A former Redcar steelworker was given an unusual final task in November 2022: bring down the 105-metre chimney had helped put up three decades earlier.

Mark Colley of Marske was chosen to trigger the controlled demolition of the Redcar Sinter Plant main stack at 7pm on 10 November. The mechanical engineer had begun work at the wider steelworks aged 15 and worked at the Sinter Plant from 1986 until 2010.

A personal link to an industrial landmark

Colley was among the workers involved when the concrete chimney was erected in the 1990s. By the time of the demolition, the stack had been out of use since late 2015.

His role gave a human dimension to a large programme of clearance. The structure was industrial plant, but it was also part of a workplace that shaped thousands of lives and the Redcar skyline. Asking somebody who knew its construction to press the button that history even as the site changed.

Most of the Sinter Plant had come down earlier in 2022. The Bunker Bay was demolished in June, followed by the Screenhouse and strand sections in August.

Planning the fall

Preparatory inspections found little or no dust inside the tower. Contractors still planned to saturate the base with water to reduce material becoming airborne, while an evening slot was selected to limit disruption to residents. A warning siren was due to sound shortly before the blast.

The linked the clearance to plans for Teesside Power on neighbouring land. At the time, the proposed £1.5 billion project was described as having the potential to support up to 5,500 jobs and capture as much as two million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the power station.

Those were project forecasts, not results delivered by the chimney demolition itself. Bringing the stack down cleared land and changed the Teesworks landscape; the new investment still depended on its own approvals and construction.

The moment carried both loss and transition. A landmark Redcar’s steel era disappeared, and a man who had helped build it was there to close that chapter safely.

Archive : Worker history, dimensions, timing and safety measures were checked against the Tees Valley Combined Authority report originally published on 9 November 2022. The original date and featured image are preserved.