Description: The Parish Church of St Mary and All Saints. Chesterfield is synonymous with the crooked spire on top of the church which partly gives Chesterfield its identity.
Built, along with much of the rest of the church in the 14th century, it was straight for several centuries before it began to twist, probably as a result of unseasoned timber being used for its construction. It now leans nearly 9ft to the south and is still moving.
The large church is a fine cruciform building consisting of an aisled nave of six bays, a central tower, transepts and a two bay chancel, flanked by a chapel dedicated to St Katherine to the north and by a Lady chapel to the south. There are a further two chapels, one to the Holy Cross, the other to St Peter.
The many chapels are due to the numerous guilds which once existed in the town, the oldest of which, the guild of Our Lady and the Holy Cross, was founded in 1218. The lady chapel contains a series of alabaster tombs of the Foljambe family. A particularly fine one is that of Sir Godfrey Foljambe and his wife. (Extracted partly from the Derbyshire UK web site).
This image is one of a collection by the famous local antiquarian, Thomas Bateman, of Middleton by Youlgreave. (1821-1861). Bateman organized his collection by inserting them into a 4 volume copy of Lysons Magna Britannia, Derbyshire, creating a fascinating and unique illustrated record of the county. The purchase of the collection for Derbyshire Libraries was made possible by the generous bequest of Miss Frances Webb of Whaley Bridge, well known local historian, who died in December 2006.