Thomas Philpot Wood was a wine and spirit merchant with a large shop on the High Street in the town centre. He also pioneered bottled spring water.

Thomas was elected to the Town Council at 23 and gave 45 years of continuous service. He was three times Mayor (1873, 1886 and 1887) and was granted honorary Freedom of the Borough.

T P Wood’s Almanacs produced between 1868 and the 1960s were directories of information on Chesterfield people and businesses and gave a chronology of local events.

He was the driving force behind the creation of Queen's Park which opened in 1893. 

He spent much of his life as a benefactor to the town. He initiated the purchase of the land for Queen's Park to mark the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria's coronation. He donated £500 of his own money for this (a vast amount at the time - the Duke of Devonshire donated £200. The money set aside to present him with a silver casket was instead used to erect the original bandstand at his request. Wood went on to campaign for the land for the Annexe in memoriam of Queen Victoria's death in 1901.

He lived in Brambling House, Hady which is now St Peter and St Paul's Independent School and is buried in Spital Cemetery.