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Report - - Hartshead power station and the millbrook sidings | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Hartshead power station and the millbrook sidings

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TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
This is my hopefully final rendition on the Hartshead power station thread

this will be very long, so sit tight

history:

Hartshead power station’s construction began in 1919, and was semi completed in 1926. The goods yard itself existed long before the power station was constructed. There are not many records on it besides a few maps and pictures.
Such as:

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The goods shed from Grove road, over the older bridge with a locomotive going over

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An older map of the Goods yard, and Staley&Millbrook station at the bottom. Thank you to National libraries of Scotland for this Ordinance Survey map of this area.

the power station after its initial construction only has the single conveyor, and the power station itself was much smaller. The goods yard compared to now is much smaller, and the overhead conveyor wasn’t constructed yet. Here is the map:https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.486723832579816&lat=53.49819&lon=-2.03612&layers=10&b=1

about a decade or two after it’s construction, the power station had several issues contributing to the first underground conveyor. Due to it being underground, it constantly flooded and had issues with people getting ill due to coal dust from the enclosed space, so a secondary conveyor was required. The power station was being used by more and more areas around Tameside and Ashton-Under-Line, and some parts next to Manchester like Mossley, this also meant that the goods yard and power station had to be expanded if they were to meet the needs of all these areas.After its final construction, this is how it looked:
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Thank you @FreshFingers and @Alley (forgot which one had it) for this incredible map of the area

about 1950, an engine shed was created further up so that the custom Steam locomotives that served the power station were constantly in goods shape and has a good supply of steam.

sadly as the power station reached older age, around 1970, the Micklehurst loop was mostly closed down, which means the stations coal supply was closed, so they had to convert to Oil and gas, until 1979, until its inevitable abandonment, and 1980 its destruction. The goods yard itself wasn’t touched strangely, besides the conveyor as they are part of the power station, until about 200-2010 when Caseys and Urban Green began pulling down and scrapping most of the buildings, which is why lots of reports before 2010 seem to have lots more interesting parts.

that’s all I know on the history currently, so it’s time for the actual Report.

130 Coal Wagons:

Somewhere between 1850-1870, the construction of a small goods yard began to supply the nearby mills and town of Millbrook. The area itself used to be pretty empty, hence the previous map, and there are a few pictures. Such as:

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You can see in the first picture the goods shed in the centre of the picture.

when the power station was made, the goods yard was expanded massively to hold up to 130 coal wagons. There are many old pictures of this area, thank you to people on Flickr and Timepix.Uk for these pictures

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Thank you to random user on reddit for this amazing picture

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nowadays, the Goods shed itself is in amazing condition externally, internally however it is very empty.

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Externals

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You can see here on the inside the very large empty area below the floor. My assumptions is that there was a trapdoor over it, and it was used to stood coaldue to the fact it has several girders in it and large chunks of wood. But then again, it may just be from other parts of the shed.

outside at the front, there is a small building connected to the outside next to the entrance. I don’t have pictures of it now, but it is in a very broken state. I believe it may of been a boiler of some sort? As inside of it there is a small furnace, and this next picture shows a little chimney on top:

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at the goods yard, there is a small reservoir outside, and after the railways were expanded, a concrete embankment was made:
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Not much remains of the actually goods yard itself sadly, as there are almost no rails, and all the rail supports were recently pulled up by Urban Green and removed, so there isn’t much besides the conveyors and engine shed which I will discuss later.

High And Low, And One More For Good Luck

when the power station was created, the river Tame and Huddersfield Narrow Canal sat between the two, so movement by hand or truck wasn’t an option. A very simple idea was created when the station was made. A conveyor. The original conveyor was underground, and used to stretch low over the canal and river. A simple mechanism was made, a few hoppers based under the railway for trains to drop coal off, and it worked well. For a while.

the hopper room itself nowadays isn’t as fascinating as it used to be. The green hopper is rusted to hell, and where machinery used to be only shows a dark outline on the concrete. In 2010, Caseys and Urban Green decided to clean and scrap it for any objects. At this time they weren’t going to sell though. This is when they were planning to create a new housing estate and ‘valley park’, and all metal they pulled out was dumped into the watery pits in the hopper room. This is what the area used to look like:


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You can see here the mangled mess and old gate covering the service entrance to the hopper

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This was taken off the internet, not mine. You can still see here the old conveyor machinery , and the old hallway.Fir those that braved the mangled entrance nowadays, you know that all that remains is a muddy hallway.

