barbed memories
Inside abandoned English stadium covered in barbed wire with eerie new stand that has never hosted a match
The club's owner recalled the stunning reason why they had to leave
GHOST goals. Haunted houses. Ghost ships. How about a ghost stadium?
Well, that is exactly what the Millmoor Ground, or Millmoor, the "spiritual home" of Championship side Rotherham, is nowadays.
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The stadium, located near the middle of town, was Rotherham's home for 83 years.
It dates all the way back to the 1890s when it was used by the Rotherham Church Institute in the Sheffield Association League, before passing to Rotherham County and then Rotherham United.
It has overseen seven promotions, eight relegations and played host to their ever League Cup final in 1961 when Rotherham beat Aston Villa 2-0 in the first leg before the Villans won 3-0 in the second leg.
But it has now become decrepit and being left desolate since 2008 after Rotherham were forced to move out following a row over rent.
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Following a four-year spell renting Sheffield's Don Valley Athletics Stadium, the Millers moved to their current 12,000 capacity AESSEAL New York Stadium.
Millmoor - located just a few hundred yards away from the club's new home - held some 8,300 fans but held a record attendance of 25,170 when local rivals Sheffield United came to visit back in 1952.
It understandably holds plenty of sentimental value to the Millers faithful given it had been their ground since Rotherham's inception in 1925.
However, the ground is now an empty shell which promised so much.
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Covered in barbed wire and overgrown plants and surrounded by fences, you might be mistaken for thinking the Millmoor would fit into a science fiction film set in a dystopian future.
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But no, it is far from fiction. It is real life.
Rotherham left Millmoor while in the middle of constructing a new main stand.
Scheduled for completion in 2006, it was constantly delayed following the discovery of Japanese knotweed.
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You can still see the half-built stand, but it will never be finished.
Would-be trespassers into the ground are warned of the dangers with a few huge "keep out" signs.
There are also posters of CF Booth all over after former Rotherham owner Ken Booth - who owned the scrap metal yard next to the ground - took over and saved the club from administration in 1987.
Reflecting on the ground, the club's current owner and chairman Tony Stewart told last year: "Millmoor is decaying. It’s falling apart."
As for why Millmoor has stood dormant for the best part of two decades, Stewart is perplexed, adding: "It’s a mystery to Rotherham. It’s a mystery to the man on the street."
Booth had done his best to keep the club afloat following the collapse of ITV's Digital TV deal which ravaged the lower leagues.
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A fan consortium took over the club for £1 after a favourable deal was struck with the Booth family - which involved the club's only tangible assets Millmoor and the club’s training ground — being left in the family's possession.
Another group then came in before Stewart took over.
The common story is that the club left Millmoor because the Booths were charging high rent.
But Stewart remembers it slightly differently, explaining how the Booths wanted them to keep the stadium the exact same during a five-year lease while Rotherham wanted to look into a new stadium.
Stewart said: "There were 18 items [demanded by the Booths] I didn’t agree with.
"It would’ve meant that if there was a scratch to a cabinet, I would’ve had to replace all that. I just felt it wasn’t right."
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Rotherham's final game at Millmoor was a 1-0 win over Barnet, but with negotiations ongoing over the ground's future there was no big farewell for it.
The club's new ground is far more suited to a team in England's second tier with its modern facilities, but Millmoor still stands as a tapestry to Rotherham's history.
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