Activity to date

Local landmark demolished
One of the most familiar landmarks on the A619, highly visible as you pass the Steetley site, disappeared on Friday 7th December 2007 with the demolition of the 42 metre high concrete silo on the former Baker refractory. The explosives which had been packed into the base of the crumbling tower took just seconds to reduce it to rubble, breaking one of the last links with the sites heavy industrial past and heralding the dawn of its new hi-tech future.

John Thompson of Darfoulds Nursery, adjacent to the site, a local resident for more than 60 years, was delighted to see the end of the silo, he said "This site has served the community well in the past, but over the last few years it has been nothing but an eyesore. Its time to move on. I'm looking forward to seeing it transformed and creating the skilled jobs which we need so badly round here".

Johns father, Edward, was in charge of the Steetley and Shireoaks sites when the silo was originally constructed, and, said John "He would have wanted to see the site developed".

Has anything happened on the site so far?
Clearing up the site - Laing O’Rourke started a clean-up operation during the second half of 2007. Site offices were set up and a variety of clean-up projects have been undertaken. You may recall reading in the Worksop Guardian about an operation that began in July 2007 to remove highly dangerous asbestos material from the site. This task is now complete. As contamination is extensive across the whole of the site we will continue with our clean up activities to make the site safer for all and clear the way for construction of the new manufacturing plant.

Construction of the new facility starts
Construction of the foundations for the new state-of-the-art concrete facility started in July 2008 and are ongoing.