perimeter, but with everything demolished in 2012, it was easier to appreciate how the cricket might have taken place there.

Little appeared to have changed in eighty years. A fan from the early 1920s would have certainly recognise the Cross Street end and “Pop” side as they most recently were, just – Apart from the laying of concrete terracing and the replacement of wooden crush barriers with metal ones around 1950, the only change of note to the away end had been the removal of the half-time scoreboard. Similarly, although the Pop Side roof was replaced once since its installation in 1921, you’d hardly know, and the television gantry was the only new feature (beyond fences and safety steps) to be added there for fifty years until seats were added at the beginning of the 21st century. The Kop was roofed while the club was at its lowest ebb for some time, in 1960. There were a number of stone or metal plaques built into these improved features to mark the role played by the supporters in raising the money for the improvements. A pleasing touch saw these memorials carefully removed during demolition with a view to their being installed in displays at the new stadium, as a small memorial to all those who have tried to improve their club over the years.

Here is an irony. Many critics of modern stadium design condemn the sameness of new grounds, of their resemblance to DIY superstores or industrial units. They are derided for their lack of “character.” Well, by the mid-fifties, The Recreation Ground was a textbook, modern Archibald Leitch ground, consisting of three sides of open concrete terracing and a single main stand. The terracing used patented Leitch crush barriers, identical to those at every other Leitch ground, and the stand design was noticeably similar to other modern Leitch ones at Derby County, Crystal Palace and Blackburn Rovers, with its brick front and small pitch-side windows. In short, the ground looked neat, modern and strikingly similar to a lot of others.

It was the Bescot Stadium of its day. Subsequent modifications, the Kop roof, the television gantry and different colours of paint – gave the ground its “character,” and the effects of weathering gave it an appeal that can be described as “homely.” The Rec’ was probably the last football ground in the country to undergo a complete transformation at the hands of Leitch’s firm, and the work on the terracing carried out around 1950 is possibly the last major work that his firm did, in a stadium setting. The Leitch barriers are considered to be of such importance that two of the old ones from the Rec’ were salvaged and sent to the National Football Museum in Manchester and the Scottish Football Museum in Glasgow, Leitch’s home city.

Apart from an empty bank account, a string of understandably stroppy creditors and the seething hatred of almost everyone in football, Darren Brown also bequeathed us a string of broken promises to the Football Licensing authorities regarding ground development. Faced with the real prospect of having three sides of the ground closed, the CFSS had to do something about the place and did a fine job, re-terracing the standing areas and putting seats onto the Pop Side in recent times. As welcome as the work was, though, it kept the club only barely viable.