Haunting images show sad demise of Masson Mill

STARK images show the inside of Masson Mills after it closed for good earlier this month.

The Shopping Village shut when the national lockdown was imposed in March and has not reopened since restrictions were lifted.

The adjoining working textile museum, conference and exhibition centre have also remained closed. The future of part of the Derwent Valley Mills World heritage site is uncertain.

Now photographer Mark Matthews, of Haunted Media Photography, has captured these images from inside the shopping village, showing how it looks following the closure.

The images, shot in black and white, shows the hushed, empty surroundings of what was once a busy shopping centre.

Signs about the site can be seen, as well as cardboard boxes, empty shelves, mannequins, fittings, and clothes on small and forgotten racks.

“Please pay here”, “Thank you for visiting Masson” and “fitting rooms” boards can also be seen hanging overhead in the silent corridors of the site.

Masson Mill was originally purchased by businessman Robert Mountford Aram in 1988, one of several he bought around the country.

It closed as a mill in 1991 and over the next eight years a plan was developed to create a £4 million scheme to restore the 18th century Derbyshire textile mill and turn it into a heritage centre and shopping complex.

Mill owner Robert Aram put up about £2m, Edinburgh Woollen Mill paid almost £1m and was the largest tenant, and the remaining money came from English Partnerships and English Heritage.

The mill on the A6 between Cromford and Matlock Bath was originally built by Industrial Revolution pioneer Richard Arkwright in 1793 and became part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage site in 2001.