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A
brief history of the Angel Hotel
From: InnSpire - Issue 57 – October 2005
 The Angel Inn as it
was originally known, was situated opposite
Chesterfield’s Market Hall, between the Post Office and
Star Hotel. By the mid 1800’s it had become one of the
best hotels in the town. Before the age of the railways
and the Royal Mail postal service, it was also a very
important coaching and posting house.
Coaches that used the
hotel included the ‘Express’; ‘Comet’ and ‘Hope’
(London/Leeds); ‘Telegraph’ and ‘Amity’
(Birmingham/Leeds) and the ‘Champion’
(Nottingham/Manchester). The name changed to Angel Hotel
during the 1870’s. In 1876 the hotel was sold at auction
for £11,300, purchased by Richard Wilkinson.
The sale included a grocers shop, large warehouse,
stables for 36 horses, coach houses, numerous
wash-houses and piggeries, all extending to within a
short distance of Saltergate. This was aptly known as
Angel Yard, the sign can still be seen on the wall of
the Barley Mow. The Midland Railway guide to
Chesterfield published in 1899 gives a detailed
description of the hotel accommodation, consisting
coffee room, dining room, commercial room, 20 bedrooms,
billiard room with three tables, the ‘Oak Room’ claimed
to be the finest dining and ballroom in the country,
seating 120 people it measured 60ft by 30ft (18m by 9
m). Stabling had increased to cater for 80 horses. This
article also claims that Mary Queen of Scots once stayed
there.
The hotel at this time hosted many of the major social
events and banquets, and had always been the commercial
venue for auctions of all kinds. In 1877 the Brampton
Brewery was sold at auction in the hotel, with many
notable names taking part.
The first railway reached the town in 1840, from then on
the importance of the coaching inn steadily waned. The
opening of the Station Hotel in 1877 and Portland Hotel
in 1899, also eroded trade as both of the hotels had
been sited to cater for the railway traveller. As the
Angel’s owners, Wm Stones brewery also owned the
Portland, it would appear that it was not economical to
have two hotels in such close proximity. These factors
eventually brought an end to the hotel, as in 1915 Wm
Stones applied to remove the licence of the hotel,
leaving only the vaults in operation. The Angel Vaults
consisted of two rooms used as public bars on the right
side of the passage way, not connected to the rest of
the hotel.
The final chapter began on the night of 9th February
1917 when fire destroyed the hotel. Described as one of
the largest fires in the town, it began around midnight,
thought to have started in a Red Cross paper room. The
fire service pumped at the maximum rate of 500 gallons a
minute for 5 hours to extinguish the fire. It was said
that the night was so cold that icicles formed on the
firemen’s clothing. The water washed down the market
place and froze on Markham Road. The vaults however,
were not destroyed but were water damaged. The adjoining
Post Office and Bank were threatened by the blaze and
were lucky to survive.
In February 1920 approval was granted to transfer the
Vaults licence to a new pub to be built on Derby Road
St. Augustine's, also to be known as the Angel, as it in
fact still is today. The site of the old hotel is now
covered by an extension to the Post Office and modern
shop units.
By John Hirst
The
Peacock struts its stuff!
From: InnSpire - Issue 56 – August 2005
 For the first time in
living memory, the county’s Pub of the Year Award has
been won by a pub in our Branch area: the Peacock on
Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield.
The county of Derbyshire is ‘shared out’ between several
local CAMRA branches: Chesterfield, Derby, Erewash, High
Peak, Mansfield, Sheffield and South Derbyshire. Some
branches, like ours, lie 100% within the county
boundary, whilst others have their feet in more than one
camp, so to speak.
The other qualifying pubs this year were the Stables Bar
at Denby, home of the Leadmill Brewery (nominated by
Derby branch) and the Dew Drop Inn at Awsworth near
Ilkeston (nominated by Erewash branch).
Chesterfield CAMRA members visited the Stables and the
Dew Drop and rated them according to CAMRA’s national
guidelines. The scores were submitted, along with the
other branches’, to CAMRA’s Regional Director
who declared that Derbyshire’s Pub of the Year for 2005
was the Peacock.
 Brampton’s Peacock Inn was packed
on 13th July when - on behalf of the Regional Director -
Jim McIntosh (pictured right), CAMRA’s Derbyshire Area
Organiser and our own Membership Secretary presented
John Bradbury and Phillipa Wallhead with their
certificate.
Regular readers of ‘Innspire’ will know of John and
Phillipa’s success in turning the Peacock into a must
for beer drinkers on Chesterfield. The Peacock is a
traditional pub, with traditional beers and a
traditional welcome for customers old and new. With its
regular beers – Tetley’s Bitter, Black Sheep Bitter,
Adnam’s Broadside and Caledonian Deuchar’s IPA and
frequent guest beers you’re sure to find something to
please you.
As Derbyshire Pub of the Year, the Peacock goes forward
as a candidate for CAMRA’s Regional Award and possibly
the National Pub of the Year contest.
We wish all involved with the pub the best of luck!
Derby Tup Celebrates 21
Consecutive Years of Excellence
From: InnSpire - Issue 54 – April 2005
 The
current edition of the Good Beer Guide sees the Derby
Tup on Whittington Moor, Chesterfield notch up its 21st
consecutive appearance - a feat only bettered locally by
the Lathkil Hotel at Over Haddon. Current licensees
Hilary and Brendan are pictured receiving a special
commemorative certificate from Roy Shorrock. Regular
readers of Innspire will be familiar with the Tup, as
will visitors to the area who are aware of its
reputation as Chesterfield’s original classic ale house
and a key part of the Tynemill estate.
This webpage was last updated on
Sunday, 07 October 2007
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