Chesterfield and Chatsworth

My fancy bed turned out to be very comfortable.

I headed into Chesterfield this morning.
The main reason was to buy a small suitcase as my other one is getting rather full. I came across a Debenhams and found what I was looking for.

Chesterfield is a market town and Fridays are general market day. The market took a bit of finding but I did find it. They weren't that exciting but it was interesting to read the history behind the market.

Dominating the skyline is the crooked spire. It is the spire of the Catholic church. It was easy to find - just had to follow the spire. No one is quite sure why it is crooked - it seems to have rotated. The "sensible" theory is that the foundation of the spire was made of green wood that dried and twisted the spire.
Two of the legends: one that Satan landed on the spire, the insense made him sneeze and the spire twisted. The other is that a virgin was married in the church and the spire bent to take a look, it couldn't stand back up straight. If another virgin was to marry in the church it would bend the other way and straighten up!

The church itself was lovely, built along the lines of a small cathedral.

The afternoon was spent at Chatswood - the home of the Duke and Duchesd of Devonshire. It is simply gorgeous.

I toured the house first, my favourite room was the library. I could only look in from the door but would have loved to sit in there with a book. Seeing the bedrooms set up was very interesting.

The house is very grand but the gardens are so much more interesting. I spent two hours there and only left because they were closing.
I first did a tour which gave interesting information. Then I walked around. I found my way to the maze and eventually found the centre.

Walking back to the entrance I could hear the sheep, it reminded me of being on the farm on chilly evenings when the sound of the sheep travels.

I heard (on tv?) people say that the countryside smells. It does, which really surprises me, maybe there is a greater concentration of stock than we have, plus you are often driving over land the stock roams over.

I had dinner at The Devonshire Arms. It is a very cosy pub, unfortunately all the tables there were reserved but they had a new section in which I got a table.

The food was a lot fancier than it sounded.
I had liver parfait to start with. I had to laugh when the only other people in the room (it was early) asked me what liver parfait was. I could only tell them I expected it to be like pate but lighter. I'm no expert, fortunately I was right.

Main was gammon steak and fried egg. I've seen gammon steak and egg on a lot of menus recently so I decided to try it. It brought back memories of ham steak and pineapple rings that we used to get at the hostel, hence my hesitation. It was nothing like that. It was quite a thick steak of ham with a fried egg and then lots of fancy bits - dried radish and something else, potato gems (which was just weird) and 4 different "smears". It was nice though and I'd eat gammon steak again.

Chesterfield market and market hall
Crooked spire
Church
Chatsworth library
Gardens
ChatsworthRead more