Thorpe Marsh Power Station

And so once more to the grand old lady's at Thorpe Marsh Power Station.

Mad cows and four mates say hello to The Cows they look not bothered.

Though i have been before i still stand in joy.

Pondering the magastey of the grand old lady's.

I hit the deck for another view.

In the decay life continues to grow on shadows of the ruins.

You seek you shall find the remains of The Past.

All around you are the left overs of part demolition.

The Skeletons of the past stand rusting in peace.

The end of the line was always here.

The grand old lady's stand looking down.

One last look at we head home.

At the front gate stands the digger.

We look in the few buildings still standing.

Every where you had the feeling of being watched​

This place, despite its part demolition, has to be seen. We got a train to Kirk Sandell, then a bus to Barnby Dun, we walked part of the canal that was once the main supply chain for Coal to Thorpe Marsh Power Station, the loading deck at the side of the canal lays derelict. We arrive, this is epic in scale with a theme of Dead Cities, a film set for post-Armageddon where the ruins of Modern Life are subject to Mother Earth's Reclamation yard.

Thorpe Marsh Power Station closed in 1994. Since then it has gradually been demollished. Well, everything except the cooling towers - 6 of them. The are also two biggish and several small buildings.

There are various plans for the site - including a nature reserve, and a landfill site (fiercely objected to by local residents). In reality, nothing will probably happen. The towers still survive because it is feared that any explosion caused would rupture the banks of the nearby canal.

It seems there future is not long in October, they are to be blown up, and I plan to go watch when this happens, for the life of me though why can they not landscape around them and just leave them?..

The station has been closed since 1994 and the 45 acres (18 ha) site was accquired by Able UK in 1995.Much of the station has been demolished and now only its six cooling towers (each 340 ft (100 m) high and 260 ft (79 m) in diameter at the base), two ash slurry hoppers, railway sidings and the station's large adjacent electricity switching station still remain. The switching station was nearly flooded during the 2007 Yorkshire flood, which would have knocked the grid out according to news reports. The power station featured in the final episode of the 1999 ITV drama, The Last Train.
Thanks for looking..

Very nicely captured and good to see the digger is still guarding!

Those towers can be difficult to photograph if you want to make it look interesting or get something different, well done!

M.

Used to be a meadow.

Sad sad shame.

I love these photos, especially the first which is very atmospheric, and the picture of the digger is also brilliant!

Just to put the record straight; the canal was not the major supply route for coal supplies as the station used the normal 'Merry-Go-Round' system, using standard 32ton HAA hopper wagons. The presence of the canal discharge system is solely down to this particular station being the prototype for the others that were built down the Trent. Because the rail transport system was also completely new, it was realised that that the wagon build program and the provision of pit head loading bunkers would not only take time, but might also run into commissioning problems. The canal discharge point allowed coal to be diverted from the barge traffic into the old Ferrybridge power station, thus keeping the new station operating during the initial firing up of the boilers and initial testing of the plant.

What one must realise is that these new stations were never meant to have coal stocks put to ground, there was supposed to be a continuous supply via the rail system. Sadly, because the HAA wagon is a classic example of 'design by committee failing to work' this could never be realised during the winter months, when the temperature fell below zero. The HAA has three pairs of bottom opening doors but unfortunately only one door in each pair is actually lifted by the lineside operating gear, the other door was lifted by a large arm that was welded onto the top surface of the driven door - thus the arm was actually situated in the coal when the wagon was loaded. During the summer months the wagons discharged perfectly; however, come the winter freeze the coal froze into a solid lump and the doors could not be opened. This put a serious strain on the 24 hour operation of these power stations.

After both the BRB and CEGB spending huge amounts of money - even building a freezer unit in the High Marnham Station engine shed so that HAA wagons could be frozen during summer experimentation - it was decided that the only sure way to ensure guaranteed 24 hour generation during winter freezes, was to put down ground stocks at each station during the summer months. This was done using road transport, something that the HAA was supposed to stop and something that the local villagers complained about for years to come.

The failure of the 'Merry-Go-Round' system to work during winter freezes was to be instrumental in bringing drastic change to one branch of British Society. It is a little known fact that the Miner's Strike failed to bring the Country to a standstill because when the NUM declared the strike, the Trent power stations had huge ground stocks - this was partly due to the mild previous winter allowing the unused stocks to augment the normal summer stocking program. If the HAA had worked as intended through out the winter months, the UK coal industry may have looked rather different to what it does today.

mr_bones said:

Used to be a meadow.

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You might be right any further info? i like a meadow and i where sandals with white socks..

No further info, so is it you then? Legendary 0742?

mr_bones said:

No further info, so is it you then? Legendary 0742?

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That be the old Sheffield code?