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Report - - Hartshead Power Station, Heyrod and Millbrook, 2015-2019 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Hartshead Power Station, Heyrod and Millbrook, 2015-2019

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Alley

Conspicuous Loiterer
Regular User
History

A coal-fired power station. Built 1926. Closed 1979. Demolished early 1980s.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/staley_and_millbrook/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartshead_Power_Station

qS0WCDsgf4FCCulyOw-e54CLU3khP5ZLNtOj3AdWfoNqrdiSrs.jpg


Background

As a child I spent a lot of time in and around Heyrod (the Y is silent); a tiny collection of houses, school, post office, and village shop
all living in the shadow of the enormous cooling towers of Hartshead Power Station.
My grandad warned me to stay away from the cooling towers – he said the water was deep, and things lived in there that might bite you, should you fall in.
I was scared enough to behave; peered into the dark water under the towers but never dreamed of getting any closer.
So, 40 years later. The cooling towers (and grandad) are long gone. I remember when, in the 1980s, they evacuated Heyrod residents for the demolition.
Nostalgia took me back to the village again to explore the power station, now crumbling and overgrown. I would finally go under the forbidden cooling towers.

CcVBE90uYGvDtFH2l4Zdegww_xKLcX5hGaZX1D78vB18TgFJpI.png


Introduction

There are quite a few reports of this place on here, and they tend to focus on the room with the switches and the rail sidings building,
which I also thought were the most interesting bits that were left… until we poked around underground. We dug a little deeper and
found that there is more left of Hartshead Power Station than has been previously documented.

@legoff’s report from 2010 is the only one I have seen that goes *under* the eastern cooling tower.

Back in 2015 @Worm posted a report which said “Coal was fed into a hopper underneath the sidings”.
In 2016, @Northern Counties added “The coal hopper is still there with steps leading down and a few tunnels leading away but I’ve not explored it yet”
and I can’t believe we didn’t notice that and follow it up at the time. This report is from several visits, with @FreshFingers and SoundLighGo, as we uncovered more stuff and realised what we had found.

What’s left?

1. The remains of two cooling towers and the power station on one side of the river Tame

2. The remains of a railway station, plus overhead and underground conveyors, on the other side

zpSfM3VS8U3rNPUToWtTbwJjRPcXI_143BFgAVM8FdZSo93Efo.jpg


Part 1. Cooling water and rusty metal

Exploring on a rainy day
bOKNhkDAdkq4fjuMI9oy1Q8xifcvuF_7XtpCiZLU2V3LI=w750.jpg


The West tower’s outline can still be seen: cracked concrete and rusty rebar mark a large circle in the woods.
2sUhxs-gzWcB9Aup_PBPsDEnx4zbA-L3vYQEqjc=w1000-h274.jpg


Nearby a waterway goes under the road to the east. What’s down here?
aW4Rg-6_OAZlsJDZvZpfCimaySjISxAHUFsUMtrqqcO7w=w750.jpg


The East tower’s base is not so obvious, but there was a hole in the ground, amongst the concrete rubble, that had to be investigated… and it delivered.
wGDvE4h-wwhPLm4HkRdS75l1ye-Yq42GUz9lQlvNn6wOU=w750.jpg


The water was not a deep as Grandad had threatened, but it did at least merit waders. In fact, we took a dinghy just to be sure.
LPKeDx5OKesdKxDGmxQKqHpB8RTZU2dV6N0r5l3tz695Q=w750.jpg


The roots of a giant.
N7xkGkK3klq0J9wkz3taKYEgQBQDhK7uv-2P_vQrKjR8E=w750.jpg


The remaining building is picturesque. Come on in.
_oomotJD-iIlY9bNrD0Da9CRpv0JgSZur713N9VPHuZkQ=w750.jpg


Switch room.
4ZRCguppxuzs4rp7O67HBIpQ_i4vq04xJ5AXby9mH6g5I=w750.jpg


Rust
8zi7EQbTkn7yJqZe1PieKK431ydiZRQThSO0XOJdyb6c8=w750.jpg


Places
5BebVWNf3islZ8uotEv6WW65WI_qAKBIpqbsl9B8datEU=w300.jpg


Part 2. The ETL (Electricity Transmission Line?)

