Last look around the former Cummins factory in Barnack Road, Stamford

A chapter of a town's history is coming to a close with the demolition of industrial buildings.

Three months in to the clearance of the Cummins Generator Technologies site in Barnack Road, Stamford, several of the buildings have been dismantled to make way for new commercial premises and offices.

The development, which will be known as St Martin's Park, will turn the Cummins site - or Newage as it was known before 2006 - with homes to be built on Burghley-owned farmland next door.

Today (Tuesday, July 12) leader of South Kesteven District Council Kelham Cooke was taken on a tour of the former Cummins site, to see how work was coming along.

He was shown where buildings once stood and taken around some of those which remain - for the time being. All are expected to be taken down by Christmas.

GF Tomlinson is managing the clearance of the site, which began with surveys and asbestos removal, and is now at the stage of the buildings being demolished. The sub-contractor, Mick George, is working on this.

Work will then involve breaking up the slabs which lay under the built areas, with the final stage being the crushing of materials into usable hardcore, stockpiled for building, and the remediation of any 'contaminated' areas.

Andy Boam, contracts manager for GF Tomlinson, said the site was relatively small-scale compared with some of the projects the company currently is involved with, but that a great deal of work is still involved at the Cummins site.

"We carried out a lot of investigations with Western Power Distribution, Network Rail and Anglian Water, and before we started on site we ironed out any potential problems that we might face."

The site has electricity pylons running across it, which will need to be removed, and the proximity of the railway line has meant most of the buildings that back on to the tracks have been left standing for now. Removal techniques include applying heat to the base of the building frames and bending them away from the tracks to prevent any wreckage falling near the lines.

Cummins Generator Technologies was one of the biggest employers in Stamford until it closed its Barnack Road operations in 2018.

South Kesteven District Council, which purchased the Cummins site for £7.5m and is spending £1.3m on demolition, has already marketed the land to developers. Although their names will not be announced until all contracts are signed, their proposals are likely to be seen next year.

After his tour, Coun Cooke said: "It's fantastic to see the site coming to fruition and that work is on schedule," adding that the type of development being created at St Martin's Park was 'sustainable' by providing not just homes, but employment too.

"If we had not acquired the site it might well have been overdeveloped," he said.

Did you work at Newage or Cummins? Share your photos and memories with Mercury readers by emailing them to: suzanne.moon@iliffepublishing.co.uk