This unprepossessing small town stands on a ridge between the Rother Valley, with its iron and engineering works and the pleasant Amber Valley, and commands a fine view over East Derbyshire. Though iron smelting had been carried on in the neighbourhood for centuries, the present town has grown up only since the first collieries were opened in 1837 by George Stephenson, the famous railway engineer, who is buried at Chesterfield.
He discovered coal and iron while driving a railway tunnel through the hill on which the town stands, and founded the Clay Cross Company which established the first ironworks here. It was in the workshops of the company that William Howe, Stephenson's engineer, made an invention, known to engineers as Link-motion, that revolutionised the internal combustion engine. The collieries in the district are now all but gone, and Clay Cross is today dependent mainly on its ironworks and engineering works.
1990 saw the 150th anniversary of the first train through Clay Cross.
The church, whose spire is a prominent landmark in the surrounding country, was built in 1851 by H I Stevens of Derby, and is in the 13th century style of architecture. Near the entrance is the base of the ancient preaching cross from which the town was partly named.
Egstow Hall was built in 1669 and stands largely in its original splendour. It is now a private residence.
During the Second World War the land behind the present Snooker Centre was a prisoner of war camp. The prisoners in those days were put to work making concrete blocks at Butts Quarry in nearby Ashover, being transported daily to and from work on the Ashover Light Railway. It appears the prisoners became very much part of the local scene in Clay Cross making wooden models of 'doodle bugs' which they gave to local children and were even, on some occasions, let out to visit the local pubs. After the war, some remained in the area and married local girls.
The Countryside Centre at Clay Cross is the base for North Eastern Derbyshire Countryside Rangers. Both individuals and groups, I am reliably informed, are welcome to visit or telephone for advice, information and assistance. The Countryside Service have in their care The Five Pits, and Rowthorne Trails, and in the forseeable future, the Beighton-Staveley Trail. The Service also promotes circular walks such as the Brimington Common and Tapton Walk, with other sits including Grassmoor Country Park, Tibshelf Ponds, Linacre Reservoirs and woods, Poolbrook reclamation scheme and five miles of the Chesterfield Canal from Tapton Lock to Staveley.
