40 years of meeting inspirational people in Chesterfield and interviewing celebrities such as Tony Benn and Peter Andre for the Derbyshire Times

By Gay Bolton
Published 7th Mar 2023, 11:46 BST
Gay Bolton has been with the Derbyshire Times for 40 years this week.Gay Bolton has been with the Derbyshire Times for 40 years this week.
Gay Bolton has been with the Derbyshire Times for 40 years this week.
Forty years ago this week my life changed when I arrived in Chesterfield, knowing no-one and very little about the town except that it had a famous church.

Of all the places in all the world, what attracted me to Derbyshire nearly 200 miles away from my family home in Northumberland?

Blame Sheffield....the place where I'd done journalism block release training with a lecturer who had previously worked on the Derbyshire Times and shared such great stories about working in Chesterfield that it sounded right up my street.

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Coincidentally, that lecturer's son was working as a photographer at the Derbyshire Times when I joined and was to accompany me on my first assignment. The tip-off for the job came in while I was at the editor's house on the Sunday being treated to a welcome tea. Briefing me on the task, the editor told me to meet the photographer in the car park the following morning..."You can't miss him" he said, "he looks just like his dad."

Gay Bolton with The Gift, one of the early winners of the Band of the Year competition.Gay Bolton with The Gift, one of the early winners of the Band of the Year competition.
Gay Bolton with The Gift, one of the early winners of the Band of the Year competition.

At 8am the following morning, we set out on our mission.The job was to cover a road protest in Doe Lea where campaigners were demanding a speed limit and threatening to lie down in the road to make their point. Exciting stuff but I can remember being brought back down to earth by the news editor saying to me 'what time do you call this,' when I walked into the office for the first time to meet my new colleagues at 11am!

That same week, I was sent to cover a fire at the New Drum estate in Shirebrook and was taken there by one of my fellow journalists, who I guess had been asked to do so in case I got lost in unfamiliar territory.

I returned to Shirebrook several times during my first year to cover the impact that the miners' strike had and recollect being in awe of the wives who were running soup kitchens to ensure their community didn’t go hungry.