Workhouse, Newbold Road, Chesterfield
Built between 1838-9, housing 300 inmates, to a plan similar to that at Boston, Sir George Gilbert Scott and Moffat showed the Guardians a wooden model of their proposed building. However, to reduce costs, the Guardians visited new workhouses at Belper, Burton on Trent, Derby and Mansfield and a number of changes were made to the plans including the omission of a block for 'idiots' and 'imbeciles'. The final cost of building and fitting out the workhouse was around £10,000. The builders, Wilson and Knight of Radford, had contracted to carry out the construction work for the sum of £6,245. However, their tender presumably underestimated the cost of the work and they went bankrupt in the process. Chesterfield was typical of Scott and Moffatt's workhouse designs. At the north, a single storey entrance block with a central entrance archway faced onto Newbold Road. This block contained the porter's lodge, the Guardians' board room, clerk's office, receiving wards and so on. The western side of the entrance block contained two large rooms, one of which was a school room and may also have served as a chapel. To the rear of the entrance block stood the three storey main accommodation block, the area in between being divided into boys' and girls' walled playgrounds either side of a central thoroughfare. The main block would have contained the master and matron's quarters at its centre, with men's accommodation to the east and women's to the west. A U-shaped infirmary stood at the rear of the site, flanked by various single storey buildings at each side, with a laundry on the women's side, and workshops on the men's. It was demolished in 2002 and replaced by housing.
