Hartshead Power Station

It was "one of those days" . . . three locations that we'd planned to explore were being renovated when we turned up and one location had a super-eager security guard thwarting any plans of entering! So Plan Z was to look at Hartshead Power Station. ('We' being AML and myself)

A little bit of history from Wikipedia: "The station was opened in 1926 by the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Transport and Electricity Board. The station began operation with three Metropolitan-Vickers 12,500 kw turbo-alternators generating at the local SHMD supply frequency of 40H. Later that year the station's output was changed to the nationally agreed standard of 50Hz. In 1935, a major expansion of Hartshead began with the first of three new Metropoliatn-Vickers 30,000 kw generating sets being commissioned, followed by the second in 1941 and the third set in 1950. The station's concrete cooling towers were constructed in the 1940s. Coal was delivered to the plant at Millbrook Railway Sidings on the Micklehurst Line, situated on the opposite side of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The sidings were built in 1932 and had space to hold up to 130 12-ton wagons. Coal was fed into a hopper underneath the sidings before being transported on an enclosed conveyor belt which emerged high above the valley to cross the River Tame and canal before entering the station at a high level. The station was closed on 29th October 1979 with a generating capacity of 64 megawatts. It was demolished during the late 1980s, although part of the site is still used as an electrical substation." 
Access was easy and we didn't see a soul until we were coming out and a man with a video camera appeared, with plans of shooting a "Zombie apocalypse" film!

There are just two buildings left. One is a two storey building and the other is just one storey. 

Both buildings are thoroughly trashed and nature is fighting back and winning but there a few bits and bobs left of interest if you look hard enough.

 

Up the outside concrete staircase to the upper floor of the larger building.

Then on to the smaller building.

It was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated but I didn't really have any expectations at all! 

Willington Cooling Towers

This site had been on my Urbex "to-do list" for quite some time. On a sunny August day, after a failed attempt to access a mill in Derbyshire with Judderman, the chance presented itself to me to get it ticked off the list.

A little history, courtesy of Wikipedia:
In the 1950s, two coal-fired power stations were built on a site off Twyford Road, between Willington and Findern. The stations were privatised and sold to National Power in the early 1990s and eventually closed in the mid-1990s. Although most of the stations were demolished at the turn of the millennium, the five cooling towers continue to dominate the skyline of the local area. The site is earmarked for a large residential development, pending the results of a public inquiry. The construction plans have been met with local opposition, perhaps due to the site's proximity to the River Trent's flood plain. In the mid-1990s a pair of peregrine falcons nested in one of the site's huge cooling towers. Unlike many bird of prey breeding sites, this was widely publicised because of its impregnable location.
The power station was also the subject of a short documentary by Channel 4 titled "Drones in Forbidden Zones".

It seemed that many other explorers had trodden the well-established path through the long grass towards the five cooling towers.

 

The first tower was clear inside, save for a box of spent fireworks in a box labelled "Power Station Firework Party". That must have been some party - the acoustics in there were amazing - just throwing an average sized stone on the ground resulted in an impressive gun-shot sound!

 

 

 

 

Standing in the centre of the cooling tower, looking up at the opening was awesome!

 

 

 

 

Onto the third cooling tower. The third, fourth and fifth towers were of a different design internally.

 

 

The sheer size of the towers is astonishing.

 

 

This concrete beam was just asking to be walked on!

 

 

 

The view, looking up from the centre of the tower (at the end of the beam)

 

 

 

And that was that - what a shame that these fabulous structures will soon be demolished!