Drakelow Power Station
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Drakelow Power Station was located two and a half miles south of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, next to the River Trent. Burton is most famous for its breweries, but was also recognised for what was its most distinguishable landmark, Drakelow Power Station.
[edit] The station
Drakelow Power Station was built on the site of Drakelow Hall. The original hall was built in the 10th century. Built by the Gresley Family (Nigel Gresley (1876-1941), being famous for the Sir Nigel Gresley and Mallard locomotives), the site was owned by the family until the 19th century, when they left the house and it became derelict. In this time, the structure of the house deteriorated beyond repair. Plans to develop the house into a social club never materialised and, after being bought by the Central Electricity Generating Board, the house was demolished in the 1940s. Plans were then drawn up for the new power station. Work began in the late 1950s on A and B stations, and C station was begun in the early 1960s. By 1964, A, B and C stations were up and running, making the site Europe’s largest power station with a capacity of 976kw. The two cooling towers to the far left and far right were built using slightly pink concrete. Apparently, this was to make the station a little less of an eyesore.
[edit] The end
The Drakelow site changed hands on several occasions. It was sold to TXU,and American company, and then in the early 1990s, to Powergen. Powergen then decided to close A and B stations, which by this stage were beginning to age. They closed soon after and were demolished in 1998, leaving only C station to run on into the new Millennium. Powergen were then bought-out by E.ON UK. At this point, rumours began to circulate that Drakelow was to be closed; a point that E-ON denied. However, in January 2003, E-ON announced that the station was to close, and on 31 March 2003, the station closed its doors. It was mothballed soon after and left standing until October 2005. The demolition of the two boiler houses was then begun and on 27 November 2005 at 05.00 a.m. the two tall chimneys were demolished via explosives. By April 2006, the boiler house had been stripped down to bare metal, which on 27 April 2006 at 10.00 a.m. was also imploded.
The grand finale was left until 19 July 2006, with the scheduled demolition of the six remaining cooling towers. The six towers remained standing, even after their 11.00 p.m. blow down time, as a fault with the detonator was found; a disappointment for the thousands of spectators which had gathered. The new date was set to 20 September 2006 at 10.00 p.m., when the towers finally came down, though not without fault. One set of towers came down at 10.00, but the other three failed after rabbits had chewed through the detonation cord. At 10.50 however, the final set of towers came crashing down, ending the era of Drakelow Power Station.
