History
A coal-fired power station. Built 1926. Closed 1979. Demolished early 1980s.
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/staley_and_millbrook/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartshead_Power_Station
Background
As a child I spent a lot of time in and around Heyrod (the Y is silent); a tiny collection of houses, school, post office, and village shop
all living in the shadow of the enormous cooling towers of Hartshead Power Station.
My grandad warned me to stay away from the cooling towers – he said the water was deep, and things lived in there that might bite you, should you fall in.
I was scared enough to behave; peered into the dark water under the towers but never dreamed of getting any closer.
So, 40 years later. The cooling towers (and grandad) are long gone. I remember when, in the 1980s, they evacuated Heyrod residents for the demolition.
Nostalgia took me back to the village again to explore the power station, now crumbling and overgrown. I would finally go under the forbidden cooling towers.
Introduction
There are quite a few reports of this place on here, and they tend to focus on the room with the switches and the rail sidings building,
which I also thought were the most interesting bits that were left… until we poked around underground. We dug a little deeper and
found that there is more left of Hartshead Power Station than has been previously documented.
@legoff’s report from 2010 is the only one I have seen that goes *under* the eastern cooling tower.
Back in 2015 @Worm posted a report which said “Coal was fed into a hopper underneath the sidings”.
In 2016, @Northern Counties added “The coal hopper is still there with steps leading down and a few tunnels leading away but I’ve not explored it yet”
and I can’t believe we didn’t notice that and follow it up at the time. This report is from several visits, with @FreshFingers and SoundLighGo, as we uncovered more stuff and realised what we had found.
What’s left?
1. The remains of two cooling towers and the power station on one side of the river Tame
2. The remains of a railway station, plus overhead and underground conveyors, on the other side
Part 1. Cooling water and rusty metal
Exploring on a rainy day
The West tower’s outline can still be seen: cracked concrete and rusty rebar mark a large circle in the woods.
Nearby a waterway goes under the road to the east. What’s down here?
The East tower’s base is not so obvious, but there was a hole in the ground, amongst the concrete rubble, that had to be investigated… and it delivered.
The water was not a deep as Grandad had threatened, but it did at least merit waders. In fact, we took a dinghy just to be sure.
The roots of a giant.
The remaining building is picturesque. Come on in.
Switch room.
Rust
Places
Part 2. The ETL (Electricity Transmission Line?)
There is a brick structure in the woods. Looks a bit like a bunker. Odd looking ‘chimney’ on the surface. It’s actually a concrete front over an old culvert,
once repurposed to carry cables, now back to draining cool, clear water into the Tame. Inside, a shaft with iron steps leads up inside the ‘chimney’ to the treetops.
Perhaps this whole area was once underground?
In the map below you can see the overhead conveyor, and also (dotted line) the ETL.
Access. Jk.
Cable supports
Fancy brickwork
Once we got past the broken concrete, the tunnel became a lot lower and grottier. Maybe another time.
Part 3.The Last Train
End of the line.
Part 3. Underground over ground
The underground conveyor was built first during early years of the station. As it expanded, the second high level one was built with associated buildings.
The high concrete bank on the reservoir was installed when a new rail line was put in to serve the building feeding the high level conveyor.
The overhead conveyor looms out of the hillside, yet somehow disappears into the lush summer woodland.
Under a precarious pile of rocks near the overheard conveyor is a dark hole and within it, smelly dark water.
But… there is flow and a breeze.
This is part of the underground conveyor so there must be another way in. SLG sniffed it out in the undergrowth above.
Honestly, I was beside myself. Surely you too have dreamed of finding a mossy staircase in the woods leading underground?
Ewart Chainbelt Co. Ltd., Derby.
At the bottom, a square chamber.
Water fills the base, maybe three feet deep. Small, dark fish, trapped here perhaps for life, dart away from our torchlight.
The most enormous hopper fills every inch of the ceiling and tapers into the centre of the room. I’m hoping FreshFingers has a better photo than this one.