There is a brick structure in the woods. Looks a bit like a bunker. Odd looking ‘chimney’ on the surface. It’s actually a concrete front over an old culvert,
once repurposed to carry cables, now back to draining cool, clear water into the Tame. Inside, a shaft with iron steps leads up inside the ‘chimney’ to the treetops.
Perhaps this whole area was once underground?

In the map below you can see the overhead conveyor, and also (dotted line) the ETL.
XpSG1_M7fc00376DZhbjXRG5w5l16M7ROiSFzYE6UEynyvlr5E.gif


Access. Jk.
eAnt40jnQYkIQjHBQB-_QA2qXYCKxgSSH1uAW0CbpjNcg=w750.jpg


Cable supports
jamJDJkk-RFD0nyn8lFzciFLCfFmJUyatXZpcW-9fSsog=w750.jpg


Fancy brickwork
9hYq-Ovx64g1jn_GgQd-CcexjYL_t24pcVJFKwE3-X-Qk=w750.jpg


Once we got past the broken concrete, the tunnel became a lot lower and grottier. Maybe another time.

Part 3.The Last Train

End of the line.
TgHnC67OZdHA1mzybF9yWSP-VlU9CNaRFg7jbyT4UqILc=w750.jpg


Part 3. Underground over ground

The underground conveyor was built first during early years of the station. As it expanded, the second high level one was built with associated buildings.
The high concrete bank on the reservoir was installed when a new rail line was put in to serve the building feeding the high level conveyor.
4u9lGvHmSdUNT8vhGFJaiYjlgieLY_Y04oLkbmYoYrCvM=w750.jpg


The overhead conveyor looms out of the hillside, yet somehow disappears into the lush summer woodland.
fB8xoG45nubWFSyzQS_FJfX1zJTbEyzg1Qji7Qnoh5tV0=w750.jpg


2dLwp55jRCa-1KU8z_D_pMe8z9tgQJXf2lOFjUVRPInog=w750.jpg


Under a precarious pile of rocks near the overheard conveyor is a dark hole and within it, smelly dark water.
7Tb4DZlGWH3mIrJQj2YG6bBxR6nCY35Je1W7OfUPwTwIY=w750.jpg


But… there is flow and a breeze.
18TBbFxX1uBsvK7zqMXv-j34chiRBi7t_MZchNwPATy5Q=w750.jpg


This is part of the underground conveyor so there must be another way in. SLG sniffed it out in the undergrowth above.
Honestly, I was beside myself. Surely you too have dreamed of finding a mossy staircase in the woods leading underground?
RtUtPgmB0s1mtxV-yUjLZ8Wpw4NTUuYdX-M7PvMXzvtCQ=w750.jpg


Ewart Chainbelt Co. Ltd., Derby.
slIMlqvX_ugt98lWb3HEp4ZzUFKnzQJsHypCn2Sw4Tu00=w750.jpg


At the bottom, a square chamber.
9WgorU-QerqaPJyWwOFuI8pSzAUT4GOxbI2xkoMUarhqw=w750.jpg


Water fills the base, maybe three feet deep. Small, dark fish, trapped here perhaps for life, dart away from our torchlight.
u9RGS5EQvbtrBY7U4_mdKLjvJ-wbaAylSS5Tm_O3rw16w=w750.jpg


The most enormous hopper fills every inch of the ceiling and tapers into the centre of the room. I’m hoping FreshFingers has a better photo than this one.
h2kfpXzTd_OcvrTylqWLlwVVD4Xxeir9okSIBSR8KtASY=w750.jpg
 

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Something a bit different from this once urbex classic, brought back some good memories :thumb
 

FreshFingers

Choose life, choose tunnels
Regular User
I'll just make a mess of your report if you don't mind :thumb

The concrete supports suspend what appeared to be a woven and bitumen infused conduit which the HV transmission lines would have been drawn through, with gallons on Bestobells finest Trefolex and lubrication I should imagine! The lines were initially served by the Northern sub-station heading East through the hillside via this tunnel. Later works and customer demand from the grid called for a newer sub-station a few hundred yards to the South, and subsequently, the lines were redirected and surface fed from the new site via pylons.


