Dronfield Landmarks

St John the Baptist was built in the 12th century and is one of Dronfield’s most famous landmarks. With its early style of Gothic architecture, it features a number of beautiful stained-glass windows and the spire can be seen from most Dronfield. It has its own choir and its own music group, run by young members of the church.

Another famous landmark is the Peel Monument, a very elaborate well, which is situated on the town’s high Street. It was built in 1854 out of Peak District gritstone as a tribute to Sir Robert Peel to commemorate his repeal of the corn laws in 1846. The monument is very distinctive and is often portrayed in images the town.

The Cottage is very near to the Peel monuments on High Street and is a 16th century house once believed to have been owned by Lord Byron, though there is no proof that he was actually a resident of Dronfield.

The Hall is a very imposing private residence reputed to be haunted by a white lady. It is a Queen  Anne building with heavy rooftop ballustrades and two tiers of mullioned windows which look like they could have been pointing at an earlier age.

The Barn is next to the Hall but well set back from the road. A very old building with a mediaeval King post roof, this is another building which shows the Dronfielders apparent fondness for simple house names. It is thought it was the mediaeval predecessor of the Hall and there are tentative plans to convert the upper story into a museum and the lower storey into a cafe.

The Blue Stoops pub was given the name as reference to the mediaeval custom of adding blue paint to door posts and bollards, or stoops, to indicate the presence of an inn to travellers. There is an old stone chimney piece which forms a ‘baffle wall’ immediately behind the front door, forcing anyone who enters to turn immediately left or right.

The Green Dragon Pub is opposite the church and it is said that there is a tunnel from the church to the pub, which was once a dwelling for the chantry priests. It is home to some of the Dronfield ghosts.

The River Drone is a small river which runs through Dronfield and joins the Barlow brook at Unstone. It then flows into the River Rother at Whittington Moor in Chesterfield.

Callywhite Lane Cliffe Park is situated very near Dronfield Henry Fanshawe school, and has a number of amenities the local residents, including a fantastic children’s adventure play area, a bowling green and tennis courts.

Dronfield Manor is in the 18th-century manor house occupied by the town library. It is a grade 2 listed building and is two storey tall with a seven bay entrance front, the central bay which projects to form a two-storey porch with an arched doorway.

The manor was owned by the Crown until granted by King John to William Briewer where it passed through several hands until it was sold by Anthony Morewood and sold to Francis Burton in 1600. In 1700, the old Manor house was replaced by Ralph Burton, with the present one, the gorgeous sandstone house. When Burton died in 1740, the estate, passed to his sister’s husband Rossington, who sold it to John Rotheram, the High Sheriff of Derbyshire. Having passed on to yet another family, the Cecil’s, in the 1930s it was acquired by the local authority for use as council offices, but since 1967, the building has been occupied and is known and loved as the town’s library.

Dronfield Henry Fanshawe school on Green Lane takes its intake from all of the eight schools within Dronfield and the surrounding area and occasionally includes pupils from Sheffield or Chesterfield.