For more than 200 years, hundreds of workers would flock to Whatman Paper Mill.

Better known today as Springfield Mill, the site, off Maidstone’s Royal Engineers Road, was once one of the largest producers of paper in the country.

It paved the way for machine-led, steam-powered paper production.

Over the years the site’s production would change, playing a global role producing medical filters under Whatman, but its home and history stayed in Maidstone.

That is until the company sold up in 2009. Six years later the site was closed and most of it now faces demolition making way for 295 homes.

Before bulldozers move in later this year, our sister paper the Kent Messenger was invited for one last look around with former staff and local historians.

Jackie Winder worked for Whatman from 1997 until 2012, spending seven years as facilities manager.

She said: “I love all of this place, warts and all, to think of it being razed to the ground fills me with horror.

“I never thought I’d get so bitten by a place of work, but you could feel the history when you walked around.

“One of the chaps who worked here was born in a cottage on the mill’s boundary, his father worked here and another generation before him. Whole families would work here.”

In 2009, 204 years since the site opened in 1805, Whatman was bought by GE Healthcare.

Mrs Winder added: “It lost some of its family feel because then it was owned by a huge international conglomerate.

"The bar on things like health and safety was raised incredibly, it was difficult to comply.”

In 2015 the plot was emptied and in February Maidstone Borough Council approved plans to build 218 flats and 77 houses.

A Second World War bunker hidden behind an overgrown entrance is one of the hidden treasures left inside a factory where complex machines, abandoned offices and even the staff canteen, are all gathering dust.

In just months the buildings and their contents will be gone, all that will remain is the mill’s iconic chimney, its Grade II listed Rag Room and a beam from its original steam engine.

The Rag Room will be used for community use while the investors are eyeing up the listed structure it is housed in for potential office use.

Many of the new buildings, including a four and a five storey block of flats, are being placed in similar positions to existing buildings.

David Banfield planning director for Redrow South East: “We followed the lines for existing buildings and we’ve ended up paying homage to history without even knowing it.

“We’ve been careful with the design of our properties to pick up things like the existing bricks, how the window heads are shaped and the colours of the front doors.”

Redrow plans to build a heritage trail showing off the mills vibrant and diverse history.

Artist Kerry Lemon has been commissioned to design the trail and was on the visit.

She said: “It was fantastic as every time I had a question there would be someone who would know the answer.”

Demolition work is expected to start by the end of the year.