As Alley mentioned, a mucky beast

IMG_0112.jpg



Lower level conveyor tunnel - facing the loading hopper
IMG_0155.jpg



Hopper discharge port
IMG_0168.jpg



Tool / lunch locker possibly

IMG_0174.jpg



This rooms warrants the use of a fish-eye lens. Even with a 10mm, it's either a shot of the base, or looking further up, it's full bore sheet metal due to the angle of the hopper. Damn impressive to see though.

IMG_0181.jpg



The water is surprisingly deep and very cold at this point of the room, a couple of fish noted too
IMG_0182.jpg



Some extra machinery found further into the site for good luck

IMG_0239.jpg


IMG_0244.jpg


IMG_0245.jpg
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Amazing pics mate, just a few things about the goods shed area: if you follow the along the path next to the goods shed, you will come across a VERY run down building, and a bridge, both derelict, part of the micklehurst loop. On the land below that, is a flat muddy area with entrances underground. Not cave ins, but actual ladders. I’m going in them on Saturday, so I’ll tell you what they are when I go.
Not part of the station, but on the big dry grassy area next to the golf course, is a burnt car, which was cool

Now, something I wanted to ask, at the start, at the power station area, is it legal to go through the fences and into the buildings? I really want to go in but I don’t want to get in trouble.

Amazing report, btw
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
The first part, on the power lines, you are completely correct. I don’t have the pic right now, but an old pic of the station shows the canal lock, with what looks like power cables going over. The canal lock next to the entrance is the exact shape as the one in the photo, so it was probably used to bring power from the station
 

urbex-travel

Travel and explore abandoned places
28DL Full Member
Very nice place and nice shots. Sometimes this exploration looked like a drainspotting ;)
 

Alley

Conspicuous Loiterer
Regular User
Now, something I wanted to ask, at the start, at the power station area, is it legal to go through the fences and into the buildings? I really want to go in but I don’t want to get in trouble

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, there is probably a thread on trespass law on here, please read it.

If you go on private property, are asked to leave, and refuse to leave - that's an offence. If you leave quietly, it's not.

Some places, like live important infrastructure - power, water, rail - might have different rules e.g big fines.

The building in question belongs to the electricity company, but is no longer live. It is trashed, graffitied, unsecured. I don't think they care, and you should be fine to mooch around. It's easy to get in unnoticed.
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, there is probably a thread on trespass law on here, please read it.

If you go on private property, are asked to leave, and refuse to leave - that's an offence. If you leave quietly, it's not.

Some places, like live important infrastructure - power, water, rail - might have different rules e.g big fines.

The building in question belongs to the electricity company, but is no longer live. It is trashed, graffitied, unsecured. I don't think they care, and you should be fine to mooch around. It's easy to get in unnoticed.
I'll just make a mess of your report if you don't mind :thumb

The concrete supports suspend what appeared to be a woven and bitumen infused conduit which the HV transmission lines would have been drawn through, with gallons on Bestobells finest Trefolex and lubrication I should imagine! The lines were initially served by the Northern sub-station heading East through the hillside via this tunnel. Later works and customer demand from the grid called for a newer sub-station a few hundred yards to the South, and subsequently, the lines were redirected and surface fed from the new site via pylons.


As Alley mentioned, a mucky beast

IMG_0112.jpg



Lower level conveyor tunnel - facing the loading hopper
IMG_0155.jpg



Hopper discharge port
IMG_0168.jpg



Tool / lunch locker possibly

IMG_0174.jpg



This rooms warrants the use of a fish-eye lens. Even with a 10mm, it's either a shot of the base, or looking further up, it's full bore sheet metal due to the angle of the hopper. Damn impressive to see though.

