Activities in Chesterfield

Make the most of the summer holidays in Chesterfield

28th May 2024

Are you looking to make memories with family and friends during the summer holidays? Whether you’re simply looking for somewhere to help the youngsters burn off energy, or you fancy a big day out with lots of entertainment, we can guarantee there’s something to suit everyone this summer in Chesterfield!

Here’s our selection of some of the things you could be getting up to once the schools break up, but don’t forget to check out all the great events taking place across the town throughout the year here.

Family Fun Activities

From having a go at paddlesports to experiencing an open air cinema – there’s plenty of fun to be had.

Enjoy views of Chesterfield

All families should visit the iconic Crooked Spire at least once. Why not count your way up all 152 steps to reveal wonderful views over Chesterfield?

As part of the Crooked Spire Tower Tours you can learn about the history of the medieval church, see the bells, visit the inside of the famous Crooked Spire, and enjoy stunning views over Chesterfield from the viewing platform.*

*Please note: we are glad to report that a pair of Peregrine Falcons is raising a small brood on the church tower. This means that it is currently illegal for to take visitors outside until the chicks are fully fledged (usually early July). Until then the full tours (including the spectacular view of the inside of the Spire) will take place without the external view. During this time tickets will be at the reduced price of £8 adult, £4 child.

Have a go at Paddlesports

The summer holidays is the perfect opportunity to try something new. With the choice of paddleboards, kayaks and canoes you could have a go at paddlesports along the Chesterfield Canal.

Experience open air cinema

Fancy watching a film outdoors under the stars? Well, there’s a few opportunities you can experience open air cinema this summer.

Watch the classic Jurassic Park, al fresco under the stars! Get together with family and friends under the start for a night at the movies.

Grab a blanket and a camping chair as more family favourites are being shown at Hardwick Hall. Films include a Grease sing-a-long, Mamma Mia Extrabbaganza, The Gruffalo/Stick Man and a Frozen sing-a-long.

Watch a legendary joust at Bolsover Castle

Why not do something fun and learn about history at the same time? Experience the exhilarating spectacle of speed and skill as four legendary knights compete for honour and glory in the Legendary Joust at Bolsover Castle.

Spend time down at the farm

Of course, you will get the chance to meet lots of cute animals at Matlock Farm Park, but you can also get involved with lots of fun themed events. Learn all about dinosaurs at the Dinosaur Fun Day, see The Big Bubbleman, be a Superhero for the day and much more.

Give roller skating a try

Looking for something different to do with the kids? Introduce them to roller skating with this weekly roller disco at Queen’s Park Sports Centre.

The roller disco’s are high energy combination of roller skating, thumping beats and awesome lighting shows.

Roller Energy are at Queen’s Park Sports Centre every Saturday 6.15pm – 7.30pm. Before visiting, it is advisable to check social media for updates regarding the sessions. Roller Energy UK are on Facebook here.

Family-Friendly Events & Festivals

Look forward to the return of annual favourites and opportunity to try new events and festivals.

Enjoy family fun at the Chesterfield Children’s Festival

After last year’s huge success, Chesterfield Children’s Festival is returning. So, if you want to celebrate childhood, imagination and fun, head to this free weekend festival of fun!

Dig into history at the Festival of Archaeology

Celebrate archaeology & community at the Festival of Archaeology, through hands-on and inspiring activities. Moreover, there will be talks and activities exploring the history of the area.

See the country’s leading strongmen and mighty women compete

Looking to end the summer holidays doing something memorable? See the country’s leading strongmen and mighty strongwomen compete at the Peak District Highland Games.

Memorable day out at Chatsworth Country Fair

The Chatsworth Country Fair is a truly memorable day out for all the family, with all the fun of the vintage fairground for the young and young at heart.

With a packed programme of grand ring entertainment, a cookery theatre and fine food village, there’s lots to see and do. In the showground, you can try your hand at heritage country sports, rural country crafts, and admire the vintage and military vehicles on display.

Shows and Entertainment

You can make sure the family has a memorable summer by enjoying one of the many great shows being shown at the Winding Wheel Theatre.

Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out

Peppa Pig is back in her oinktastic brand new live show, Fun Day Out! Packed full of songs, dance and muddy puddles, Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out guarantees giggles and snorts for all Peppa Pig fans, and a perfect introduction to theatre.

