The Chesterfield and District Tramways Company and its successors ran a tramway system in the Derbyshire town of Chesterfield, England. The first horse-drawn line opened in 1882, and in 1897, the system was taken over by Chesterfield Corporation, who extended and electrified it in 1904 and 1905. Additional tramcars were purchased, but two had to be scrapped after a disastrous fire at the depot in 1916. The system suffered from a lack of maintenance as a result of reduced staffing levels during the First World War, and the trams were replaced by trolleybuses in 1927.
Chesterfield has obtained an Act of Parliament to build a network of trolleybus lines in 1913, and was nearly a pioneer in this field, but did not follow the plan through. When trolleybuses appeared in Chesterfield, they only operated on the former tramway route, with a small extension to New Whittington. A total of 19 trolleybuses were used on the system, including two double-deck vehicles, and three trolleybuses bought second-had from York. Expansion of the system was hampered by low railway bridges, and that was one of the reasons why the trolleybuses were replaced by motor buses in 1938.
History
The Chesterfield and District Tramways Company obtained an Act of Parliament to allow it to build two lines in Chesterfield. The Act was known as the Chesterfield Brampton and Whittington Tramways Order 1879, and the two lines totalled , but the company only constructed part of one of the lines, building of standard gauge track. This ran from the junction of Chatsworth Road and Walton Lane (now Walton Road) in the district of Brampton to the town centre at Low Pavement, near the market place, passing along Chatsworth Road and West Bars. There was a depot to the south of Chatsworth Road at Rodney Yard, just to the east of Alma Street. Joseph Speight of St Helens was employed to build the line, which progressed rather slowly, but it was eventually completed and the line opened on 8 November 1882. The trams were horse-drawn, and there were three vehicles, two double deck cars and one single deck car, all built by Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company Ltd. The company was short-lived, and went into voluntary liquidation in February 1885, with debts of £500.
The Chesterfield Tramways Company was registered on 6 December 1886, and took over the tramway. The company brought two more tramcars, probably single deck vehicles built by G.F. Milnes & Co. and reduced the fare prices from 2d to 1d. Chesterfield Corporation were keen to be involved in their own tram system, and when the Tramways company offered it to them in 1897, they paid £2,050 and took over the tramway from 22 November. The fee included the cost of winding up for the now-defunct Chesterfield Tramways Company.
Chesterfield Corporation bought a new single deck tram from Milnes in 1898, and two more cars in 1899. Expansion continued with the purchase in 1903 of two second-hand double deck trams from Sheffield Tramway, although some sources suggest that only one vehicle was bought, and that it may never have run on the system. By this time the Corporation were considering extending and electrifying the line. The town's first electrical engineer and tramways manager was Robert Lawford Acland, and under his direction, they obtained the Chesterfield Corporation Tramways and Improvements Act in 1904 to authorise the work. In order to allow the existing tracks to be relaid, the horse tram service was suspended from August 1904, when the work began. A new section of track, running northwards from the original Market Place terminus to Whittington Moor, more than doubled the length of the system. The horse tram service resumed once the line towards Brampton was completed, although it stopped short of the Brampton terminus, and the whole system was inspected by the Board of Trade on 19 December 1904. There is some doubt as to when the electric service started, due to conflicting sources, but the route to Brampton was running by 23 December, and half of the new route to the borough boundary at Stonegravels began operating on 24 December. The final section to Whittington Moor did not see trams until 31 January 1905. The initial service was provided by a fleet of twelve open-topped double deck trams, built by Brush Electrical Engineering Company.