An eerie silence gripped the area in 1997 as news spread surrounding the death of Princess Diana. Within hours, people in Swadlincote paid their own poignant tribute by laying flowers and personal messages in the town.
The tributes were left by the plaque in the town which celebrated the 1981 marriage between Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
The memorial plaque had been unveiled at the entrance to a commemorative park at the end of High Street during a visit by Princess Anne three months after the wedding.
Over the coming days, Swadlincote grew as a shrine for floral bouquets, Meanwhile, Burtonians started to lay flowers at the Memorial Gardens, in Lichfield Street.
As news of the crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris spread, prominent faces in the area shared their grief.
Speaking at the time, Burton's MP Sir Ivan Lawrence said the Princess had died with "many more decades of good to offer the world".
Mr Lawrence said: "The real tragedy is that the life of someone who gave so much to inspire the sick and the young throughout the entire world should have been cut off so tragically.
"She was not only a radiant star who was essentially British, totally, totally British, but she was loved by hundreds of millions of people throughout the world."
Former South Derbyshire MP Edwina Currie, said: "The whole incident is very very sad and my heart goes out to all the families involved."
When Princess Diana visited Swadlincote in September 1991, seven-year-old Louisa Jane Bennett was chosen to present her with a posy of flowers.
Speaking in 1997, the 13-year-old Pingle School pupil said her thoughts were with Prince William and Prince Harry as they were of a similar age.
Louisa said: "It must have been really terrible for them. I just want to say we are all thinking of you and hope you have a happy life."
On the day of the funeral, banks, breweries and shops closed as a mark of respect. All of the major supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Kwik-Save, Safeway and Metro closed until 2pm.
Somerfield supermarkets remained open throughout the day but all profits were donated to the British Red Cross for its landmine appeal.
The leisure centres in Burton and Uttoxeter closed all day while pubs owned by Bass and Allied Domecq opened at noon. Marston's allowed publicans to choose their own arrangements to suit the day.
Toyota closed down its production lines while Bass and Carlsberg-Tetley allowed a break in production to enable staff to mark the two-minute silence.
The opening of the new £110 million Derby Southern A50 bypass was expected to be a high profile event at the time, but instead, highways officials scrapped the plans.
Roads minister Baroness Hayman was due to cut an official ribbon but instead the opening was marked with a quick police safety inspection followed by the removal of safety bollards before traffic started to flow on the Derby to Stoke section.
Those were the days....
As the televised funeral got underway on September 6, streets normally bustling with shoppers were completely deserted.
The streets normally filled with traffic stood empty and Burton's war memorial which had become a focal point for moments of quiet reflection also stood deserted.
The Burton Mail's news editor, the late Andy Parker, walked the streets of Burton on the morning of the funeral. He wrote: "Never before has one event had such an effect on Burton or on the country as a whole. Even main roads into the town were eerily empty of traffic with only the odd car passing almost guiltily amid the unprecedented silence that settled in a sad shroud, on everywhere and everything."
