Chapelcross no more ...

A couple of months ago, after our visit to Senwick, we stopped by to see close-up what we'd been driving past and living alongside for most of our lives.

It's difficult to portray the genuine innocent affection that most local people had for Chapelcross. This guy Willie Johnston says it very well.

One of my own first memories is of the view from my bedroom window from a council house in west Carlisle - it was high on a hill and I was told that in the distance we could see Scotland, the proof was the Pipes. This was incredible to me and over the years I remember staring out at the "Annan Pipes", it formed part of my understanding about the curvature of the earth and how come I couldn't see the whole world...

We had been getting grapevine reports about the planned date for the blasting, and it had been delayed a couple of times but now this was it.

So we all grew up with it being there and then early one Sunday morning everything stopped (including the M74 nearby) and the crowds gathered to say farewell. Sod the radiation risks - it seemed that everyone brought granny, the kids and the dog to see the big event. We were standing just down the road from the place where the above pics were taken (we hadn't gotten up early enough to get there this time!)

When the time came (there was no audible warning so lots of people were caught unawares), I was lucky enough to have already had the video camera pointed in the right place; unfortunately we haven't worked out how to download the film yet so I can't show it here!

It all happened rather quietly; I had been concerned beforehand about the young farm animals nearby, the children, the wild birds... but in the end after a series of four remote thuds, the towers fell in turn, mostly inwards on themselves and there was just a big puff of grey dust which blew away quite quickly to leave silence, then a small smattering of applause from the onlookers.

There were a few minutes afterwards when we all stood staring at the remains of tower #1, expecting something else to happen. It took years to built, a few seconds to bring down, and about 30 minutes for us to get back onto the main road through the traffic!

Anyway here are some of my photos, and here are some more.

another bbc link

Official website with video

another flickr - this time an anigif

and another set of pics - watch the coos!