Work to convert a weekly newspaper’s home for 100 years into a car park has begun.

Excavators have started demolishing the former offices of the Derbyshire Times, at Station Road, Chesterfield.

Planning documents state Cordwell Properties LLP intends to create more car parking spaces at the site after the work is completed in May.

The former printing presses at the site will be demolished along with some of the offices, but the building which which formerly housed editorial and commercial staff and which is now the headquarters for a provider of residential care homes will be preserved.

An archive photo of Station Road, the former home of the Derbyshire Times

The Times relocated to new offices at Spire Walk, Chesterfield, in June 2013.

To mark the beginning of demolition, the newspaper ran a piece sharing former employees’ memories of Station Road.

Among them was Eric Lowe, the last pressroom manager at the site, who said: “It will certainly be emotional to see the old buildings go. A lot of ex-colleagues will feel the same.

“Goodbye to the irreplaceable Derbyshire Times’ buildings at Station Road. It’s the end of an era.”

Demolition work beginning on the site