Demolition of Mexborough Day Centre to feature on Quest TV show Scrap Kings

The demolition of a former community centre in South Yorkshire is to feature on a television programme.

Margaret Crompton, operating in the typically male industry of demolition, runs a team which pulls down the former Mexborough Day Centre on Harlington Road during an episode of Scrap Kings.

The new series of the show starts on Quest at 9pm on Tuesday March 17.

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It follows people who "have turned waste into wealth" as redundant buildings and vehicles get stripped for spare parts and then crushed as the teams salvage any scrap metal that can be reused.

The former Mexborough Day Centre, Harlington Road. Picture: Chris Bull.The former Mexborough Day Centre, Harlington Road. Picture: Chris Bull.
The former Mexborough Day Centre, Harlington Road. Picture: Chris Bull.

Hobbyists and artists alike use the scrap to create their own metal masterpieces from copper eagles to bespoke furniture.

Speaking about the community centre during episode eight, Margaret says: "It's lot of memories. It's sad when you think about it, but [we] try not to think about what it used to be, we've got a job to doo, we've just got to get on with it."

She adds that she "loves demolition".

The programme details how the centre - for which a major list of repairs was blamed by councillors for its closure, according to the Doncaster Free Press - was subject to squatters and complaints of anti-social behaviour.

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One resident from the neighbourhood tells interviewers: "The place is just fallen to rack and ruin, really, in the last couple of years."

The latest series also shows how scrap brake discs are melted down to forge new pavement lights that will "last hundreds of years" in Halifax.