Chellaston

Template:GBthumb Chellaston is a suburb of the City of Derby, which is located in the East Midlands in England in the United Kingdom. It is on a natural hill, and has recently become much larger, because of new housing estates.

The suburb lies about 5 miles south of Derby city centre, and is the southern-most part of the city.

Chellaston's biggest claim to fame is that it was once one of the largest producers of mined alabaster in the United Kingdom. However, this is no longer the case. The remains of Chellaston's pits can be found at the bottom of Pit Close Lane and Woodgate Drive, and the site is now popular with BMX bikers and teenagers, the majority of the pits now being used for landfill.

The main road through Chellaston is Derby Road (A514), which becomes Swarkestone Road at the crossroads with High Street. Other major roads in Chellaston are High Street, Sinfin Moor Lane, Parkway, Maple Drive, Sutton Avenue, Station Road, Glenwood Road, Linacres Drive and Snelsmoor Lane.

Chellaston has a Co-op supermarket on the corner of High Street and Derby Road. The Post Office is located on Derby Road near Station Road, next to Chellaston Garage (a small car repair business), a Chinese Restaurant (which used to be a petrol filling station) and the Tesco Express.

There are four schools; Chellaston Infants School on School Lane, Chellaston Junior School on Maple Drive, Homefields Primary School on Parkway and Chellaston School (senior school and 6th form college) on Swarkestone Road. Chellaston School's catchment area includes the nearby villages of Melbourne, Aston-on-Trent, Ticknall, Barrow upon Trent and Weston-on-Trent. Chellaston Foundation School and Technology College currently has over 1700 pupils and is currently facing problems with families who move to Chellaston wanting their children to go there. The school is not able to accept many of the applications. This problem has recently increased due to the Local Education Authority's recent changes to the system.

There are three churches in Chellaston. The sky-dominating St. Peter's Church (Church of England) on St. Peter's Road, the Methodist Church on High Street and the Sherwin Centre Catholic Church on Swarkestone Road next to Chellaston School. The three churches have a good relationship, and put on a joint service every Christmas.

In terms of pubs, Chellaston has 6 if you include the bars at the Lawns Hotel and the British Legion on High Street. There is the Red Lion, the Corner Pin, and the Rose and Crown, all situated on the main road (A514). The Bonnie Prince is off the A50 roundabout.

The fairly-new Chellaston Park on Snelsmoor Lane includes a children's playground, football pitches, a cricket pitch and changing facilities. There is also a children's playground next to the recently extended Chellaston Community Centre, which is situated on Barley Croft, off High Street.

Chellaston usually has an annual summer carnival complete with floats, although this did not occur in 2003 as money was instead spent on extending the community centre.

Approximately 1000 new homes have been, and are being, built to the west of Chellaston close to the rarely used canal.

52.86705°N 1.43844°W / 52.86705; -1.43844