Huncoat is a village on the outskirts of Accrington in Lancashire. There isn’t all that much to it on the surface, but underneath it was a rich coal seam upon which the north was developed during the Industrial Revolution. In the years that followed World War Two the newly nationalised electricity board chose this inconspicuous village adjacent to Padiham Power station, which had been generating electricity from coal since 1926, as the location for a new unit. Huncoat Power Station was duly opened on 11 May 1956 by the Mayor.
In 1968 the Burnley pit that the area was built and prospered on closed with over a million tonnes of coal abandoned as an uneconomic mining proposition.
In 1984 after barely three decades of production, the power station itself closed. The cooling towers were demolished on 16 October 1988, with the majority of the buildings coming down in September 1990. It’s unclear why the remaining buildings were left, though it may have been an interim measure if the transformer gear was housed in there, before it was transferred to the newer adjacent buildings.
In 2004 controversy surrounded Lancashire County Council’s proposal to build a waste management facility on the site, which was by this time owned by Omega Atlantic and had been since 2001. The plans were approved in May 2006 in spite of many local objections. The owner appealed against the compulsory purchase however, an appeal that the government inspector upheld, and in the process nailing shut the coffin lid of LCC’s waste technology park in the process.
The Explore
We went very early in the afternoon, around 12:30pm. Got inside and didn't expect it to smell so badly. Bumped into people whom were a bit shady as they had a bag full of what looked like spray paint.
Left about 2:30pm. Loved the whole thing, worth visiting if you're nearby.
