Two demolished cooling towers near the M1

Tinsley Towers, Sheffield Yorkshire

Hundreds of people had gathered overnight to watch attempts at a controlled explosion of the 250ft Tinsley Towers. However the 3am blast left a large part of the North Tower still standing. A second blast was carried out and the demolition was completed.

Energy firm E.ON, which owns the towers, wanted to destroy the structures between junctions 32 and 35 after getting permission to build a new biomass power station.

The iconic cooling towers are a familiar landmark next to the M1.For 70 years, they had stood just a few metres from the southbound carriageway of the motorway as it crosses the Don Valley between Sheffield and Rotherham.

After proposals to demolish them were first announced, a local campaign began to save them, with ideas for their future use including making them into massive art works. E.ON will develop the biomass power station at Blackburn Meadows, which it says will generate enough electricity for around 40,000 homes.

Sky News

Slide show on Flickr

COMMENTS 28 August 2008: Annie Henge comments on blog entry

I was at the event of the cooling towers being brought down and got a photo which has provoked some very positive and surprised comments. Look North, our local BBC news station reported that there were actually around 8,000 people watching the explosion, not hundreds as you have stated in the SalvoWeb report. Some of these people were in place at tea time on Saturday so they would get a good view and they were having hot drinks and food in anticipation of a long night. The atmosphere was good and party like, there was no trouble everyone was enjoying the event. Some were very sad at the passing of our iconic landmark and others thought it should be done so Sheffield can move on. It was an historic event that I was privileged to attend.
Ann