Saltergate — officially the Recreation Ground — was the historic home of Chesterfield Football Club from 1871 until the club’s move in July 2010, giving it a remarkable 139-year operational lifespan that made it one of the oldest football grounds in England at the time of its closure.
Nestled tight against the town centre on the road that gave it its famous nickname, the ground grew organically over the decades from a shared cricket pitch into a quirky, much-loved lower-league stadium with four floodlight pylons, a bend in its own main stand, and a main stand designed by celebrated football-ground architect Archibald Leitch. This guide covers everything from the ground’s stand-by-stand layout and attendance records to its famous film cameo, its 2012 demolition, and what occupies the site today.
Quick Answer
Saltergate was Chesterfield FC’s home from 4 November 1871 until 8 May 2010, when the club moved to the newly built Proact Stadium. The ground held 8,504 at closure, its record attendance was 30,561 (vs Tottenham Hotspur, FA Cup fifth round, February 1938), and it was demolished between April and July 2012 to make way for a housing estate called Spire Heights.
Why Was It Called Saltergate?
The ground took its popular name from Saltergate, the street running alongside it just north of Chesterfield town centre, even though its official title was always the Recreation Ground (or, informally, the New Recreation Ground when Chesterfield FC first shared it with Chesterfield Cricket Club in 1871). Football and cricket shared the site until the mid-1890s, when first-class cricket eventually moved on to Queen’s Park, leaving the ground to the football club alone.
Chesterfield hosted its first football match there on 4 November 1871, a 14-a-side game against Rotherham played under Sheffield Rules — a reminder of how early the ground predates the modern Football League, which Chesterfield joined in 1899.
The Stands and Terraces, End by End
By the time it closed, Saltergate was made up of four distinct sides, each with its own character. The Main Stand, opened in November 1936 and designed by Archibald Leitch (the architect behind grounds like Ibrox, Goodison Park and the old Baseball Ground), ran along one side of the pitch and seated around 2,000 fans; viewed from above it had an unusual slight bend just right of the halfway line, and its lower tier had no player tunnel, with teams instead emerging through a door in the stand.
Facing it was the Kop, the main home terrace holding roughly 2,000 supporters, which began as a sloping earth mound before being concreted and fitted with crush barriers around 1950 and finally roofed in 1960–61 thanks to fan fundraising. The smaller Compton Street Stand (the Popular Side), seating around 1,000 with partial cover and an unusual wooden TV gantry balanced on its roof, was converted from terracing to all-seating in 2002. The open, uncovered Cross Street End held about 1,400 away fans and included a boundary wall dating to 1921 — by the 2000s, the oldest surviving structure on the whole site.
Capacity and Attendance Records
Saltergate’s capacity shrank steadily as football safety standards tightened, from an all-time high in the tens of thousands during the 1930s down to 8,504 (all-seated and covered-terrace combined) by the time the ground closed in 2010. The record attendance of 30,561 was set on 5 February 1938 for an FA Cup fifth-round tie against Tottenham Hotspur, a figure the ground would never beat again. The highest attendance for a League fixture came slightly later, on 22 April 1939, when 28,268 turned out for a match against Newcastle United.
Across its full 139-year lifespan, Saltergate hosted 3,159 first-team matches, of which 1,827 were Football League fixtures — giving it one of the longest continuous first-team tenancies of any ground in English football history.
Famous Quirks and Moments
Saltergate’s homely scruffiness became part of its charm. Its Main Stand’s Leitch-designed profile closely echoed Derby County’s demolished Baseball Ground (also a Leitch build), which is why the 2009 football drama The Damned United used Saltergate as a stand-in for the Baseball Ground during filming in 2008 — a cameo that also earned the club a useful fee. Rival fans, meanwhile, loved to needle Chesterfield supporters about the Main Stand’s badly peeling paint and rusted exterior in its final years.
The ground also turned out to hold a piece of football engineering history: disused terracing in the Compton Street–Cross Street corner included crush barriers patented by Archibald Leitch in 1906, among the last known surviving examples of their type. Two were preserved and donated to the National Football Museum in Preston and the Scottish Football Museum in Glasgow before demolition. Saltergate was also one of the last grounds in England to install floodlights, only doing so for the 1967–68 season, decades after most Football League clubs had switched on.
