It’s an end of an era as the gasometers at West Minster disappear.

Work on dismantling the three containers began last week as trucks and heavy plant moved onto the site to start the demolition process.

Contractors must ensure any contamination at the bottom of the tanks – used for years to store the Island’s supply of gas – will be disposed of correctly.

Former Swale councillor Steve Worrall, who once lived in one of the West Minster houses before they were pulled down in the 1970s, recalled: “I will miss the gasometers. I can still see them from where I live now. They remind me of a marvellous community.

“Some of the houses were in an appalling condition and still had outside toilets but everyone mucked in to help.

“It takes years to build a community like that but only seconds for it to be erased with a stroke of a pen.”

All residents were re-housed, mostly on the other side of the railway tracks.

Mr Worrall said: “I’d already left by then but most owner occupiers were treated well. They were given money for their homes and found new places.”

The village of more than 100 houses once boasted a shop, two pubs – The Globe and Medway Tavern, a Sunday school and an eight-bed isolation hospital for patients with small-pox.

There were great plans to redevelop the site but it still remains a wasteland used only for parking the occasional lorry. Much of the area had been owned by the War Office and Sheerness Co-operative Society to breed sheep and pigs. It also boasted access to a sandy beach where youngsters could paddle.

Do you remember the lost village of West Minster? Send your memories and photos to jnurden@thekmgroup.co.uk