It has been more 18 years since the Sheffield skyline changed forever when the Tinsley Towers were demolished .
The 250ft high Tinsley cooling towers were demolished at 3am on August 24, 2008, to loud cheers and fond farewells.
Almost 10,000 people gathered to watch the iconic ‘salt and pepper pots’ sink into a cloud of dust, erased from the city’s skyline forever.
Originally built in 1938 to help meet demand for electricity in the city, the towers
The towers were once an integral part of people's lives, an ever-present sight for residents living in the Tinsley area and a checkpoint to motorists on the M1.
They were also part of an extensive industrial landscape that has now drastically changed.
Blackburn Meadows power station closed in the 1970s and the towers were the only remnants left behind. A reminder of a time when energy creation was much different to that of today.
In 2006, the site owners E.ON said that the towers had to go because they were unsafe and needed to be demolished to make way for a £60 million biomass heating site.
We have taken a look in our archive and pulled out some photos of the towers over the years up until the demolition on August 24, 2008.
Do you remember the Tinsley Cooling Towers?
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5. Tinsley Viaduct
Tinsley Viaduct on the M1 in Sheffield pictured in 1968, shortly after completion, with the twin cooling towers of Blackburn Meadows Power Station beside. The towers were demolished in 2008. | Heritage Images/Getty Images
6. Tinsley
A view of Tinsley, Sheffield, with the towers in the background on July 9, 1973
7. Meadowhall and Brightside
An aerial view of Meadowhall and Brightside from Tinsley Viaduct in 1976, long before the shopping centre was built, showing (right) Meadowhall Road and (left) Sheffield Road.
