UKC

Since moving to Sheffield and spending a fair amount of time going up on the Eastern Edges and around in the Peak, I've noticed how you can see various power stations with cooling towers off in the distance. Over Easter with my family we went up to the North York Moors and looking south again I could see three sets of cooling towers off in the far distance. When driving up to Sheffield from the West Midlands when you join the M1 from the A42, there is one power station near there - somewhere North of Nottingham I guess? And I have friends who live near Gainsborough and visiting them I noticed more cooling towers not so far away. Someone told me that other cooling towers you see to the NE when on the hills above Sheffield are somewhere near Wakefield.

Anyway, I was just wondering whether it is these three power stations I keep seeing; from N. Yorkshire down to the Derbyshire hills - or if there are more than that? Idle curiosity I supposes: just wondering how far away cooling towers are visible from.

In reply to TobyA:

As you move east its - Ferrybridge, Eggborough then Drax. As these 3 are on essentially a plain with high ground to the west and north of them they are pretty prominent landmarks

In reply to TobyA: The tation near the M1/ M42 is Ratcliffe on Trent, infamously the site of the demonstration that never was- protesters were arrested before the event/ occupation as a consequence of police officers having sex with some of the protesters beforehand (or something).

The most southerly power stations you can see from Sheffield, towards Lincoln are Cottam and West Burton, also on the Trent.

In reply to TobyA:

Ratcliffe is to the South next to the M1 https://www.flickr.com/photos/21913923@N03/2909769449/in/album-721576036797...

You also have Cottam and West Burton near Retford, North Nottingham/Lincolnshire. https://www.flickr.com/photos/21913923@N03/6359233393/in/album-721576036797...

Ferrybridge is next to the M1/A1 junction. https://www.flickr.com/photos/21913923@N03/2182124729/in/album-721576036797...

Eggbourough and Drax are further East. There are a few smaller gas turbine power stations dotted about, but no coolers as such. Plus there are the 8 derelict cooling towers at Willington in Derbyshire.

In reply to TobyA:

On clear winter days the steam coming from the cooling towers can be seen on any of the North York Moors hills with a good southerly aspect. With my binos the cooling towers are clearly visible.

A rough bit of measuring of my maps gives an average distance of around 60 miles.

In reply to toad:


Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. There is no such place as Ratcliffe on Trent.

Ratcliffe on Soar. Small village near M1 Junction 24. Site of large power station.

Radcliffe on Trent. Large village several miles south east of Nottingham, miles from the above. Site of me.

In reply to Chris Harris:

Yeah, I realised when it was too late to edit. Soz.

In reply to TobyA:
Not sure about the cooling towers but the chimney at Drax is a monster, second highest free standing structure in Yorkshire after Emley Moor.
All the more impressive because of its shape.

In reply to TobyA:

Can easily see Ratcliffe from the hill (spoil heap) behind our house. That's about 20 miles. From the right location it would be still be visible a lot further away.

In reply to craig h:



Ferrybridge is around 15 miles from the M1 - it's much further east on the A1/M62 junction. Eggbrough is further east again, just north of the A19/M62 junction. Drax is around 10 miles further east again (south-east of Selby).

In reply to Chris Harris:
Looking south from a high point in the peak/Yorks, over to the right of Radcliffe on soar you may see 5 large cooling towers that is willington power station. The coal burning thin chimneys have gone now along with the rest of the power station but the 5 coolers remain. An important part of the skyline for Derby folk.
25 years ago I used to work coal trains from Denby into willington and to this day I still drive past them regularly

In reply to TobyA:

My father spent a short period helping his own father's construction business build some of these not long after the end of WWII after he left the army. He was in the paras but really struggled with vertigo on the towers. I'm sat on the fence as to whether they are eyesores or strangely attractive. It would be a shame if they all went.

In reply to wilkie14c:


Used to discharge warm water into the Trent back in the day too. Along with all the other power stations on the river. The fishing was superb below the outfalls, especially in the winter. From a fishing point of view, there demise is a sad one.

I've been inside the cooling towers at Ratcliffe, we were on a day trip from collage many moons ago. I've also been there when they've had guys hanging over the top on Bosons chairs. Apparently the towers were/are "Ovaling" and they were trying to fix them

In reply to arch:

Yea indeed re the fishing. Used to be a DAA member back then and fished the Trent during this demise and gave up in the end as everywhere was barren. Just joined the pride of Derby club for the coming season. It'll be the first time I've fished the Trent in 20 years!

In reply to wilkie14c:

I'm a member of Burton Mutual, so get to fish the Trent on a lot of the old DAA stretches, including Willington, although I spend a lot of my time trying to catch a double figure Barbel out of the Dove. Unsuccessfully I might add. There aren't any decent sized Chub (3-4lbs) in the river Trent nowadays which is a shame. Lots of small fish though, which is encouraging.

Off topic, so sorry folks.

In reply to arch:


Not at all! Views and the landscape are essentially social history and, by the sounds of it, so is fishing! I wrote an article in Climb a few years ago about how route names reflect the era of the climbs done - i.e. who gives Biblical referencing names to routes in the last 4 decades, when everyone did before then - but I had never thought about how fish reflected the economy and industry of the surrounding environment. I was out riding on the Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire borderlands last weekend and its is interesting how now another form of electricity generation - windmills - is making some of the most obvious man-made landmarks on the landscape, particularly resonant in an area that used to be dominated by pits and the pit head towers I guess.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions, including the great photos. I'm going to try and find all the referenced power stations on a map so when I'm looking down from the moors I can take an educated guess at which is which! Easter was my first ever visit to the North York Moors so it was really nice looking down south from there and working out what we could see which is normally to the East and North East from the Peak District.

I presume the highest structure in Yorkshire reference is that tower (TV?) you see on the hill to your west as you go up the M1 from Sheff towards Leeds? That is big.

Cheers all.

In reply to TobyA:

Turning the question on its head, the highest structure in the NYM is Bilsdale transmitter mast. I wonder what the maximum distance that can be seen from?

In reply to Tom Valentine:

The coal days of Drax are numbered, it is being converted from Coal to Biomass.( wood pellet)

There will be no coal fired stations in the UK by 2025, they will close or be converted under new legislation.

In reply to Dave Perry:

You can see The White Horse of Kilburn from the top of the 650ft chimneys at Ferrybridge.

In reply to TobyA:

Emley Moor.
It might soon have a slightly smaller partner at its side.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

How far is Emely Moor from those power stations then?

In reply to arch:


Off topic, off location but I spent many a happy childhood afternoon fishing at the hotties in St Helens, so named because of the hot water sprinkled in there from an adjacent Pilkingtons factory. There were a range of tropical fish in that stretch, chichlids (sp?) especially.

It was all filled in some years back and a road now runs where it used to be.

T.

In reply to Pursued by a bear: there have been loads of hoary old stories about piranha in power station outflows, never knew if any of them were true, I fear none of them...

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

Yes, I can remember the Angling Times running a feature on the hottie's and the non native fish.

I've stood in the water below Willington outfall on a very cold winters day, running a stick float down the river, steam rising off the water. My feet were toasty warm, 50 yards upstream, I'd have had to of stood on the bank instead.

For some things, progress isn't always for the best.

In reply to TobyA:

The one north of Nottingham might be Staythorpe?

In reply to Dave Perry:

17 miles to Ferrybridge, a few more to the others probably.

In reply to climbingpixie:
Staythorpe is a gas powered station, so no cooling towers. I think we've established that the plant by the m1/m42 is Ratcliffe on Soar