Final Years, Closure and the Move to a New Stadium
Saltergate’s tight, town-centre footprint left little room to expand or modernise, and by the early 2000s the club had begun looking seriously at relocation. Fans backed a move away from Saltergate in ballots held in 2003 and again in 2006, and the club built a new, purpose-built stadium on the former Dema Glass factory site at Whittington Moor — opened for the 2010–11 season, initially as the b2net Stadium and later renamed the Proact Stadium (now the SMH Group Stadium).
Chesterfield played their final competitive fixture at Saltergate on 8 May 2010, beating AFC Bournemouth 2–1 in League Two thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Derek Niven — a moment that triggered a good-natured pitch invasion, including footage of a wheelchair user rolling onto the turf that later racked up over 100,000 views online. The club marked the send-off with a heritage exhibition at The Pomegranate Theatre and an auction of ground fixtures that raised money for charity.
Demolition and What’s There Now
Saltergate stood empty for over a year after Chesterfield’s departure before the roughly 4.5-acre site was sold to housebuilder Barratt Homes in January 2012. Demolition began that April and was finished by July 2012, with the last of the four floodlight pylons coming down on 13 July 2012. In its place, Barratt Homes built a 68-unit residential development. Following a public vote in December 2012, the street running through the new estate was named Spire Heights — a nod both to Chesterfield’s nickname, the Spireites, and to the town’s famous crooked-spire church, once visible from the old ground.
So no, Saltergate is no longer standing — the pitch, stands and terraces described above exist today only in photographs, memory and the club’s history books.
Saltergate’s Legacy Today
Chesterfield’s affection for Saltergate runs deep, not least because the club reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1997 — a run played out over home legs at Saltergate that season before the semi-final itself was contested at Old Trafford and a replay at Hillsborough, famous for a controversial disallowed ‘ghost goal’ against Middlesbrough. In March 2015, the site’s public realm was given a permanent memorial: local artist Melanie Jackson’s Spirit of Saltergate, a metal screen depicting supporters on the terraces, together with bronze floor inlays carrying QR codes linking to video histories of the club, installed on Saltergate street itself near the junction with West Street.
For anyone wanting to go deeper, the dedicated fan project at saltergate.co.uk preserves hundreds of photographs of the ground taken by the club’s official photographer, alongside a printed history book — the most complete visual archive of Saltergate available anywhere.
Saltergate, Chesterfield FC’s historic ground FAQs
When did Saltergate close and why?
Saltergate closed in July 2010 after Chesterfield FC relocated to the newly built Proact Stadium (now the SMH Group Stadium). The ground’s tight, town-centre site left little room for modernisation, and supporters had voted in ballots in 2003 and 2006 in favour of moving to a new purpose-built venue.
What was the record attendance at Saltergate?
The record attendance was 30,561, set on 5 February 1938 when Chesterfield hosted Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup fifth round. The highest League attendance was 28,268, for a match against Newcastle United in April 1939.
What was Saltergate’s capacity when it closed?
At closure in 2010, Saltergate held 8,504 spectators across four sides: the seated Main Stand (around 2,000), the covered Kop terrace (around 2,000), the seated Compton Street Stand (around 1,000), and the open Cross Street End for away fans (around 1,400, plus separate away seating).
Is Saltergate still standing?
No. Saltergate was demolished between April and July 2012 after the site was sold to Barratt Homes. A 68-unit residential development now occupies the land, with the internal street named Spire Heights.
Why was the ground called Saltergate if its official name was different?
Its official name was the Recreation Ground, but everyone knew it by the name of the street it stood on, Saltergate, on the edge of Chesterfield town centre. The ‘Saltergate’ name stuck from the club’s earliest years sharing the site with Chesterfield Cricket Club.
Was Saltergate used as a filming location?
Yes. Because its 1936 Archibald Leitch-designed Main Stand closely resembled Derby County’s demolished Baseball Ground (also designed by Leitch), Saltergate was used as a stand-in for the Baseball Ground during filming of the 2009 football drama The Damned United.
Is there anything left to see of Saltergate today?
The stands and pitch are gone, but a public artwork called Spirit of Saltergate, installed in March 2015 on Saltergate street, commemorates the ground with a metal screen of supporters and bronze floor inlays. The fan-run site saltergate.co.uk also hosts an extensive photographic archive of the ground.
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