CUDDY Demolition & Dick Green demolish the Capitol car park in Newport South Wales in less than 20 seconds

C&D congratulate CUDDY Group and our old friend Dick Green on a successful demolition last Sunday.

Plenty of footage of the Newport Capitol car park demolition can be seen over at the South Wales Argus, and we've also included a video below of the implosion as it happened.

CLS Demolition and Dick Green carry out explosive demolition

C&D customer CLS Demolition and our old friend Dick Green at Index were busy early yesterday.

Whilst a great deal of the demolition industry were still in bed nursing hangovers from the NFDC London Ball yesterday morning CLS Demolition and Dick Green were carrying out an explosive demolition of the Calcium Carbide Hoppers at Althorpe Wharf.

The film over on Demolition News and reproduced below is good, but stay watching till the end as the slow motion sections show the way the structure was prepared to ensure it toppled in the right direction.

Well done to all of those involved.


Source: Demolition News

Dick Green helps the Queen blow open some gates

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have just opened The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee White Water Course. The gates were setup to open with a bang, and guess who was on hand to set the charges.

Old friends Dick Green of Index and SES jointly made the crowds day as they blew open the doors to the new course with the button pushed by HRH. What followed was 90,000 gallons of water pouring down the course.

The course will now be put to good use in the run up and during the Olympics, and hopefully will continue to be popular for years to come training our next set of professional sportsmen.


Source: BBC

An Ode to Phil Lowe

It was sad news to report recently that Phil Lowe, a friend to the demolition indutsry, had died after a long battle with illness.

His funeral was held on April 4th, and Dick Green wrote the following poem, entitled "Ode to Phil" to celebrate his life. We hope you enjoy it.

Ode to Phil

The old teams back together, Phils gone to join his dad,

They will be talking of the old times of all the jobs they had,

They blasted round the UK and countries far and wide,

Barry Lowe the blaster, and Philip by his side.

His father will be proud of him and the blasts that Phil has done

They both were magic blaster (like father and like son)

When Phil gets to those pearly gates and walks on right on past them,

His dad will smile and say with pride “ we’ve given a price to Blast Em”

So next time you hear some thunder and a crack of lightning whips past,

Look to heaven and raise a smile, It’s Phil doing a test Blast.

Phil Lowe, Master Blaster.

Sad Death of a Demolition Industry friend

It is always a bad day when you get a phone call from one demolition industry friend telling you about the death of another demolition industry friend and today was one of those days. After a long battle with an illness that he kept a secret to most of us within the industry Phil Lowe died in hospital at Saturday lunchtime.

My memories of Phil will be him drilling chimneys, placing the charges and seeing his chimneys fall before standing with him to discuss whatever the next job was going to be and I will miss him. Dick Green has known Phil longer than me and I think it best that Dick sums up Phil's career as follows:-

PHIL LOWE 1964-2012

It is with great sadness and regret that I have to let you know my good friend and colleague Phil Lowe passed away peacefully in hospital on Saturday 24th March 2012.

Phil started his apprenticeship as an explosives engineer in 1981 working in the Family Company Nottingham Explosives under his father Barry Lowe.

Phil joined the Institute of Explosives Engineers in 1986 at which time he became Explosives Director of the company.

In 1991 he took over the company as Managing Director, Phil was personally responsible for numerous successful explosive demolition projects within the UK and overseas.

In 1994 Phil was admitted as a full member of the Institute of Demolition Engineers.

In 2002 he joined the explosives team at Controlled Demolition where his thorough knowledge and experience of industrial demolition was an invaluable asset to the company.

In 2009 Phil Joined SES Specialist Explosives Services Ltd as Chief Explosives Engineer where he continued to excel in the profession he loved.

In Phil's 30 year career he has logged the demolition of over 3500 structures.

Phil will be sadly missed by the both the Explosive and Demolition Community and by all that knew him.

Our thoughts go to his wife, mother, daughter and granddaughter.

Phil Lowe a real demolition man.

Phil was a part of many demolition jobs, some of which we have covered on this website. Below is footage from those jobs:

Dick Green blows up two concrete hoppers in Doncaster

Our friend Dick Green has just completed a job for Able UK which saw two concrete hoppers imploded. The job required 138kg of explosives and you can see the hoppers implode in the video below.



The hoppers formed part of the Thorpe Marsh power station in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Able had been tasked with asbestos removal and de-planting, both of which have now been completed.

More info about the Thorpe Marsh job is avilable at Able's website.

Safedem carry out successful Sighthill Flats demolition

Yesterday, C&D customer Safedem, successfully carried out the demolition of the Sighthill Flats in Edinburgh with blast design and explosive demolition carried out by their extensive in house explosives team led by Managing Director and NFDC Vice President William Sinclair.

This blowdown follows on from the successful blast in Dundee in late August when the Safedem team were also featured on both YouTube and on this site.

For this latest blast William was assisted by our old friend Dick Green who helped to place some of the explosive charges.

The 3 buildings were called Glenalmond Court, Hermiston Court, and Weir Court.

The video footage of the event is still appearing online, but we've picked the best of the bunch and included them here for you to watch.

Safedem & Dick Green blowdown Dundee tower blocks

C&D Customer Safedem Limited, with our friend Dick Green as part of the team, succesfully demolished four tower blocks in Dundee by explosives on Sunday morning 31 July.

C&D were not involved in this project, but we send our congratulations to William Sinclair and his team on a job well done. The following links show the blowdown from different angles but it is easy to see that the towers dropped nicely into the intended exclusion zones.

Rigid Paper mill factory chimney blast

Dick green has sent us some video and images of his latest blast. It was a joint venture between IndEx and SES with the work carried out by CAJ Services.

