Sugar beet silos fall bit by bit

The last remnants of Allscott's sugar beet factory were today starting to disappear from the Shropshire skyline – ending an era.

Work to demolish three large silos began after a short delay because of windy weather.

They are more or less the last structures left on the landmark plant, which closed in February 2007.

One large machine and about three smaller machines with "jaws" to pinch all the concrete away were this afternoon working on nibbling away at the concrete.

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And staff hard at work on the site had an audience with the demolition attracting ex-employees and neighbouring residents to watch the sad moments as the silos disappeared.

Mark Jones, site manager, said large spotlights have also been brought in to allow work to be carried carried out from 7am to 7pm.

He said it was sad to see the silos go but added: "It's a shame but we have moved on from that. We just want to see it all complete.

"It's going very well. The wind has eased and we are making progress."

Blowing up the silos had not been feasible because they were near a road and houses.

The demolition will take about two weeks. A 32-week programme of work to bulldoze the plant and revamp the site began in September.

The 60ft chimney – with red warning lights on top – attached to the boiler house went last week when a machine was used to push it over.

There are no plans yet on what is to be done with the 350-acre site after the closure of the plant with the loss of 110 jobs.nextpage

Demolition work begins on the sugar beet factory towers. Pictures by Andrew Cunningham. nextpage

The site before the demolition of the towers begannextpage

The towers as the crane pulls them down bit by bitnextpage

The crane at worknextpage

The afttermath of the demolition work