| This gallery documents the demolition of one of the former local industrial landmarks in this area, and one of the few remaining examples of our industrial heritage. Orama Mill was once a woollen mill and employed a large number of people, and later, after the textile industry had been all but destroyed in the major recession of the early eighties, became the home of a large fitted Kitchen manufacturer, and later a number of smaller industrial units. Badly neglected and poorly maintained, the building had become surplus to requirements, and demolition work on the site had commenced in September 2008.
On the 4th of September a fire broke out on the top floor of the mill, whether this was accidental or deliberate I never did find out, but thankfully Lancashire County Fire Brigade arrived quickly and were able to extinguish it before it did too much damage. It did look impressive with all the smoke though, and with darkness just falling, would certainly have lit the sky up if it hadn't been brought under control. In October things started moving very fast, and rather than just at the rear (and less accessible part of the building - there is a school there, and you can't hang around schools with a camera these days!), work now started at the front and on the roof of the building. By the 15th of October a large chunk at the back end of the building had gone, and most of the windows been removed. The Orange telephone antennas are still on top of the tower yet, but some of their engineers moved the feeder cables to a new location, and with planning permission now having been granted for a new mast in another part of the valley, these will probably stay in use and the tower will likely be the last part of the building to get the chop. As of the 18th of October the section of the mill at the northern end had been removed, and by the 21st of October almost half of the northern end had now been brought down. Work moved swiftly after that, and by the end of October most of the main building had been flattened and was now a part of a very large spoil heap reaching up to the old first floor. When I took my usual daily pictures on the morning of Saturday 1st of November I had little idea of just how much of the remaining part of the main building would be torn down that day, or I would have stayed around to record it. The scene at 4pm looked very different, with very little of the main building left standing, and lots of angry looking homeless pigeons flying around wondering where their roost for the night had gone! By Thursday 20th of November the main part of the demolition work seemed to be complete, with all girders now removed, and with the exception of one wall, and the tower, which is still carrying the Orange mobile phone masts until the replacement is built (currently undergoing a planning appeal). The 'Monster Muncher' which had done the bulk of the demolition, was taken away from the site mid-afternoon, and I was fortunate enough to catch it leaving (and causing a little traffic gridlock) the area. By the 11th of December, work was continuing to salvage the metal from the debris, and the main tower was still standing. It looks like it could now be some time before the tower is dropped, as planning permission for a replacement mast at a local beauty spot was recently thrown out after an appeal, reports now say that it could be up to 6 months before a new site is in operation, so that might well mean that the site will be left incomplete for some time to come. Towards the end of February 2009 work on clearing the site was continuing, with most of the recyclable metalwork now having been removed from the site, and some of the brickwork put through the crusher, but in early March the contractors had vacated the site, and with the replacement telephone mast still not having been constructed yet, no telling how long it will be before the tower is finally dropped. It was noted that the company carrying out the demolition were selling quite a lot of their plant, so whether this early abandonment from the site with so much spoil still remaining is due to more serious problems, or problems with the housing company that were hoping to build on there I'm not yet sure. If this is the case it could be quite some time before the clearance is finally completed on this site. |
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