Willington Power Station.
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Willington Power Station was a coal fired power station and began life in 1954 with Station "A" compramising of two cooling towers and four generators to provide electricity for Derbyshire.
By 1957 Willington "A" was fully functional and plans where made to extend the site with the addition of Willington "B" and another three cooling towers where added to the site, which now covered 265 acres.
This also included 19,000 yards of railway sidings that brought coal in, to fire the station, the sidings could hold 7000 tons of coal at anyone time.
Ewbank and Partners were responsible for the design, engineering, construction & commissioning of the “A” plant which included the 425ft cooling towers which where capable of producing 400 mega watts of power.
The construction of "B" was originally meant to house two generators equalling that of "A" with only the need for one cooling tower, but three where added instead, and where considerably smaller than "A" coming in at 300ft rather than 425ft.
During Willingtons construction three workers tragically died as a result of falling from the cooling towers.
Willingtons time finally came on the 16th August 1989 when Privatisation saw the power station become part of National Power PLC. and the station was seen as unproductive and not very cost effective.
Willington "A" was finally shut down on the 31st May 1995 and Willington "B" on 31st March 1999.
Demolition commenced later the same year – in November 1999. A specialist company called Abel Ltd winning the contract, Now the site is the property of Innogy Holdings PLC – whether by amalgamation or takeover, this is what National Power has become.
Although all that remains of Willington is the cooling towers, it still is a very imposing place the sheer scale of the cooling towers dominate the local landscape and cast some impressive shadows over the terrain.
The structures themselves are now relativley bare and with the absence of the control rooms it really is just a shell, and shadow of its former self.
That said though its still worth seeing for the history alone, that and the fact that not many of these places still survive.
Definatley worth seeing if your in the area.
Date : April 2008 : Location : Derby : Explorers : Havoc : Jaff Fox
