The Slow and Steady Northern Tour – Day 1
Cachewoo suggested going for a little drive to help banish the January blues and shift some of the sprouts & Xmas pud clogging up our digestive systems.
For many, the fashionable thing is to hop over the channel to gorge on a plethora of euro ****, but we decided to take things a little easier and simply head for the industrial north. Sorry to disappoint, but our trip did not involve sports cars, multiple countries, unending miles of autobahn, sleep deprivation or freezing nights fitfully trying to sleep in an abandoned chateau or asylum. Neither did we have the pleasure of being busted by secca or police or even suffer the wail of screaming alarms.
For us it would be scenic routes, comfy hotel beds, (mostly) quality coffee and pizza express with Peroni. Three days, three locations, 500 miles, no dramas. Urban exploring civilised stylee.
Meeting up at a respectable 8am for coffee, we waited for the rush hour traffic to fade before toodling off round the M25 and up the M1. A couple of hours later and after a breakfast burger we stopped at Willington for a bit of a stroll round a field and to take some snaps of the cooling towers.
HISTORY
Willington Power Station was in fact two, almost entirely separate stations, within the same site. Willington ‘A’ and ‘B’ shared coal and water supplies, but had separate management and staff. The site was chosen for its close proximity to the Derbyshire coalfields via the mainline railway, and water via the river Trent.
Work on Willington ‘A’ began in 1954, and comprised four 100MW generating units, along with two 425ft chimneys and two cooling towers Station A was brought up to full operating capacity on 10th July 1959, however the generator units were soon upgraded to 104MWs each, limiting the station’s spare capacity. At its height the Station consumed a million tonnes of coal a year.
In early 1957 the Central Electricity Authority began work on Willington ‘B’, which comprised two 200MW units, equalling the capacity of Station ‘A’, one 425ft chimney and (oddly) 3 cooling towers. The Cooling towers are 300ft (91m) high, 145ft (43m) at their top, 218ft (66m) and 122ft (37m) at their throat. Each tower has an effective cooling surface of 858,000 square feet.
Privitisation wasn’t kind to Willingon ‘A’. Units 3 and 4 were shut down in 1989, and finally unit 1 was de-synchronised with the grid at 18:00hrs, 30th September 1994.
Meanwhile Station ‘B’ was effectively run into the ground, with the final unit being de-synchronised on 31st March 1999, ending 41 years of power generation at Willington.
Although most of the site was demolished at the turn of the millennium, the five cooling towers continue to dominate the skyline of the local area.
Thanks for looking. Cachewoo will no doubt add a few of his in due course.
Day 2 to follow (eventually, when I get round to sorting and processing them all)
Cachewoo suggested going for a little drive to help banish the January blues and shift some of the sprouts & Xmas pud clogging up our digestive systems.
For many, the fashionable thing is to hop over the channel to gorge on a plethora of euro ****, but we decided to take things a little easier and simply head for the industrial north. Sorry to disappoint, but our trip did not involve sports cars, multiple countries, unending miles of autobahn, sleep deprivation or freezing nights fitfully trying to sleep in an abandoned chateau or asylum. Neither did we have the pleasure of being busted by secca or police or even suffer the wail of screaming alarms.
For us it would be scenic routes, comfy hotel beds, (mostly) quality coffee and pizza express with Peroni. Three days, three locations, 500 miles, no dramas. Urban exploring civilised stylee.
Meeting up at a respectable 8am for coffee, we waited for the rush hour traffic to fade before toodling off round the M25 and up the M1. A couple of hours later and after a breakfast burger we stopped at Willington for a bit of a stroll round a field and to take some snaps of the cooling towers.
HISTORY
Willington Power Station was in fact two, almost entirely separate stations, within the same site. Willington ‘A’ and ‘B’ shared coal and water supplies, but had separate management and staff. The site was chosen for its close proximity to the Derbyshire coalfields via the mainline railway, and water via the river Trent.
Work on Willington ‘A’ began in 1954, and comprised four 100MW generating units, along with two 425ft chimneys and two cooling towers Station A was brought up to full operating capacity on 10th July 1959, however the generator units were soon upgraded to 104MWs each, limiting the station’s spare capacity. At its height the Station consumed a million tonnes of coal a year.
In early 1957 the Central Electricity Authority began work on Willington ‘B’, which comprised two 200MW units, equalling the capacity of Station ‘A’, one 425ft chimney and (oddly) 3 cooling towers. The Cooling towers are 300ft (91m) high, 145ft (43m) at their top, 218ft (66m) and 122ft (37m) at their throat. Each tower has an effective cooling surface of 858,000 square feet.
Privitisation wasn’t kind to Willingon ‘A’. Units 3 and 4 were shut down in 1989, and finally unit 1 was de-synchronised with the grid at 18:00hrs, 30th September 1994.
Meanwhile Station ‘B’ was effectively run into the ground, with the final unit being de-synchronised on 31st March 1999, ending 41 years of power generation at Willington.
Although most of the site was demolished at the turn of the millennium, the five cooling towers continue to dominate the skyline of the local area.
Thanks for looking. Cachewoo will no doubt add a few of his in due course.
Day 2 to follow (eventually, when I get round to sorting and processing them all)