I don’t have many more pictures of it previously, but I have a few of nowadays:

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You can see in these two pictures the green, rusty hopper, and the old discharge port at the bottom

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You can see in these next two pictures the entrance to thehopper and conveyor, something interesting is on the wall you can see the old cable supports, where electrical wiring would of run down.

This is the end of this part. It will continue in the comments
 

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EOA

Exploring with Bob
28DL Full Member
Good effort for part one. Seems you've done a decent job covering the site. Looking forward to part II...
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Next part

matter the expansion of the power station and sidings, a secondary conveyor was created so the issues of the underground one and more coal can be carried over. With the expansion of conveyor lift created next to the reservoir:

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It’s surprising why they left this part of the conveyor standing. It is the most supported area and most secure part, but still puzzling

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Amazing picture one again, but you here can see the coal conveyor lifts which carried coal up to the conveyor to be brought over to the power station.

now, as stated in the title, there is another conveyor belt. For those that been to the hopper itself, you may notice two of the hallways are filled in, and leads away in the other direction to the power station. I am not fully sure what it’s for, however some people have mentioned it may be a third fuel conveyor to bring fuels like oil and gas to the nearby mills and town. There is a very large entrance into this above ground(and can be deadly for anyone not paying attention where they’re walking):

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Now don’t be fooled by its picture, this is VERY deep. I stood on the rock close to the wall and it is as high as me, and I’m 5’9’’.

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This is what’s at the bottom of this hole. I couldn’t go any further as we can’t afford buying any good waders currently, but we will soon for my birthday coming up. You can tell that this is connected to the hopper room, because the hallway leading away from the station that’s filled in has the same cable supports and same stylehallway as the conveyor itself. You can see in this picture the conveyor/pipe supports and it goes far, that torch was pretty powerful and I couldn’t reach the end. If anyone fancies a cold walk, go ahead, I’m not stopping you.

The Hole In The Woods

I found this hole whilst walking towards the engine shed. It was based next to a small wall:

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Now at the time I was wearing short sleeves, so I couldn’t go down this side. However...

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I had a crawl down, and it stank

and what a shame, it literally just led to the little ladder. However, I believe it is the same hole as in this picture. Around the bottom right:

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As you can see here, a little lump next to what seems to be a wall is the exact same as the one here, and the siding is in the same place as the one here, so even though it’s a disappointment, at least it’s interesting


Fixing The Locomotives

further along this path, a small building shows up out of the woods. This is the remains of an engine shed:

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You can see the remains of this old are very hollow, and there is a small makeshift staircase to get up to the second floor. However, it is Empty and there is nothing if interest up here. @Alley or @freshfinger, if you could tell me where your ordnance survey map was from, I would appreciate it as it may show what this area was like

further along, there is a small bridge, but nothing worth to see. Especially after a brick came down and hit me mates head. Bad day that was:

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part 3 under construction
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Part 3:

A Lot Of Power Needed

after the power stations initial construction, a small substation was made with an underground power line stretching out to a substation further into millbrook.

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Here is the main entrance. First time I saw these, me and me mate thought it was a sewer of some sorts. You can see the gate there on the entrance, and you can tell it’s pretty old with them really dirty red bricks

in we go


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You can see in these two pictures a hell of a lot off metal wires, so anyone planning to come in, watch your step. The floor is very muddy, and along it a random pieces of concrete, several saying ‘danger electrical’. You can see in the second picture the large cable supports, and behind them, a lower drop. In that is disgusting, bubbling mud, and nothing interesting. And further along that, the Cable supports are still standing, which means it drops to a crawl. So that’s the furthest I could go. To the left of the the little T path is a large chimney like structure. This was used to bring cold air into the tunnels to keep the wires cool. Apparently it’s high up as that brings cold air in. To the right of the path, is a small pipe. Here’s the vent from the inside:

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I’ve been to the top, and something I’ve noticed, is that the top is the same style as these holes based around the goods yard, like this one

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However these are filled in, so I believe the tunnel doesn’t go far anymore, and is filled in.

