junction 29 is five miles away. The nearest railway stations are Chesterfield (6 miles) and Alfreton. Clay Cross station closed as part of the Beeching cuts in 1967. In 2017, a Stagecoach in Chesterfield bus connecting Clay Cross to Chesterfield railway station was introduced. A passenger railway line runs in a tunnel under the town without stopping. There has been talk of providing a motorway spur to the town in the past. To ease chronic congestion on the A61, which has seen traffic grow by 10% in the past few years, there is talk of a dual carriageway bypassing Clay Cross and Tupton before joining the A617 near Hasland, heading North West to Horns Bridge. Education Tupton Hall School is in Tupton and located about one mile to the north of Clay Cross. Previously Clay Cross had a secondary school located in Market Street, and a junior school located off High Street. The junior and infant schools were merged and moved to a new purpose built complex on Pilsley Road Danesmoor and renamed Sharley Park Community Primary School. The site of the former schools has been cleared and is awaiting development. The secondary school was closed in 1969 and transferred to Tupton Hall as part of the Government's drive to comprehensive education, it is now one of the largest with around 2,000 pupils, including a sixth form centre. Clay Cross Secondary School was converted to an adult education centre. Sport Leisure centre Sharley Park Leisure Centre, on the A6175, Market Street, has swimming, gym and sports hall facilities. Football Five football clubs from the town, all now extinct, have competed in the FA Cup over the years - Clay Cross Town FC (1874) Clay Cross Zingari FC Clay Cross Town FC (1909) Clay Cross & Danesmoor Welfare FC Biwater FC (formerly Clay Cross Works FC) The town's current team, the third to be called Clay Cross Town, play in the Central Midlands Football League, and played in the FA Vase for the first time in 2016. Demography In the 2011 census, Clay Cross was 97.7% White, 1.1% Asian, 0.8% Mixed (multiple), and 0.2% Black. Notable residents Dennis Skinner was born and grew up in the town, and went to Tupton Hall Grammar School. He first worked at Parkhouse Colliery (known as Catty Pit) in 1949, a mile to the east of Clay Cross. The pit closed in 1962. He was