Out & About: Crooked Spire and Revolution House

This week we had the opportunity to visit the last stoop known to us in Derbyshire. The stoop is kept in Revolution House which is now a museum in Old Whittington near Chesterfield. The museum is open only over the Christmas period & then it closes until April 2012. I contacted the museum and arranged for us to visit and view the stoop which was in a separate room, not open at this time. The room is normally open but it doubles up as a storage room during the Christmas period and is closed to the public.
Revolution House doesn't open until 11:00 am so we thought we would call in and visit the Church of St. Mary and all saints in Chesterfield.
The famous crooked spire is visible for miles around and there are several theories why it is crooked.
My favourite is that there wasn't enough cross members to support the weight of the lead tiles that were added much later.
When the spire was constructed in 1362 it was covered in wooded tiles and apparently it was straight for the first 300 years, after this the wooden tiles were replaced with lead tiles ( these weigh in at 33 tons) and that's when the spire began to twist. The twisting has been attributed to the sun heating up the lead on the south side and causing unequal expansion and contraction to the north side, giving the twist.
The spire is twisted 45 degrees and leans 2.9 metres.

The spire has a twist of 45 degrees and leans 2.9 metres

Close up of the tiles

The tower contains a peal of 10 bells

St. Mary's and All Saints Church Chesterfield.

Inside the church which is the largest in Derbyshire is just as spectacular as the outside.
Magnificent stained glass windows and the internal stone structure is amazing.

This is the oldest window at 1890 with Moses top centre.

The newest window with the 3 plotters centre panel.

The plotters in the room at the Cock & Pynot.

This chest looks likes it could have come from the crusades.

We walked back to the car park and passed a couple of interesting establishments.

Don't eat to many of these!!

What goes on in there!!

Revolution House was only 10 minutes out of Chesterfield in Old Whittington. We got there a few minutes early and had a walk around the area until 11:00. Now this Revolution House has a true place in history when in 1688 a meeting of 3 powerful men changed the order of succession of the monarchy.
The 3 conspirators met on Whittington Moor to discuss the revolution but a rain storm forced them to find somewhere out of the weather. They ended up in the Cock & Pynot and finished there discussions there. They were William Cavendish (the 4th Earl of Devonshire) later to become the 1st Duke, Lord Delamere, John Marcy and the Earl of Danby.
The bloodless revolution saw King James 2nd deposed in favour of William of Orange.
The window in St. Mary's Church in Chesterfield shows the men plotting in the Cock & Pynot.

The Cock & Magpie
Pynot is the local name for a magpie.

Revolution House

Plaque on the wall of Revolution House

Jonathon the curator let us into the room where the stoop was kept. It still had a lot of material surrounding the stoop so he gave us permission to move it so we could have a proper look and take some pics.