Kids clubs

Looking for some time to yourself or have work commitments during the summer holidays? Here is a selection of kids clubs which will keep your little one’s entertained.

Burn off energy at Spireites Soccer School

Chesterfield FC’s mixed Soccer School runs every school holiday, Monday to Thursday 9am-3:30pm – the perfect opportunity to let the kids run off some energy.

Learn new skills at a tennis camp

Have fun, make friends and test your skills at this Summer tennis camp! Keep your kids active and engaged with activities galore. A perfect blend of sports and fun for an unforgettable holiday.

Available for children from 2-14 years of age, the camp is packed with fun-filled activities, ensuring your child a memorable time while learning and playing their favourite sports.

Children’s Holiday Climbing Club

Over the summer the Healthy Living Centre will be running children’s climbing clubs for ages seven to 17 years old. These session teach the basic skills of climbing such as safety issues, top-roping, bouldering, climbing techniques and is a great introduction to climbing.

From events to festivals, entertainment to shows and family activities – there’s plenty of ways to make memories during the summer holidays. Make sure to see what else is on this summer…

Complete your family day out by visiting one of our friendly food and drink venues. Here’s 50 different places to consider dining out at…

Looking for even more inspiration? Check out guide for things to do with the family…

Posted in About Chesterfield, Blog, Destination Chesterfield, Featured, Home, Leisure, Love Chesterfield, Summer, Uncategorised, VisitingTagged in Activities in Chesterfield, chesterfield events, Family fun in Chesterfield, Summer Holidays, Summer in Chesterfield, things to do in Chesterfield

Chesterfield Royal Hospital Christmas card competition returns for 2021

22nd September 2021

The Chesterfield Royal Hospital charity has launched its annual Christmas card competition, with the team hoping this year’s will be the biggest and best yet.

Young people across the area are being encouraged to submit their festive designs ahead of the 12th November deadline, with the winning designs to be professionally produced and sold to raise funds for the charity this Christmas.

Ken Godber, Charity Director at Chesterfield Royal Hospital said: “The response we had last year was wonderful and the standard incredibly high. It was heart-warming to see so many youngsters come together and get creative in support of the charity and this hospital and we appreciate so many schools making it a part of their lessons and activities.

“We all know that last Christmas was a difficult one for so many people so we’re hoping for an even better response this year and would like to everyone to get into the Christmas spirit a little earlier and encourage your children or grandchildren to send us their designs. It’s for a fantastic cause and all money raised through the sale of these Christmas cards will go towards helping our patients to receive the very best care and treatment and to provide our staff with a great place to work.”

If you know a young person who would like to get involved with designing a card, they can find the entry form for the competition at: https://www.chesterfieldroyal.nhs.uk/our-charity/annual-christmas-card-competition-2021

To enter, email your scanned entries to crhft.communications@nhs.net or alternatively you can post to:

Communications Office
Chesterfield Royal Hospital
Calow
Chesterfield
S44 5BL

Remember to include an entry slip with your design (either included in the email or pop it in the envelope with your design.)

The hospital is also encouraging people to share the competition with other young people, local schools family and friends so more people can get involved.

Chesterfield Royal Hospital supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 190 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.

Posted in Christmas, Home, Leisure, Love Chesterfield, Uncategorised, VisitingTagged in Activities in Chesterfield, chesterfield news, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Chesterfield Royal Hospital Charity, Christmas, Christmas card

Chesterfield families are encouraged to get moving as council backs local smartphone game

20th July 2021

A new family-friendly game that aims to get people exploring Chesterfield – on foot or by pushbike – is being backed as part of a Chesterfield Borough Council project.

TagTap JTH (Join The Hunt) is a free exploration-based game created by local family man Peter Hunt after he and his family enjoyed playing the popular Beat The Street game which ran in Chesterfield last year.

Inspired by its ability encourage people to get out and about across the borough, the council has now joined forces with the creator to back the smartphone-based game as part of its Year of Outdoors project.

It means from the 17 July there are 350 points around the borough to check into, including in many of the fantastic parks and green spaces – expanding the game from its initial testing in New and Old Whittington.

Councillor Jill Mannion-Brunt, cabinet member for health and wellbeing said: “We’re really excited to be working with Tag Tap to help bring this game to Chesterfield. It’s great to see local people innovating new ideas and it ties in really well with our Year of Outdoors project, which encourages people to explore the great things we have on our doorstep.

