One of the last remaining landmarks at Shropshire’s British Sugar plant today disappeared from the skyline after being toppled over as part of work to demolish the factory.

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The 260ft chimney crashed to the ground this morning at the Allscott plant after being pushed over by heavy machinery.

The steel structure, which was the main boiler house chimney, had been in place since 1989. It had red lights on top to warn any aircraft flying nearby it was there.

Richard Ali, British Sugar spokesman, said workers had taken about an hour to knock down the chimney.

“They burned the bolts out holding the chimney at the bottom and then they pushed it over with a tractor-type machine with a big arm on the top, which pushed the top of it,” he said.

“It took about an hour from start to finish and most of that was burning the bolts. Because of the lights on top to protect the local area they put mounds of soil around where it was going to fall, so when the lights hit the ground they didn’t shatter far.”

A nearby road had to be shut for a short while while the demolition took place.

A 32-week programme of work to bulldoze the plant and revamp the site began in September. The sugar beet factory closed in February 2007, but the silos still stored some beet. The large silos are due to be demolished in the next few weeks.

Mr Ali said they had no plans yet on what they would be doing with the 350-acre site. The contractors have already used specialist equipment to chop away two juice tanks following the closure of the site, with the loss of more than 110 jobs.