Dronfield

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Dronfield is a town in North East Derbyshire, England, situated between Sheffield and Chesterfield on the River Drone. It covers an area of 3,457 acres, has a population of around 23,000 people and is served by Dronfield railway station. Nearby are the villages and hamlets of Unstone, Holmesfield, Barlow, Apperknowle, and Hundall. The Peak District National Park is also close by.

It is an ancient market town, pre-existing the 1086 Domesday Book, which grew around various industries, the most widespread of which was coal mining. Notable buildings in the town include several 16th and 17th century houses, including the town's library (formerly a manor house), a grammar school built in 1579, and a 15th century building long used as a barn with a king post roof. Its 12th century St. John the Baptist parish church exhibits a fine 138 foot spire. The Peel Monument, situated on the town's High Street, was built in 1854 out of gritstone as a tribute to Sir Robert Peel to commemorate his repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. This monument serves as pivotal in Dronfield's image.

Dronfield's population has increased dramatically in post war years from 6,500 in 1945 to its current size mainly as a dormitory community for workers from the nearby city of Sheffield, which has in the past attempted to bring the town within its own boundaries. Today it comprises of three increasingly suburban communities, Coal Aston, Dronfield, and Dronfield Woodhouse. Town centre shopping is well served by car parking, the main shops, civic amenities and sports centre with swimming pool lying conveniently in the upper town around the Civic Centre

Dronfield Woodhouse once boasted a status of being the largest privately-owned housing estate in Europe when it was first built in the 1970s. During the same decade a bypass was built running through the westerly side of the town to allow easier access for travel between the larger populated areas of Sheffield to the north, and Chesterfield to the south.

The town's Coach and Horses football ground is now home to the world's oldest football team, Sheffield F.C.

The town's weekly local newspaper publishing is called the Dronfield Advertiser.

Notable events are the annual Dronfield gala and the Dronfield Woodhouse and Coal Aston well dressings which are held in July.

Dronfield has a twin town in Germany, called Sindelfingen. A park in Dronfield Woodhouse was renamed after the town to celebrate this partnership in the early 1990s.

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