Thorpe Marsh Power Station Revisit, March 2010

[Canonite]

Ok so after our visit in January we realised we'd missed some of the site so we decided to go back. The National Grid workers next door blighted our last visit as we thought they were security. Turns out they're not bothered and leave you to it, the site is accessible from all sides anyway and lies adjacent to a small lake which attracts birdwatchers.
It was a total pain in the arse to start with as the road to it, Thorpe Bank is closed due to strengthening works to the side of the canal that runs parrallel to the road, which is also reason why Able Uk haven't demolished the towers for fears of rupturing the canal walls and also fearing any remaining asbestos could contaminate the area.

So once loaded with bacon butties and flapjack from the village butcher we dumped the car next to a farmers gate and had a short stroll over towards the site.
Plenty of National Grid workers giving us funny looks but nobody said anything as we looked like birdwatchers, we were watching 2 Peregrines on the centre right tower facing north.

Few digger shots...

In The Shadow

Peelage

Pump House

HUGE

]

Pump House 2

Thousands of tonnes of rubble and this sign is still bolted to the concrete, nice!

Remains of what we think are the Rolls-Royce engines that powered the plant!

An underground basement level exists with numerous entry points, it looks less flooded than it did in January on our last visit!

If you fancy climbing up into the 2 ash slurry buildings at the centre, this makeshift DIY 'apperatus' has been assembled with what looks like dutch courage and ignorance, alas, I wasn't to be the one who discovered it's load capabilities!

Remains of one of the two Chimney stacks!

Strange what you come across in power plants, a Little Tykes Kitchen

Warehouse!

My token 'Reflections' shot!

And last but not least, we found the little red trike! All there on his lonesome. He looks so lost we almost took him up to play with the digger!

Thanks for looking!

A

 

[racingstripes]

looks good

are the hdr pictures photoshop done or auto done by the camera?

 

[klempner69]

After you mentioning the butties and flapjacks,I was hooked!Lovely angles you captured there,if not a bit overdone maybe with some hdr..just my personal opinion.Well done anyhow.

 

[tommo]

i think the place is stunning and the pics are very well done, well done that man

 

[Labb]

A lot of good pictures here. Good find.

 

[Canonite]

are the hdr pictures photoshop done or auto done by the camera?

To my knowledge there are only Pentax SLRs and a few compacts that have an in camera HDR mode. The few HDRs here were multiple exposures stacked in CS4.

After you mentioning the butties and flapjacks,I was hooked!Lovely angles you captured there,if not a bit overdone maybe with some hdr..just my personal opinion.Well done anyhow.

I was using the Canon 10-22mm for the first time and wanted to capture the scale of these things only ultra-wide can do. With regards to HDR, I do prefer industrial sites in particular to have extreme contrast and a dark tone, for me it gives the image more clout when you think of the many jobs that were lost due to closure.

Cheers for the comments guys, from what I can gether these are soon to be demolished, hence the reason for the canal wall strengthening.

 

[Foxylady]

Excellent explore and pics.. Great to see other remains as well as the stunning cooling towers.
Good stuff.

 

[chaoticreason]

Great shots boys.I wish my stupid little compact could do such great wide angle shots,they look very cool,and really capture the essence of the place,I have allways wanted to get up close to some of these huge cooling towers that are dotted about the country,but sadly have yet to have the honour.
I should'nt really complain about my camera,as untill last summer,when my mum bought it for me as a present,all I had of my visits to places were the memories.Now I a take pictures of bloody everything,its out my pocket shooting more than it is in.Good lord that almost sounds rude.