00:00Hello, I'm Philip Ryden. I'm the editor of the Victoria County History in Derbyshire.
00:05I have a long-standing interest in the history of Chesterfield, my hometown.
00:09I've been asked to say something about some of the more interesting buildings in the town centre.
00:13What is now the Chesterfield branch of the Yorkshire Building Society is a probably 16th century building
00:19that may have been built as an inn. It certainly later became an inn.
00:24Many people will remember it as Bowdoin's fish and chip shop as it was from the 1930s.
00:30The building stands in a prominent position at one corner of Chesterfield's modern marketplace
00:36which in fact is the new market laid out in the 1190s to replace the much smaller market
00:42which was to the north of the churchyard. The complete development included the open market that still survives
00:49including New Square, the shambles and two rows of generally large houses on the north and south sides of the marketplace,
00:57low pavement on the south and high street on the north.
01:01There were probably a number of buildings of this sort of size and scale in the 16th century in Chesterfield.
01:06This is the one survivor. The building that's now known as the Peacock was for many years assumed to be a 19th century pub.
01:13It was called the Peacock. In 1974 there was a small fire in the roof space of the building which revealed that it was in fact timber framed.
01:25After the later cladding had been stripped away it became clear that we had here two thirds of a large probably early 16th century timber framed house
01:34which can be shown to have been the town house, the Chesterfield house, of the Revel family whose country house was Canfield Hall in South Normanton.
01:43The building here was carefully conserved, some new timber framing was added to make the structure safe
01:49and it operated for some years as a local authority tourist centre. It's now a cafe and a shop.
01:55It's probably the oldest building in Chesterfield after the parish church although the Yorkshire Building Society branch elsewhere on low pavement must also date from the 16th century.
02:07The building has a new home here where a new house is built.
02:20The building has the building in Chesterfield after the parishioning of the building.
02:24By the end of Chesterfield, the building has the building on the building.
