by MacotheIsles » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:49 pm
*bump this thread as my own got erased*
Vladimir. I don't think there was a school there near the towers, but there was an office block type building. I went to see the towers getting blown, but made the mistake of watching from Cleland - well above the site but about a mile away as the crow flies and too far for decent photos. The best views were in Craigneuk of course. It was a strange moment when the towers started falling in rapid sequence - whole families had turned out and there was almost a picnic atmosphere, but it was definitely a defining moment in the ending of an era. Most people had assumed Ravenscraig would always be there; offering secure employment for generations. It wasn't just the steel manufacturing; there were lots of ancillary jobs. They had locomotive workshops full of fitters, engine drivers, waste disposal people, asbestos removal teams, crushers creating road stone from the waste slag, their own power station (still in evidence), pumping stations and lock gates, etc.. As I said in the other thread, there's not a lot above ground now, but it's still posible to partially work out what was where from the remains of the tracks, roads and foundations. Quite an eerie experience to walk there now that nature has started growing over this vast tundra of waste ground.