with glorious sun and fabulous scenery...
I still find it hard to believe the Cat and the Fiddle is actually in Cheshire
We drove past several cricket grounds where Husb began his cricketing career and the pub where he was served his first pint, and then we stopped at his old school which was called Chesterfield School when he was there...
walking round the sports field and running track (which was still there) but there was no sign of the cricket pitch or the nets, where he spent hours as a teenager. The buildings looked exactly the same as 35 years ago although there were several more buildings in the yard.
When we headed into town it was soon obvious there was some sort of festival on... it was "Medieval Week" and the funfair was in town. It would have been rude not to have had a ride on the Ghost Train.
What a hoot!
£2 each but a very funny 30 seconds in the dark where a man was lurking and waiting for us to ride through so he could tickle our heads and blow on us... it made us both jump. Quality!
Although Husb was brought up in Chesterfield he had never been up the tower with the twisted spire so here was our perfect chance.
The addition of the spire doubled the height of the building,it being 37m high, the church and tower 35m high.
The crooked spire
How did it happen? Legend tells of a powerful magician who persuaded a Bolsover blacksmith to shoe the Devil. The blacksmith, however drove a nail into the Devil's foot. Howling with rage, the Devil took flight towards Chesterfield. Skimming over the Church, he lashed out in agony, caught the spire and twisted it out of shape. Then again, was it lightning? Or did Lucifer sit on the Church and spitefully let his massive weight crush its elegant spire? Local people of course have their own explanation. Rumour had it that a virgin was getting married at the church,and the spire, never having seen a virgin bride before, leaned over to have a closer look. Should the event ever happen again, the spire will think it commonplace and straighten up.
There are, of course, more mundane explanations.
Historians tell us of the dark year 1349 and the outbreak of the Black Death in Chesterfield - around the time that the spire was being built. Did too many skilled craftsmen fall to the Plague? Did the survivors use too much green timber in the spire?
Architects note the lack of cross-bracing in the 8 sides of the structure, and remind us of the weight of those lead tiles which cover the wooden spire - all 32 tons of them!
The rest of the damage is blamed on sun, rain, wind and, according to one expert, bell-ringing!
Can you see the cone on the floor? Tthe cone indicates where the top of the spire is directly above it, it is SOOOOO off centre isn't it, wow!
Onwards and upwards and it got tighter and tighter...
we passed the bells...
and looked right up inside the spire.
We got to the top and the guide said to Husb "It doesn't help when you are tall because the safety rail only comes up to your knees" (OMG OMG!)
The Christleton swan??
Chesterfield FC new ground, the b2net stadium, is right next to an enormous Tesco (so big you need to take a packed lunch) and it was very smart with the plushest (?) grass we had ever seen! The attendance was a very creditable two and a half thousand and we saw a great game.
PUSB!!
Chesterfield 2 - 2 Coventry City
The City did so much passing!! Albeit in our own half! We seemed to waste a lot of crosses too. Chris Hussey was impressive, he scored one goal and Lukey Jukey got the other to put us in the lead twice before the Spireites equalised. Sammy Clingan is a class player, I hope he doesn't get injured! Joe Murphy may have let in 2 goals but he is very vocal and knows exactly what he wants his defenders to do (to be sure to be sure)
All in all a good day at the office, even Husb enjoyed it.
PUSB!!
