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Willington Power Station was a pair of coal-fired power stations constructed in the UK in the 1950s. Construction of the 'A' station began in 1954 and it was switched on in 1957, and construction of the 'B' station followed in 1959, subsequently switched on in 1962. Willington A contained four 104MW English Electric turbines, and Willington B contained a pair of 200MW AEI turbines. At full load, the consumption of the combined A & B stations was around 8000 tons of coal a day, half of which alone could be burned in the boilers of the B station.
The power stations had a unique design amongst the many coal-fired stations constructed in the 1950s. The boilers were situated in the centre of the hall in a square pattern, flanked on either side by identical pairs of turbine houses with the generating sets arranged end-to-end. The main reason was simply down to cost, as it was cheaper to use a temporary crane to lift the 160 ton generator stator into place rather than rely on huge overhead gantry cranes. They also had 'partly closed' boiler plants, on the A side the boilers were described as 'semi outdoor', with the milling plant, lower section of the furnaces and the top sections of the boilers enclosed in weatherproof housing. On the B side the boiler plant was almost completely outdoors apart from the milling plant, with only small rooms at each end housing pieces of equipment.
Willington A was decommissioned in 1996, and B followed in 1999. Following closure, everything except the five cooling towers were demolished with a plan to put a large housing estate on the site, however this fell through and the latest plan, nearly a decade old now, is for construction of another power station on site but as of yet nothing has happened, and it won't happen for the foreseeable future despite numerous rumours of demolition happening soon.
I've been here numerous times now, maybe half a dozen or so. There is no way of conveying a truly accurate description of how enormous these structures are when you're right up close to them - three of them still have the concrete innards and two of them are completely hollowed out, with some amazing acoustics. They dominate the mostly flat landscape for miles around, and are an iconic sight to locals as well as an iconic site for explorers alike as there is nowhere else like it in the UK. I took these photos at the end of a long day of exploring elsewhere, but I'll never turn down a chance to have a wander around here and I was happy to get some different shots.
It'll be a really sad day when these eventually bite the dust.
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Thanks for looking 
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Ohhh, I love this 😍!! Not sure if I have the authority, but I'm giving you a win in urbex today...
If I'm not mistaken, this particular design of cooling tower is known as a "hyperbolic' tower (thank you Google). I've been rather up close to the ones on Three Mile Island (and had a bit of a chat with the heavily armed security), and they are indeed massively imposing structures.
Great pics, thanks for sharing; looks like a unique and fun explore!
"When you've truly done something right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." | |
Posted by Cfourexplore
Ohhh, I love this 😍!! Not sure if I have the authority, but I'm giving you a win in urbex today...
If I'm not mistaken, this particular design of cooling tower is known as a "hyperbolic' tower (thank you Google). I've been rather up close to the ones on Three Mile Island (and had a bit of a chat with the heavily armed security), and they are indeed massively imposing structures.
Great pics, thanks for sharing; looks like a unique and fun explore!
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Yes I believe they are shaped as such to help accelerate the release of steam from the towers, as the narrowing sides cause it to speed up as it rises upwards. They are a real marvel of mid-century industrial design and once so commonplace but now more and more are being brought down.
[last edit 9/23/2020 6:05 PM by mookster - edited 1 times]
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