Saltergate

Recreation Ground

Saltergate
The Main Stand during a match in 2007.
Full name	Recreation Ground
Location	Saltergate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S40 4SX
Owner	Chesterfield F.C.
Capacity	8,504
Field size	113 x 71 yards
Construction
Opened	1871
Closed	2010
Demolished	2012

Saltergate, officially the Recreation Ground, was the historic home of Chesterfield Football Club, and was in use from 1871 until the club's relocation in July 2010, a 139-year history that made it one of the oldest football grounds in England at the time of its closure. The name 'Saltergate' became predominant in popular usage from the 1920s.

Tightly surrounded by housing, the football stadium was located near Chesterfield's town centre on the thoroughfare of the same name. The ground underwent only limited additional development after a new main stand was opened in 1936. Although plans to develop the site were explored, the club's fans ultimately voted in favour of pursuing a new ground in a 2003 ballot, with the site confirmed by a 2006 poll.

The final Chesterfield fixture at Saltergate, a Football League Two game against Bournemouth, was held on 8 May 2010. From the 2010-11 season, the team switched to the new Proact Stadium located in the Whittington Moor area of the town. An October 2010 publication from the club, Saltergate Sunset by Stuart Basson, chronicled the story of the ground.

In January 2012, the football club sold the Saltergate site to Barratt Homes. Its demolition to make way for a new housing development began in April and was completed in July 2012.

In 1871, Chesterfield Football Club became a distinct entity from the Chesterfield Cricket Club, from which it was formed in the previous decade. Together, they took up the tenancy at the 'New Recreation Ground', Saltergate, located just 100 yards West of their previous home, and the ground was used for both sports for more than two decades. The site hosted its first game of football on 4 November 1871, with Rotherham providing the opposition in a 14-a-side match under Sheffield Rules. 11-a-side football was first played a few weeks later against the Sheffield F.A. team. A wooden pavilion was developed on the eastern side of the ground later in the 1870s but otherwise it remained simply an open field in this era. After the initial Chesterfield Football Club folded in 1881, a number of other local football teams used the pitch until the establishment of a second Chesterfield F.C. in 1884, later known as Chesterfield Town. The first recorded attendance, from Boxing Day 1889, put the crowd at 400 for a game against Sheffield Heeley Reserves. A small, uncovered grandstand with benched seating for around 400 was added early in the 1890s. With the football club steadily progressing toward employing its first semi-professional players, it was also able to take the cricket club's relocation in its stride during 1894, shouldering the full rent thereafter.