DEMOLITION workers have rolled into Knowsley Road to begin the job of flattening the town’s historic rugby league stadium.

A 20-strong team from Taylor Wimpey have started tearing down small sections of the 120 year old ground.

The demolition will take between two to three months and will gather pace within the next week as the main stand is dismantled.

A 72-tonne digger with a ‘grabber’ arm that can extend more than 60ft will be used to pull the structure down.

Once the stadium is flattened, houses will be built on the spot where so many cherished sporting memories were created.

The initial phases of the transformation saw trees at the side of the Dunriding Lane facing training pitch being pulled down and some groups of Saints supporters have been gathering nearby the ground this week to watch diggers roll in.

Andy Rigby, Taylor Wimpey site manager, told the Star: “Demolition has started in one corner (one of the toilet blocks)and we have got staff setting up out there with various machines, diggers and concrete crushers.

“We have two machines on the pitch ripping up an area so the equipment can be set up.

“We are stripping seats out of the main stand and within the next week we will make a start on the main stand.”

Mr Rigby admitted there is “a lot of interest and emotion” surrounding the job and that security are on site in case intruders head onto what is now classed a demolition site.

He added that observers who may gather from road sides to watch the destruction should not expect to see wrecking balls smashing down the structures: “There will be a significant amount of recycling.

“At one time you would have blasted it down taken it away and burned it.

“You can’t do that now everything has to be separated. The concrete (from the terraces) will be put into a concrete crusher and used as hardcore for roads that we put in for the housing development.

“We have security on here because we have had people wandering on to the site, who don’t realise the dangers we have to deal with here.

“As soon as you start knocking it down you have people approaching the site wanting to take pictures of it before it goes.”

A housing development, named Cunningham Grange after Saints great Keiron, will be erected on the land.

Saints are spending one season playing out of town at the home of Widnes rugby league club while their new stadium at the former United Glass site at Peasley Cross is constructed.