“We hope this game will help encourage everyone to get out this summer and explore our beautiful borough – it’s a fantastic way to keep little ones entertained during the school holidays, but is also really fun to explore on your own.”

Peter Hunt, the creator of TagTap JTH explained: “I initially thought of TagTap JTH during lockdown as a fun way for my kids to get active but also with the element of a clue or question to find the next location as a sneaky way to incorporate a bit of education. After setting up a small game in the New and Old Whittington areas and inviting others to have a go it really took on a life of its own. We have only had extremely positive feedback and everyone that plays it absolutely loves it.

“We have expended the game to cover the whole of the chesterfield borough area with well over 350 tags, we hope this will give everyone young and old a chance to have a go at the game and to get active especially after the terrible 18 months we have had to endure. Our main objective is to get people out being active in a fun way, so lets do it together, get competing and winning some prizes. Best of all it’s free.”

The game has starting locations around the borough which you can find listed in the app. Simply head to one of these TagTaps then with the app open on your phone, tap the point and you’ll be given clues to find the next location, solve the clues and hunt out the next point.

There is a leaderboard of players and participants will need to find as many points as possible to be named the TagTap Champion.

The game will run all year but the championship will be time limited meaning hunters will need to be quick to work their way up the leaderboard. There will also be a competition amongst schools later this year.

Find out more about TagTap JTH and download the apps for free to start playing by visiting: https://tagtap.co.uk/

Chesterfield’s Year of Outdoors encourages residents and visitors to explore Chesterfield’s parks and open spaces by providing a range of free or low cost ideas and activities to get involved in. Find out more on the council’s website: www.chesterfield.gov.uk/year-of-outdoors

Find out more about all the great local events taking place across Chesterfield this Summer at: https://www.chesterfield.co.uk/summer/

Posted in About Chesterfield, Featured, Home, Leisure, Love Chesterfield, Summer, Uncategorised, VisitingTagged in Activities in Chesterfield, Chesterfield, chesterfield borough council, exercise, Health and wellbeing, Summer in Chesterfield, Tagtap, things to do in Chesterfield

Chesterfield Champions show their support for Mental Health Awareness Week

10th May 2021

Today marks the launch of Mental Health Awareness Week, the UK’s national week to raise awareness of mental health.

The week, which is hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, is in its 21st year and runs from 10-16 May. The foundation’s main theme this year is nature, and how connecting with the great outdoors can improve our health both mentally and physically.

Chesterfield Champions have been raising awareness of various mental health initiatives recently, with some carrying out activities to mark the occasion this week.

If your business is hosting any mental health awareness activity throughout this week, remember to let us know by tagging Destination Chesterfield on social media!

Surecare Chesterfield

Surecare has launched a new training ‘Hail Yourself’ training package with staff this week. The training will talk about various aspects of mental health. The training is not only designed to help the company’s dedicated care staff to look after the service users, but also help them to look after themselves and each other.

Helen Axup, Registered Manager at Surecare said: “Mobility issues stop a lot of people being able to go out and mixing as they would like to. We as a company want to promote ‘a healthy mind helps a healthy body’.

“I am in the perfect position to see first hand how mental health effects various different people, whether it is the people we care for with SureCare, under-appreciated care staff or the people we know socially. It doesn’t matter who they are, we are a human race and we should offer support and understanding. This gave birth to our ‘Hail Yourself’ training because the person you should start with is yourself.”

Heathcotes Group

The team at Heathcotes Group are sharing a number of resources with colleagues and service users to help raise awareness of mental health and signpost colleages and service users to resources.

Tom Matthews, HR Business Partner at Heathcotes Group has created a blog discussing the impact of the past year and the measures we can take to support good mental health.

You can read Tom’s blog here.

East Midlands Chamber

East Midlands Chamber’s director of resources and mental health first aider Lucy Robinson explains how businesses can help their employees to cope with the huge disruption brought on to their lives over the past 14 months.

Lucy’s blog post takes a look at the data behind mental health epidemic, employee mental health concerns and what employers can be doing to look after staff.

Find out more here.

Spire Radio

For Mental Health Week, Spire Radio will be taking part in the Mental Health Minute. It takes place on-air at 10.59am on Friday 14th May, and will feature celebrities and various other messages relating to the subject of mental health.