Hartshead Power Station

after its completed construction in 1926, the station still had a long way to go until it was finished.

it had 2 cooling towers and 2 chimneys. There are many old pics of it online, so I’m only going to show my favourite ones:

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The size of these towers compared to that power pylon is amazing.

sadly not much remains of the station itself. All of the larger buildings are Long gone, and all that remains of the cooling towers are a few tunnels and the rubble (which was never cleared off for some reason). So I’ll start off talking about the cooling towers.

the northern cooling tower is on its own side of the road with a fence surrounding it. You can find a few good pics of it on timepix.uk, along with many on google

I’m not going to show the rubble, but it is dangerous as the concrete is loose and there is a lot of rebar sticking out of the ground, so I wouldn’t advise going out without some good clothing and boots.

the old waterway is still there surprisingly:

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However, a very dangerous and creepy hole sits right next to this

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I can’t go down even if I had waders sadly. The bottom is filled to the brim with water and mud, so I guess I won’t ever know what it looks like down there. However, I have been told it is some old maintenance tunnels. I can’t be sure though

with the eastern cooling tower, all that remains is all the rubble. And this is slightly less easier to walk on than the other one. The rubble is in large chunks, but it’s very uneven and the pieces of rebar are much longer than the other, so I would highly advise against going on it. I have been told that there was an old hole around there where it’s foundations were, but I can’t be sure currently as I have to self isolate. Next time I go I will definitely check it out

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Next part (this is very long, sorry)
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Power Distribution And Food

quite a lot of posts here seem to focus on the old switch room and cafeteria building, so I’m going to include them too.

The small cafeteria building is nothing really worth looking at nowadays sadly, due to scrapping companies taking the interesting stuff out of this building, but I’m going to show some pictures anyway, not much detail though

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Some sun rays
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The brink Of collapse
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The dining area
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Bathrooms
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Old lights
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Old power boxes
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Food boiling plans
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Tunnels under it


Time for the switch boxes.

the building itself is very picturesque, come in
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Some old hydrogen canisters outside the generator housing
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The generator housing

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Some old switches based behind the generators
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And now, time for the switch boxes themselves



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Some very photogenic stairs

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Watch your step, old wire chute which wouldn’t of brung wires down to the switches at the lower floor

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Some switches found next to the staircase


I thank all for reading this, this took VERY long, and is my final report on the site if Hartshead Power Station. If anyone has more pictures or info on more parts to this place, I will be very grateful. Good day!
 

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FreshFingers

Choose life, choose tunnels
Regular User
Hi David,

Great to see you made a report on the site. I know you've been at it for some time and I admire your persistance.

There's some nice pictures you've included which I haven't seen before, thankyou.

A shame you couldn't take a peek further into the conveyor lines as there's some fun stuff to see. I hope Santa (can we say that name yet, too early?) brings you some waders.
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Hi David,

Great to see you made a report on the site. I know you've been at it for some time and I admire your persistance.

There's some nice pictures you've included which I haven't seen before, thankyou.

A shame you couldn't take a peek further into the conveyor lines as there's some fun stuff to see. I hope Santa (can we say that name yet, too early?) brings you some waders.
Hi alley

don’t worry about the Santa thing lol, old enough!

thank you for replying to the post, I’ve been pretty persistent due to the fact that there have been works going on at the power station currently, and I’ve noticed some trees being cut down, so I’ve wanted to see as much as I can before it all goes.
 

rslnewton

28DL Member
28DL Member
You ask why the strongest section of the conveyor belt in the sky was left standing. My friend who was Chief Engineer for Tameside said they set explosives to bring the whole thing down but this section didn’t fall. He said it was safer leaving it standing rather than try again.
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Tha
You ask why the strongest section of the conveyor belt in the sky was left standing. My friend who was Chief Engineer for Tameside said they set explosives to bring the whole thing down but this section didn’t fall. He said it was safer leaving it standing rather than try again.
ts actually a really interesting fact lol, makes sense considering the state the bottom of the supports are
 

bignickb

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I'm loving those older pictures! I've been to this area many times over the last ten years! Great job! Oakwood Mill is close by too.
 

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