[1] Tightly surrounded by housing, the football stadium was located near Chesterfield's town centre on the thoroughfare of the same name.

After a decade of financial struggle, other clubs who had invested in their stadia vied for an opening in the league and Chesterfield Town were voted out in 1909.

"[17]In 1931, at a time of growing ambition for the club, terracing was cut into the cinder banking of the Kop and further earth removal from the Cross Street to Saltergate end was undertaken to level the pitch.

In a successful push for promotion to the Second Division in 1931–32, 20,092 fans crammed into the ground to see the home team overtake Lincoln City for the top spot.

After the Second World War, the club faced a pressing need to raise funds to service the debt on the new stand and pay off the bank loan.

[20] With relegation in 1951, average gates took a heavy knock and the decline continued over the decade as success eluded the club, which finally dropped to the fourth tier of English football for the first time in 1961.

[1][21] In 1979, the centre section of the Compton Street Terrace was re-roofed and a wooden television gantry added, the only notable ground work in the decade.

[2] Talk of relocation dominated the 1994 AGM, with a sizeable group of supporters advocating the redevelopment of Saltergate, rather than its abandonment – including the Crooked Spireite fanzine.

[2] New plans for the club to leave Saltergate in favour of Wheeldon Mill emerged in October 1995 and were pursued avidly by Chairman Norton Lea in the face of substantial opposition.

[2][24] Though the scheme was blocked in 1998 when the council refused planning permission, subsequent unsuccessful attempts were made to revive the move well into the next decade.

[25][26] Although 2001 saw a hastily organised fans group, the Chesterfield Football Supporters Society, replace Brown in controlling the club (he was later to be jailed for fraud), they faced a myriad of challenges related to ensuring Saltergate's future.

In 2003, members of the Chesterfield Football Supporters Society voted in favour of the club pursuing relocation to Wheeldon Mill.

[30] For 8 May 2010, the date of the final game, Chesterfield Community Trust organised a number of events to celebrate the history of Saltergate and bid it farewell.

A heritage project at The Pomegranate Theatre presented a visual history of the club's time at the ground, including match footage from 1923 and photos dating back to 1900.

Former players, including Albert Collins of the 1945 Football League War Cup semi-final side, were also present to share their memories.

's final league fixture at Saltergate ended in a dramatic 2–1 win against AFC Bournemouth following an injury time goal from Derek Niven, the club's longest serving player.

[35] In the weeks following the game, Saltergate hosted a series of final commemorative events, including an auction of fixtures and memorabilia that raised £20,000 for the club.

However, it was announced that the ground would continue in use by the Chesterfield FC Community Trust for its Saturday Morning Club and Summer holiday Soccer Camp 'for the foreseeable future'.

[41] With planning permission obtained, the 4+1⁄2-acre site was put up for sale by the club in October 2011;[42] meanwhile supporters began a Facebook Group calling for the streets in any future development to be named after former Chesterfield players.

[44] In January 2012, as the prospect of demolition neared, the club announced that a pair of original 1936 seats from the Saltergate main stand would gain a permanent home at the Football League's Preston headquarters, where they were to be refurbished and located in the reception area.

[8][50] In September 2012, Chesterfield Borough Council invited fans to nominate possible names for the road at the new development,[51] from which seven options were subsequently put to the popular vote in an online poll.

[52] In December 2012, the winning street name was announced as 'Spire Heights', a play on the club nickname 'Spireites' when pronounced with a local accent.

[53] In the autumn of 2014 Chesterfield Borough Council commissioned local artist Melanie Jackson to design a piece of artwork to mark the site of the football ground.

The artwork consists of a railing depicting the ground and fans as well as a tree guard and a series of bronze inlays linked to multimedia works.

In the early 1920s, the construction of Cross Street at the opposite end of the ground led to earth and remnants of the cinder running track being used to build up the banking of the Kop.

[1][55] In December 2000, The Kop was closed for the remainder of the season on orders of the Football Licensing Authority and a major upgrading effort became one of the many summer challenges facing the fans who had taken over the club.

[2][59] Of the four sides of the ground, the Kop offered the most potential for redevelopment because of a relative abundance of space and was thus the focal point of all plans drawn up to keep the club at its historic home.

[1][55] Until becoming a seated area, supporters could move freely between Compton Street and the Kop, resulting in the familiar half-time sight of fans flowing from the former to the latter for an improved view of the away goal.

At the time of Saltergate's closure, the wall at the back of the terrace was the ground's oldest surviving feature, built by the council in return for the land needed to create Cross Street in 1921.

[1] Football ground writer Simon Inglis described the Cross Street End in 1983 as "a low bank of terracing attractively backed by a castellated wall.