Chimney set to fall

Lord Street chimney: like the boiler house, soon to be demolished

A WELL-KNOWN local landmark is about to disappear from the Oldham skyline.

The black-topped chimney at the Lord Street heating plant will be demolished in the next few weeks. The boiler house has already been razed as part of a scheme by First Choice Homes to install a new £10 million high-efficiency biomass system to heat homes in St Mary’s, Barker Street, Coldhurst, Burnley Street and Egerton Street.

The boiler house was built in the 1960s to heat 2,000 homes and Oldham’s leisure centre.

Resident Steve Jones, whose Florian House home in Henshaw Street, overlooks the chimney said: “It is definitely a well-known landmark. I will miss it when it’s gone.”

A new 68ft steel chimney will replace the demolished one as part of the new plant.