Find out more at: https://www.spire-radio.com/

The video below shows last year’s ‘Mental Health Minute’:

Chesterfield Royal Hospital

A brand new VIP lounge has been launched at Chesterfield Royal Hospital to improve the wellbeing offer for staff, with the help of airline or aviation staff who are currently furloughed, grounded or made redundant due to the pandemic.

The crews used their exceptional customer service skills and expertise to provide the hospital staff with a little bit of respite, as well as an opportunity to chat and share experiences.

Find out more about the hospital’s ‘Project Wingman’ initiative here

Chesterfield Borough Council

A selection of ‘Mindful May’ events taking place this month, organised by Chesterfield Borough Council as part of the Year of Outdoors.

Residents are invited to book onto a number of different outdoor activities aimed at getting people out amongst nature in the town’s excellent green spaces.

Find out more about the events here.

University of Derby

Businesses across Chesterfield and the Midlands region are being offered the chance to boost productivity by working with the University of Derby to provide better mental health support for employees.

The Mental Health and Productivity Pilot will see the implementation of new workplace interventions at pilot organisations and the rollout of existing approaches in small, medium and large businesses across the Midlands Engine region. Find out more about the pilot here.

Derbyshire Institute of Sport

A Derbyshire Institute of Sport project to put health and wellbeing at the heart of its support for the business community has proved a winner, with more than 100 people joining a mental health webinar about the importance of switching off from work and de-stressing.

The webinar, by DIS sports psychology lead Dr Phil Clarke, was the latest in a series of monthly, 30-minute ‘lunch and learn’ webinars available exclusively to businesses who sponsor the Community Interest Company.

Find out more.

360 wellbeing

360 Wellbeing Centre says their professional team are available to help with any psychological, physical or social symptoms of poor mental health.

The centre has also launched ‘The Hub Spot,’ a serene and tranquil work space available to hire by the hour. The space is designed for people to professionally meet with clients, get work done in a stress-free environment, take video conferencing calls or simply just to relax and unwind. Unlimited tea and coffee is also available to suit individual tastes. For more information, email info@360wellbeingcentre.co.uk

Posted in About Chesterfield, Blog, Business, Destination Chesterfield, UncategorisedTagged in Activities in Chesterfield, Chesterfield blog, chesterfield business, chesterfield business news, Chesterfield Mental Health, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Destination Chesterfield, east midlands chamber, Heathcotes Group, mental health, Mental Health Awareness Week, Spire Radio, Surecare Chesterfield, university of derby

UK’s largest jumping pillow installed at Matlock Farm Park

23rd April 2021

The largest bouncy pillow in the UK is now open to visitors at Matlock Farm Park, following the attraction’s recent reopening.

Visitors have been welcomed back to the park since covid-19 restrictions were relaxed earlier this month, giving families their first chance to see and feed the wide variety of animals being looked after

The huge jumping pillow is the latest addition to the Park, which offers indoor and outdoor play areas, both of which have been carefully designed with younger children in mind. The outdoor play area features a wooden pirate ship, slides and climbing areas, with a large sandpit, Wendy house and sit-on original tractor.

Lotty Hawkins, Assistant manager at Matlock Farm Park said: “We’ve been so keen to have a new outdoor play area for a while to provide an even better day out to our customers and whilst it’s been a very tough year financially with the closure, we decided to really go for it and buy the UK’s largest Jumping Pillow! It’s a been a huge hit with visitors.”

The attraction recently gave people a sneak preview on its social media channels, by releasing some drone footage of the new pillow:

Currently staff at the park aren’t allowing children under the age of two years to use the pillow at regular times for safety reasons, but there will be opportunity in the park’s parent and toddler mornings which run during term time, Monday-Friday between 10:00am-11:30am.

The park also has a variety of events taking place throughout the summer for all ages, including an interactive reptile weekend and birds of prey day. In addition, The Snow Sisters and The Big Bubbleman will also be paying visits to the park on selected dates in May and June.

Matlock Farm Park supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 180 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.

Posted in Featured, Home, Leisure, Love Chesterfield, Summer, Uncategorised, VisitingTagged in Activities in Chesterfield, Chesterfield leisure, chesterfield news, chesterfield tourism, Matlock Farm Park