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The naming of pubs has no official guidelines or rules; aside from common decency, crude or offensive names would not be permitted by the local council. Apart from that, any landlord can give their pub any name they want which is why the story behind many pub names can be lost to the annals of time.

There are several categories for the naming of pubs, one of the oldest of which is geography.

Names that indicate the location of the pub would be useful in centuries past, for travellers and locals alike. We’ve all been given directions to destinations that include pub names, sometimes after the local landmark has long gone. Examples of this in Chesterfield include the Bridge Inn, the Crooked Spire, the Market and possibly the oldest pub in Chesterfield, the Royal Oak. Sometimes people making their way to a far off destination could be tempted to take a break and spend their money if you called your pub The Travellers Rest.

Not so long ago, there were 99 pubs in the central square mile of Chesterfield, the highest concentration of drinking establishments in Europe.

Gardeners Arms on Glumangate may have been named after an occupation or as a way of drawing people of a similar interest together.

Competition was high and landlords needed to make their establishment stand out, this gave rise to the practice of having eye-catching emblems, stuffed mascots or artefacts either inside or outside the pub. Names like the Tiger, the Peacock, the Star and Garter, the Leopard, the Punch Bowl, the Blue Bell Inn, the Falcon Inn, the Spread Eagle, and the Yellow Lion are examples.

Chesterfield folk have a funny habit of creating alternative names for pubs like this. For instance, the White Swan, which was named after the emblem of the Dean of Lincoln, was known locally, as the Mucky Duck, and the Buck, now Einstein’s, was known affectionately by locals as the Reindeer.

Another category of pub names could be called tribute names. Many public houses are named after famous, or even infamous people and characters. The Portland Hotel is named after the now defunct Duke of Portland. The Portland Hotel was built on the eastern side of the Market Station, the terminus of the ill-fated Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway. The line never made it to Lancashire or the East Coast and closed to passengers in 1957. The Duke of Portland was instrumental in the construction of the line which passed through much of his land. All pubs called the Alma are a tribute to a battle in the Crimean War in 1854.

Trades are sometimes represented in the names of pubs, probably as an attempt to gather like-minded people or local employees. For example, the Gardeners Arms, the Masons Arms and the Square and Compass. In a loose connection to this category, sailors can still find a maritime quarter at the junction of St Mary’s Gate and Hollis Lane. Pubs in this area have had the names, the Ship, the Old Ship, the Galleon, the Anchor and Chandler’s Bar, although the latter is named after the character Chandler Bing from the television show Friends, not the older name for a merchant of ships parts.

Cathedral Vaults, nicknamed the Pretty Windows, was on Market Square, Chesterfield

More recently, pub names have tended to reflect the aesthetic of the pub, in order to give the newcomer some idea of what to expect inside. The Pig and Pump was so called to reflect the real ale and speciality sausage being offered within. The Rectory has pews and church style chairs with a small shelf under the seat for hymn books, and it even has a confessional box.

A formerly common suffix for public houses was Vaults. This appears to have been where buildings with large wine cellars, typically wine merchants, had been converted into public houses. For example, Spa Lane Vaults, Cathedral Vaults, and Soresby Vaults (now The Hidden Knight). The Cathedral Vaults was also given a colloquial name of Pretty Windows, some say because of the architecture, but others insist that it was because of the ‘painted ladies’ who advertised themselves in the windows facing the main market place.

The Hidden Knight falls into another category that could be titled ‘historic references’. Soresby Street on which it stands is named after Soresby Hall, that stood near the current location of the Market Hall. Its owner, Sir Soresby, became known for hiding catholic knights during the reformation.

The south facing frontage and large windows of the Sun Inn, on West Bars, is probably the reason for its celestial name but as there has been a public house on this site since the 1800s, it’s impossible to be sure.

Star and Garter Inn in New Square would have been named after the chivalry honour, Order of the Garter, created by Edward III more than 700 years ago.

Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of all the categories of pub names, but hopefully you now know a little more about the pub names of Chesterfield.

Shaun Stevenson is the founder of the Chesterfield Great Historic Pub Tour which will restart in May 2023. Meanwhile, Shaun and Martin Alvey are running Chesterfield Great Historic Ghost Hunt from October 28-30; for more details, go www.facebook.com/CGHPT/

Chesterfield Great Historic Pub Tour founder investigates how town's watering holes got their names