IMG_0181.jpg



The water is surprisingly deep and very cold at this point of the room, a couple of fish noted too
IMG_0182.jpg



Some extra machinery found further into the site for good luck

IMG_0239.jpg


IMG_0244.jpg


IMG_0245.jpg
Aye, I didn’t think people would care anyway, as like you said, it’s a wreck, just rubble, a few buildings and a small hole into the underground. So I want to go in tomorrow, and if I go, I just make sure we go in without being seen?
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
History

A coal-fired power station. Built 1926. Closed 1979. Demolished early 1980s.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/staley_and_millbrook/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartshead_Power_Station

qS0WCDsgf4FCCulyOw-e54CLU3khP5ZLNtOj3AdWfoNqrdiSrs.jpg


Background

As a child I spent a lot of time in and around Heyrod (the Y is silent); a tiny collection of houses, school, post office, and village shop
all living in the shadow of the enormous cooling towers of Hartshead Power Station.
My grandad warned me to stay away from the cooling towers – he said the water was deep, and things lived in there that might bite you, should you fall in.
I was scared enough to behave; peered into the dark water under the towers but never dreamed of getting any closer.
So, 40 years later. The cooling towers (and grandad) are long gone. I remember when, in the 1980s, they evacuated Heyrod residents for the demolition.
Nostalgia took me back to the village again to explore the power station, now crumbling and overgrown. I would finally go under the forbidden cooling towers.

CcVBE90uYGvDtFH2l4Zdegww_xKLcX5hGaZX1D78vB18TgFJpI.png


Introduction

There are quite a few reports of this place on here, and they tend to focus on the room with the switches and the rail sidings building,
which I also thought were the most interesting bits that were left… until we poked around underground. We dug a little deeper and
found that there is more left of Hartshead Power Station than has been previously documented.

@legoff’s report from 2010 is the only one I have seen that goes *under* the eastern cooling tower.

Back in 2015 @Worm posted a report which said “Coal was fed into a hopper underneath the sidings”.
In 2016, @Northern Counties added “The coal hopper is still there with steps leading down and a few tunnels leading away but I’ve not explored it yet”
and I can’t believe we didn’t notice that and follow it up at the time. This report is from several visits, with @FreshFingers and SoundLighGo, as we uncovered more stuff and realised what we had found.

What’s left?

1. The remains of two cooling towers and the power station on one side of the river Tame

2. The remains of a railway station, plus overhead and underground conveyors, on the other side

zpSfM3VS8U3rNPUToWtTbwJjRPcXI_143BFgAVM8FdZSo93Efo.jpg


Part 1. Cooling water and rusty metal

Exploring on a rainy day
bOKNhkDAdkq4fjuMI9oy1Q8xifcvuF_7XtpCiZLU2V3LI=w750.jpg


The West tower’s outline can still be seen: cracked concrete and rusty rebar mark a large circle in the woods.
2sUhxs-gzWcB9Aup_PBPsDEnx4zbA-L3vYQEqjc=w1000-h274.jpg


Nearby a waterway goes under the road to the east. What’s down here?
aW4Rg-6_OAZlsJDZvZpfCimaySjISxAHUFsUMtrqqcO7w=w750.jpg


The East tower’s base is not so obvious, but there was a hole in the ground, amongst the concrete rubble, that had to be investigated… and it delivered.
wGDvE4h-wwhPLm4HkRdS75l1ye-Yq42GUz9lQlvNn6wOU=w750.jpg


The water was not a deep as Grandad had threatened, but it did at least merit waders. In fact, we took a dinghy just to be sure.
LPKeDx5OKesdKxDGmxQKqHpB8RTZU2dV6N0r5l3tz695Q=w750.jpg


The roots of a giant.
N7xkGkK3klq0J9wkz3taKYEgQBQDhK7uv-2P_vQrKjR8E=w750.jpg


The remaining building is picturesque. Come on in.
_oomotJD-iIlY9bNrD0Da9CRpv0JgSZur713N9VPHuZkQ=w750.jpg


Switch room.
4ZRCguppxuzs4rp7O67HBIpQ_i4vq04xJ5AXby9mH6g5I=w750.jpg


Rust
8zi7EQbTkn7yJqZe1PieKK431ydiZRQThSO0XOJdyb6c8=w750.jpg


Places
5BebVWNf3islZ8uotEv6WW65WI_qAKBIpqbsl9B8datEU=w300.jpg


Part 2. The ETL (Electricity Transmission Line?)

