1. The History
The first coal-fired power station at Willington was built in the 1950s. When first commissioned in 1957, Willington A’s four turbines could burn around 1,000 tonnes of coal a day each. The second power station, Willington B, was commissioned in 1962 and has two turbines that could both each burn double that amount. Hence when running at full capacity the stations typically got through 8,000 tonnes of coal a day. This was brought in by rail, delivered by ‘merry-go-round’ trains which shuttled continuously between pitheads and power station. At full output, the station was capable of working at the rate of about 1,100,000 horsepower.
The ‘A’ and ‘B’ Stations were unique as they consisted of a central boiler area with the boilers arranged in a square formation, flanked on two sides by identical turbine houses, each enclosing two turbine generating sets. The stations five cooling towers were each 300ft high and approximately 200 ft in diameter at the base and each weighed 6,500 tons. Between them, the stations typically had around 550 staff on site.
It was then privatised and sold to National Power in the early 1990s. It eventually closed and decommissioned between 1995 and 1999. 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. Most of the power station was demolished around 2000 apart from the ‘five sisters’. This is a great resource HERE if you want to see what the place looked like back in its hey day.
The site was then earmarked for a large residential development, pending the results of a public inquiry, when RWE nPower filed a planning application to build 1,000 houses, a food store, shops, community hall, health facilities and family restaurant. However, the construction plans which were due to start in 2007 were met with significant local opposition and the proposed redevelopment of the site was not granted planning approval. An appeal from the developers in 2009 was also rejected.
Hence in 2010, RWE nPower filed an application to build a gas-fired power station on the site. These plans also would most likely see the demolition of the five remaining cooling towers. In 2011, the then Department of Energy and Climate Change approved the plans. No progress was made and in 2016 Calon bought the site from RWE nPower. A year later in 2017, the new owners, Calon, applied to make changes to the proposed gas power station. However, plans to build a gas fired power station at the Willington site ran into trouble in 2018 when the Capacity Market (a scheme to pay providers for making their power supplies available at short notice during peak periods of demand) was suspended by European Court of Justice.
The site now is now in limbo. It was hoped the towers would get listed but this was effectively ruled out when the Secretary of State issued a Certificate of Immunity from listing to run from 2020 to 2025.
2. The Explore
Previously explored back in 2016, so thought it was time for a revisit. Genuinely surprised they are still standing given all the plans that were afoot to demo them. But as you can see from the history bit above, survive they do. The five cooling towers at Willington dominate the flood plains of the Trent and the site currently has some serious flooding in the nearby vicinity. Fortunately for us, not close enough to stop us getting on site.
We took the same route as we did for the first visit which meant negotiating mud, water-filled dykes and undergrowth. Not a lot has changed since our last visit bar a token effort to try and keep people out by putting up new stretches of fencing here and there. There isn’t much left bar the five cooling towers; the two nearest to the road have all their innards gone, the other three with their inner cooling systems still complete. But that’s enough reason to go as these structures are massive and strangely compelling. Plus, we had far better light this time around.
3. The Pictures
First glimpse from the front:
View across the muddy fields:
Crossing one of those dykes:
And we’re on site:
Underneath the first tower:
View from the entrance end of the site:
Inside one of the two empty shell towers:
The first coal-fired power station at Willington was built in the 1950s. When first commissioned in 1957, Willington A’s four turbines could burn around 1,000 tonnes of coal a day each. The second power station, Willington B, was commissioned in 1962 and has two turbines that could both each burn double that amount. Hence when running at full capacity the stations typically got through 8,000 tonnes of coal a day. This was brought in by rail, delivered by ‘merry-go-round’ trains which shuttled continuously between pitheads and power station. At full output, the station was capable of working at the rate of about 1,100,000 horsepower.
The ‘A’ and ‘B’ Stations were unique as they consisted of a central boiler area with the boilers arranged in a square formation, flanked on two sides by identical turbine houses, each enclosing two turbine generating sets. The stations five cooling towers were each 300ft high and approximately 200 ft in diameter at the base and each weighed 6,500 tons. Between them, the stations typically had around 550 staff on site.
It was then privatised and sold to National Power in the early 1990s. It eventually closed and decommissioned between 1995 and 1999. 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. Most of the power station was demolished around 2000 apart from the ‘five sisters’. This is a great resource HERE if you want to see what the place looked like back in its hey day.
The site was then earmarked for a large residential development, pending the results of a public inquiry, when RWE nPower filed a planning application to build 1,000 houses, a food store, shops, community hall, health facilities and family restaurant. However, the construction plans which were due to start in 2007 were met with significant local opposition and the proposed redevelopment of the site was not granted planning approval. An appeal from the developers in 2009 was also rejected.
Hence in 2010, RWE nPower filed an application to build a gas-fired power station on the site. These plans also would most likely see the demolition of the five remaining cooling towers. In 2011, the then Department of Energy and Climate Change approved the plans. No progress was made and in 2016 Calon bought the site from RWE nPower. A year later in 2017, the new owners, Calon, applied to make changes to the proposed gas power station. However, plans to build a gas fired power station at the Willington site ran into trouble in 2018 when the Capacity Market (a scheme to pay providers for making their power supplies available at short notice during peak periods of demand) was suspended by European Court of Justice.
The site now is now in limbo. It was hoped the towers would get listed but this was effectively ruled out when the Secretary of State issued a Certificate of Immunity from listing to run from 2020 to 2025.
2. The Explore
Previously explored back in 2016, so thought it was time for a revisit. Genuinely surprised they are still standing given all the plans that were afoot to demo them. But as you can see from the history bit above, survive they do. The five cooling towers at Willington dominate the flood plains of the Trent and the site currently has some serious flooding in the nearby vicinity. Fortunately for us, not close enough to stop us getting on site.
We took the same route as we did for the first visit which meant negotiating mud, water-filled dykes and undergrowth. Not a lot has changed since our last visit bar a token effort to try and keep people out by putting up new stretches of fencing here and there. There isn’t much left bar the five cooling towers; the two nearest to the road have all their innards gone, the other three with their inner cooling systems still complete. But that’s enough reason to go as these structures are massive and strangely compelling. Plus, we had far better light this time around.
3. The Pictures
First glimpse from the front:
View across the muddy fields:
Crossing one of those dykes:
And we’re on site:
Underneath the first tower:
View from the entrance end of the site:
Inside one of the two empty shell towers:
I hate all of you. Reading this *excellent report* lead me to stumble onto BigJobs report (posted May 2014).
