Water Eaton grain silo disappears from Oxford skyline

The Water Eaton grain silo, which once claimed a spot on the skyline of the A34 and Oxford-Kidlington Road, is no more.

Built in the 1940s, the war time grain silo has been closed since the '80s with the concrete structure widely viewed as a bit of a blot on the landscape. In the past decade it has become an area for dumping, and any metal the building housed has been taken to the point where it was no longer safe to keep it standing. Demolition was the answer.

Built in its place will be the Oxford Parkway railway station with a link to Bicester and into London. Work will start in February, and is being funded by Chiltern Railways, and will include a car park with space for 800 vehicles. It is expected to open in the summer of 2015.

Below is a video of the silo captured several months ago. It gives a good idea of the state of the site and the silo itself:


Source: Oxford Mail

Farmer attempts grain silo demolition with a sledgehammer

Usually, when a large grain silo needs demolishing you call in the explosives team and take it down with a controlled explosion. But the farmer in the video above decided to save a bit of money and demolish this silo on his own. He didn't have any specialist demolition equipment--it's just him and his trusty sledgehammer.

The farmer is very lucky not to have been injured as the silo could have fallen in any direction. Unfortunately for him, it didn't fall down at all. Luckily, he had a tractor with enough pull to topple the then weakened structure.

Health and safety best practices this is most definitely not.