Willington Cooling Towers

Last week we had a shoot planned in Derbyshire for around 13:00, it was subsequently moved to dawn which at this time of year is about 05:15. We decided to travel up the night before and stay near the site. These types of shoot are always a little stressful, however good the forecast is you can’t help but worry it will cloud up over night or a local mist will scupper the shoot.

We woke up at 04:30, opened the curtains, observed the beautiful view across the service station car park, checked the sky and it was wonderfully bright, not a cloud in sight. We went out soon after to ensure we could get on site, scope out take off and landing spots and wait for the sun to do it’s thing. With dawn and dusk photos there is a very small window of opportunity and the light changes quickly. We find it’s always best to be on site much earlier than needed and to watch the light.

We ended up shooting the view about 5 times in different lighting to ensure our client had as many options as possible. Our site was very close to Willington Cooling Towers, a dominating local landmark and we took a few photos while waiting for the sun. We think these cooling towers are beautiful structures and hope they can be saved. We have since learnt that 20th Century Society are trying to save them by finding a new use going forward. They also put on an exhibition last year about cooling towers with Luke O’Donovan.

Willington Cooling Towers - White and White Studio

Willington Cooling Towers
These towering giants are the last remaining remnant of Willington Power Station, which was formed of two parts, A and B.

Willington 'A' Power Station was first commissioned in late 1957 and contained four 104 M.W. generating units. The final unit was commissioned in July 1959. Each unit, when on full load, would burn approximately 1,000 tons of coal per day, and of this coal there remained some 200 tons of ash which had to be disposed of by pumping through pipe lines and by road transport.

Willington 'B' was commissioned in 1962 and consisted of two 200 M.W. generating units. The 'B' Station boilers would each burn 2,000 tons of coal per day on full load, leaving approximately 400 tons per boiler per day of ash. The fuel consumption at Willington Power Station, when on full load, was in the order of 8,000 tons of coal per day, the majority of which was delivered to site by British Railways from collieries of the East Midlands Coal Field. Coal was supplied via a branch off the adjacent Derby to Birmingham railway line.

The output from the Willington Power Stations was fed into the 132,000 volt grid system. Power was delivered to the surrounding area, and to a large extent to the South of England for use in the areas of Greater London and Bristol. The stations were privatised and sold to National Power in the early 1990s. Willington A closed in May 1995 and the B Station followed in 1999. Although most of the stations were demolished at the turn of the millennium, the five cooling towers continue to dominate the skyline of the local area. The site was earmarked for a large residential development, but the application was rejected and in 2011 permission was granted for a new power station to be built on the site.

Source: Wikipedia