There is a brick structure in the woods. Looks a bit like a bunker. Odd looking ‘chimney’ on the surface. It’s actually a concrete front over an old culvert,
once repurposed to carry cables, now back to draining cool, clear water into the Tame. Inside, a shaft with iron steps leads up inside the ‘chimney’ to the treetops.
Perhaps this whole area was once underground?

In the map below you can see the overhead conveyor, and also (dotted line) the ETL.
XpSG1_M7fc00376DZhbjXRG5w5l16M7ROiSFzYE6UEynyvlr5E.gif


Access. Jk.
eAnt40jnQYkIQjHBQB-_QA2qXYCKxgSSH1uAW0CbpjNcg=w750.jpg


Cable supports
jamJDJkk-RFD0nyn8lFzciFLCfFmJUyatXZpcW-9fSsog=w750.jpg


Fancy brickwork
9hYq-Ovx64g1jn_GgQd-CcexjYL_t24pcVJFKwE3-X-Qk=w750.jpg


Once we got past the broken concrete, the tunnel became a lot lower and grottier. Maybe another time.

Part 3.The Last Train

End of the line.
TgHnC67OZdHA1mzybF9yWSP-VlU9CNaRFg7jbyT4UqILc=w750.jpg


Part 3. Underground over ground

The underground conveyor was built first during early years of the station. As it expanded, the second high level one was built with associated buildings.
The high concrete bank on the reservoir was installed when a new rail line was put in to serve the building feeding the high level conveyor.
4u9lGvHmSdUNT8vhGFJaiYjlgieLY_Y04oLkbmYoYrCvM=w750.jpg


The overhead conveyor looms out of the hillside, yet somehow disappears into the lush summer woodland.
fB8xoG45nubWFSyzQS_FJfX1zJTbEyzg1Qji7Qnoh5tV0=w750.jpg


2dLwp55jRCa-1KU8z_D_pMe8z9tgQJXf2lOFjUVRPInog=w750.jpg


Under a precarious pile of rocks near the overheard conveyor is a dark hole and within it, smelly dark water.
7Tb4DZlGWH3mIrJQj2YG6bBxR6nCY35Je1W7OfUPwTwIY=w750.jpg


But… there is flow and a breeze.
18TBbFxX1uBsvK7zqMXv-j34chiRBi7t_MZchNwPATy5Q=w750.jpg


This is part of the underground conveyor so there must be another way in. SLG sniffed it out in the undergrowth above.
Honestly, I was beside myself. Surely you too have dreamed of finding a mossy staircase in the woods leading underground?
RtUtPgmB0s1mtxV-yUjLZ8Wpw4NTUuYdX-M7PvMXzvtCQ=w750.jpg


Ewart Chainbelt Co. Ltd., Derby.
slIMlqvX_ugt98lWb3HEp4ZzUFKnzQJsHypCn2Sw4Tu00=w750.jpg


At the bottom, a square chamber.
9WgorU-QerqaPJyWwOFuI8pSzAUT4GOxbI2xkoMUarhqw=w750.jpg


Water fills the base, maybe three feet deep. Small, dark fish, trapped here perhaps for life, dart away from our torchlight.
u9RGS5EQvbtrBY7U4_mdKLjvJ-wbaAylSS5Tm_O3rw16w=w750.jpg


