A WOODEN hut which had been used by scout groups for more than 40 years burned to the ground yesterday.

Fire crews were called to the hut between Scotland Road, in Nelson, and the M65, at 11.05am after a call from a neighbour whose house backs onto the site.

The hut, which had not been in use for several weeks, was destroyed but the fire fighters managed to stop the fire spreading to the nearby gardens and sheds.

Station officer Nick Isherwood said: "The hut was quite a size and it was reduced to a pile of burning rubble. We don't know what started it as it is difficult to say with the extent of the damage but it has been getting more and more dilapidated.

"We didn't close Scotland Road but our hosepipes were stretched across the main road so it brought the traffic to a halt for a while.

"The smoke was billowing away from the houses over the motorway so the police set speed limits as a precaution."

Keith Wheeler and his wife Iris, who live in front of the hut, noticed the black smoke and raised the alarm. They said they couldn't smell smoke because the wind was blowing it away from their house but Keith had been in his garden when he noticed the blaze.

He said: "It was just smouldering heavily at first but as soon as it got into the roof it went up and the flames appeared. There was quite a bit of black smoke. It must have been smouldering for a while before we noticed it."

Neighbours said the hut was used by the former 10th Nelson scout group when it was always busy with band practice and meetings every night but that during the past couple of years it had only been used occasionally.

Mrs Wheeler said: "It got more and more neglected and people seemed to have just left it. It's been set on fire before and broken into before. Teenagers were using it as a place to go smoking and there was rubbish everywhere."