The target of the blast was the Rigid Paper mill factory at Selby, North Yorkshire. Dick said the chimney came down nicely as can be seen from the two videos included here.

Coll Place Demolition blast

On May 15th the Coll Place 17-storey block of flats in Glasgow were imploded. There was a small amount of input from C&D as well as Dick Green, but all of the credit has to go to SafeDem for a faultless job.

The blast required 55kg of explosives to take down the 44-year-old block of flats. It has left the Glasgow Housing Association with 12,000 tonnes of rubble to clear up. Once gone, the area can be redeveloped with a focus on community.

Source: BBC

Water tower at RAF St Athan demolition

Dick Green has just completed his latest explosive demolition, this time at RAF St Athan in South Wales. The building was an old water tower and involved both IndEx and SES.

The tower was in a tight location with buildings on all 4 sides in close proximity. 2 side buildings were less than 10m away, and a pump and tank were 8m to the rear. Closest of all was a cast water main just 1m from the front of the building.

In order to get a vertical collapse they used 10kg of explosives placed in 250 holes. The end result was a perfect takedown with no damage caused to the surrounding structures.

Wellbeck Colliery Headstocks demolition (video)

Dick Green has sent us some footage of his latest explosive demolition. This time it's the Welbeck Colliery Headstocks, Meden Vale in Nottinghamshire with a number of ex-miners looking on in the foreground.

150ft Colwick Chimney demolition video

Our friend Dick Green has been kind enough to send us a video of the 150ft Colwick Chimney demolition he carried out on Saturday in Nottingham. It was undertaken with Phil Lowe and Chris Allsop who also managed to raise a load of money fro Troop Aid in the process.

The chimney formed part of an old sugar beet factory and has been removed to make way for the site to be re-developed.

Dick Green looks back at an explosive first 12 months

Our friend Dick Green has a great new article up at Demolition & Recycling International. Rather than looking at a new job he is undertaking it instead focuses on his first 12 months as a new company, and what an eventful year it has been.

12+ blow downs, a 15-storey hotel in Qatar, and a 65,000-seat Texas Stadium are just a few of the highlights.

Check out the Dick Green review here:
http://www.khl.com/magazines/demolition-and-recycling-international/detail/item61963/

Implosion at Wellbeck colliery (video)

Dick Green has sent along some footage of an implosion at Wellbeck colliery carried out late last week.

The implosion included a rapid load bunker, some conveyors and a lighting tower. The work was carried out for Ron Hull Group by IndEx, SES and RW Clarke.

Dick Green to speak at IDE Spring Seminar

We are pleased to announce that our friend Dick Green has agreed to give a presentation at the forthcoming IDE Spring Seminar.

We've featured Dick's explosive demolition work many times on the site, and we expect his talk to be just as explosive.

If you would like to attend the Spring Seminar the booking form can be found on the IDE website (PDF format). It takes place on the 25th February at the Royal Armouries, Leeds.

We hope to see you all there.

Source: IDE

Welbeck Colliery Coal Storage Plant demolition (video)

Dick Green has been kind enough to share another video with us. This time it's of the Coal Storage Plant at Welbeck Collery.

It was carried out for Ron Hull Demolition and UK Coal using 15KG of explosives. Dick says he'll be back in the new year for the Rapid Loading Bunker and the Headstocks.

Hellingly Asylum Hospital Water tower demolition

This is the Hellingly Asylum Hospital Water tower demolition (contained 3 big steel water tanks, IndEx and SES did with Cuddys yesterday. 35kg explosives steel plate protection and next to live hospital.

Hellingly Hospital was a large mental hospital in the village of Hellingly, east of Hailsham, in East Sussex, England. The hospital, also known as East Sussex County Asylum or just Hellingly, was opened in 1903. Its architect was GT Hine, one of the great asylum architects of the era.

The hospital boasted its own railway line, the Hellingly Hospital Railway, used principally for transport of coal. This branch line led from the main line to the boilerhouse. The hospital also had a vast laundry, ball room, patients' shop, sewing rooms, nurses home, extensive grounds, and an advanced utilities network for its time, including a large boilerhouse and a water tower. It followed the compact arrow plan for the main hospital, with separate villas surrounding this.

The majority of the hospital closed throughout 1994, however, and to this day much of the 25.4 hectare site stands derelict and extremely run down, after suffering repeated vandalism and multiple arson attacks. (Now being developed by Persimmons homes).

Dick Green also sent us a selection of photos we've combined into a video sequence of the event. Thanks to John Fox for allowing the photos to be used.

Buxton Steelwork blast (video)

Dick Green has been kind enough to send us video footage of the blast carried out at the Buxton Steelworks last Wednesday. It was a job for Ron Hull Group done by Specialist Explosive Services and IndEx.

Duncan Rudall and Wring Group get a surprise

New IDE Seminar Director Duncan Rudall of Wring Group got a surprise on Thursday afternoon when an unexploded WW2 bomb was found during demolition at the former Navy NAFFI site at Notte Street, Plymouth.

Duncan inspected the device, pictured below, in the usual demolition engineer way by giving it a kick and then called the bomb disposal team to deal with it. The MoD team erected a 300m cordon around the area, bigger than any we would use for a demolition blowdown, and they successfully defused the device.

When contacted by us Duncan confirmed that “Wring Group procedures for dealing with unexploded ordnance were followed to the letter which led to a safe removal of the bomb, but I would like to say:-Where was Dick Green when we needed him?”

Editor’s note:- Dick Green often featured on this site for explosive demolition works started his explosives career as a bomb disposal expert.