A coal-fired power station. Built 1926. Closed 1979. Demolished early 1980s.
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/staley_and_millbrook/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartshead_Power_Station
Background
As a child I spent a lot of time in and around Heyrod (the Y is silent); a tiny collection of houses, school, post office, and village shop
all living in the shadow of the enormous cooling towers of Hartshead Power Station.
My grandad warned me to stay away from the cooling towers – he said the water was deep, and things lived in there that might bite you, should you fall in.
I was scared enough to behave; peered into the dark water under the towers but never dreamed of getting any closer.
So, 40 years later. The cooling towers (and grandad) are long gone. I remember when, in the 1980s, they evacuated Heyrod residents for the demolition.
Nostalgia took me back to the village again to explore the power station, now crumbling and overgrown. I would finally go under the forbidden cooling towers.
Introduction
There are quite a few reports of this place on here, and they tend to focus on the room with the switches and the rail sidings building,
which I also thought were the most interesting bits that were left… until we poked around underground. We dug a little deeper and
found that there is more left of Hartshead Power Station than has been previously documented.
@legoff’s report from 2010 is the only one I have seen that goes *under* the eastern cooling tower.
Back in 2015 @Worm posted a report which said “Coal was fed into a hopper underneath the sidings”.
In 2016, @Northern Counties added “The coal hopper is still there with steps leading down and a few tunnels leading away but I’ve not explored it yet”
and I can’t believe we didn’t notice that and follow it up at the time. This report is from several visits, with @FreshFingers and SoundLighGo, as we uncovered more stuff and realised what we had found.
What’s left?
1. The remains of two cooling towers and the power station on one side of the river Tame
2. The remains of a railway station, plus overhead and underground conveyors, on the other side
Part 1. Cooling water and rusty metal
Exploring on a rainy day
The West tower’s outline can still be seen: cracked concrete and rusty rebar mark a large circle in the woods.
Nearby a waterway goes under the road to the east. What’s down here?
The East tower’s base is not so obvious, but there was a hole in the ground, amongst the concrete rubble, that had to be investigated… and it delivered.
The water was not a deep as Grandad had threatened, but it did at least merit waders. In fact, we took a dinghy just to be sure.
The roots of a giant.
The remaining building is picturesque. Come on in.
Switch room.
Rust
Places
Part 2. The ETL (Electricity Transmission Line?)
There is a brick structure in the woods. Looks a bit like a bunker. Odd looking ‘chimney’ on the surface. It’s actually a concrete front over an old culvert,
once repurposed to carry cables, now back to draining cool, clear water into the Tame. Inside, a shaft with iron steps leads up inside the ‘chimney’ to the treetops.
Perhaps this whole area was once underground?
In the map below you can see the overhead conveyor, and also (dotted line) the ETL.
Access. Jk.
Cable supports
Fancy brickwork
Once we got past the broken concrete, the tunnel became a lot lower and grottier. Maybe another time.
Part 3.The Last Train
End of the line.
Part 3. Underground over ground
The underground conveyor was built first during early years of the station. As it expanded, the second high level one was built with associated buildings.
The high concrete bank on the reservoir was installed when a new rail line was put in to serve the building feeding the high level conveyor.
The overhead conveyor looms out of the hillside, yet somehow disappears into the lush summer woodland.
Under a precarious pile of rocks near the overheard conveyor is a dark hole and within it, smelly dark water.
But… there is flow and a breeze.
This is part of the underground conveyor so there must be another way in. SLG sniffed it out in the undergrowth above.
Honestly, I was beside myself. Surely you too have dreamed of finding a mossy staircase in the woods leading underground?
Ewart Chainbelt Co. Ltd., Derby.
At the bottom, a square chamber.
Water fills the base, maybe three feet deep. Small, dark fish, trapped here perhaps for life, dart away from our torchlight.
The most enormous hopper fills every inch of the ceiling and tapers into the centre of the room. I’m hoping FreshFingers has a better photo than this one.
