Thousands of people gathered to watch an enormous chimney come crashing down to Earth as demolition work began at a record-breaking power station that provided the UK with energy for 50 years.

Energy company SSE closed the Ferrybridge Power Station in West Yorkshire back in 2016, and work to remove it from the landscape finally began on Sunday morning.

Gasps were heard as the first of its huge cooling towers fell to the ground, with the 114-metre-high structure collapsing in in a matter of seconds in a cloud of dust following a controlled explosion.

Four more towers are to due to be demolished in similar fashion in October, as SSE prepares to use the site to develop a new gas-fired power station.

It will make for a significant change to the local landscape, with the existing plant having opened in 1966 to become the first of its kind in Europe to successfully generate electricity from a 500-megawatt machine.

Seven years later it set another record when one of its generators ran non-stop for 5,448 hours.

Charlie Cryans, director of construction for SSE, said: “The Ferrybridge C coal station played a key part in delivering the energy needed to support supply for the UK for over 50 years.

“It is an iconic site for the area and one which many local people are connected to.”

The demolition work began the day before the company will open the fourth-largest offshore wind farm in the world, to be located 13km from the Caithness coast in the Moray Firth in Scotland.

Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm is due to be officially opened by the Prince of Wales on Monday.

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