As work continues to demolish the Sheerness steel mill a picture has emerged of one of its furnaces - often described as being “hotter than hell.”

The Thames Steel complex, in Blue Town was completed in 1972 and is coming down to make way for a £50 million development creating a 32-acre car park for imported vehicles and a new bridge over the road to the docks.

It has stood empty after closing in 2012.

This historic picture of a worker using an oxygen lance to charge molten steel in melting pot number three was taken by George Poules in his capacity as the mill’s official photographer when he ran Studio 137 in Sheerness High Street.

He recalled: “The mill at Blue Town was known as Sheerness Steel in the 1970s. I took pictures of the foundations going in for Clancy Schuppert who was the original boss who came over from Canada.

“My team took photographs at regular intervals to record work at the mill. It gave Sheppey numerous jobs with generous pay but it also created pollution. Many thought it had been built too near to the houses but at the time the Island desperately needed the jobs.

“It certainly provided Studio137 with plenty of photographic work and helped us to keep a team together for many years.”

Among the staff were Tim Oxley, now Swale council’s dog warden; Philip Jacobs who joined Tesco to run its one-hour photo service; Helen Friday; Paul Young; Paul Harris; Jean Lethem and Graham Summers from Iwade.

Family firm DDS Demolition from Manston has bought three extra heavy-duty breakers as part of its £3 million contract to tear down the factory.

The breakers, which weigh two, three and four tonnes, are fitted to Komatsu excavators. The demolition and clear-up contract is expected to take a year and got underway in March. It has been split into three phases.

Hydraulic shears and grabs are currently being used to remove the buildings. The third phase, scheduled to take 26 weeks, will include breaking up and removing thousands of tonnes of heavily reinforced concrete plinths and foundations.