The most enormous hopper fills every inch of the ceiling and tapers into the centre of the room. I’m hoping FreshFingers has a better photo than this one.
h2kfpXzTd_OcvrTylqWLlwVVD4Xxeir9okSIBSR8KtASY=w750.jpg
Something really important I’ve wanted to ask. For the past five years, I’ve known of the existence of the underground conveyor. That entrance you found, the stairwell, where is it? I’ve spent so long trying to find it. I’ve uncovered so many secrets, places, tunnels associated with the micklehurst loop, but that damn tunnel. Do you know the area where it is? What it’s near?
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
1029D0B2-7AA3-4330-99B3-9C82089BEC26.jpeg


[Q
1029D0B2-7AA3-4330-99B3-9C82089BEC26.jpeg


UOTE="FreshFingers, post: 1249557, member: 49458"]
I'll just make a mess of your report if you don't mind :thumb

The concrete supports suspend what appeared to be a woven and bitumen infused conduit which the HV transmission lines would have been drawn through, with gallons on Bestobells finest Trefolex and lubrication I should imagine! The lines were initially served by the Northern sub-station heading East through the hillside via this tunnel. Later works and customer demand from the grid called for a newer sub-station a few hundred yards to the South, and subsequently, the lines were redirected and surface fed from the new site via pylons.


As Alley mentioned, a mucky beast

IMG_0112.jpg



Lower level conveyor tunnel - facing the loading hopper
IMG_0155.jpg



Hopper discharge port
IMG_0168.jpg



Tool / lunch locker possibly

IMG_0174.jpg



This rooms warrants the use of a fish-eye lens. Even with a 10mm, it's either a shot of the base, or looking further up, it's full bore sheet metal due to the angle of the hopper. Damn impressive to see though.

IMG_0181.jpg



The water is surprisingly deep and very cold at this point of the room, a couple of fish noted too
IMG_0182.jpg



Some extra machinery found further into the site for good luck

IMG_0239.jpg


IMG_0244.jpg


IMG_0245.jpg

[/QUOTE]
I went to that area today (after an hour of trying to find it). It is fucking impressive as you said! And cold too. The hole on the other side Of the path may of been connected to it though, as the infrastructure is the same design and is in direct path of the filled in hallway. I is have pics.
1029D0B2-7AA3-4330-99B3-9C82089BEC26.jpeg


385EE4EF-C4A4-4EFC-91B8-187FC38C2F6A.jpeg


26927C66-10C8-487C-8887-2D1708EFAFAD.jpeg


6ECC7D22-2A53-42FA-8469-3B9013CB370A.jpeg




E928A83D-2969-46E8-B018-FD82B3752AB9.jpeg


C572B9F0-F852-4243-B21E-AF94FE9C8022.jpeg


47B19E06-B450-491E-A116-B8D203D9B7AD.jpeg


B7D88CF8-2C7E-4934-8561-1E10FB2E31CB.jpeg


52BCF423-CE0F-4296-881D-9DB101128FF5.jpeg
 

TalkingMask

Professional Twat
28DL Full Member
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, there is probably a thread on trespass law on here, please read it.

If you go on private property, are asked to leave, and refuse to leave - that's an offence. If you leave quietly, it's not.

Some places, like live important infrastructure - power, water, rail - might have different rules e.g big fines.

The building in question belongs to the electricity company, but is no longer live. It is trashed, graffitied, unsecured. I don't think they care, and you should be fine to mooch around. It's easy to get in unnoticed.
I went today, and found the staircase, and the hole on the other side which was neat!

But i went to the power station site, and all holes in the fence were patched up with new, green fences. So it’s clear someone must of found out and reported it, or the electricity company must of gotten sick of people going in, which is a big shame. An important warning I must note, on the other side of that staircase, there is a big hole underground. It has a run down ladder in it, showing it obviously went deeper. Based on the design of the walls and infrastructure, and the direction one of the hallways in the hopper room went, it may of been part of it. But I went down, to the area that went underground. There was no breeze, freezing air just lingering around, not being blown out. And it stank really bad. So I suggest you don’t go in
 

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