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Dragon_Urbex
Guest
Guest
This is a rather late report of a now bygone thing... for anyone hoping to explore these towers, they were blown up in December sadly.
Ironbridge is a very historical area in Shorpshire and is named after the Iron Bridge, the world's first iron bridge. The area soon became known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution due to all the industry that sprung up there. The first power station was built in the 1920's, of which very little survives today. The second, Ironbridge B, was begun in the 1960's and commissioned in 1969. It was a coal fired station capable of generating 1,000 megawatts via two sets of boilers and turbines. Each unit was equipped with two cooling towers as coolant from the Severn was often unreliable. The four 120 meter tall cooling towers had a pink hue added to the concrete mix so that they would blend into the surrounding landscape (red soil) better.
The explore:
Short answer, blood mission impossible. Parked up at Buildwas Abbey, trudged along the lane by the railway (in Wellington boots I must add, I thought it would be muddy!), hopped over a fence, upa steep hill, down a hill into the coal yard, along in some muddy areas and then into the site itself. Loads of demolition workers there, even though it was a saturday which was stupidly annoying. So... another half an hour of careful scrambling up steep hills and down them then scuttling along a water pipe and we got into the cooling tower section. Again, demolition workers there so we had to be careful. Here are the photos from the day!
Ironbridge is a very historical area in Shorpshire and is named after the Iron Bridge, the world's first iron bridge. The area soon became known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution due to all the industry that sprung up there. The first power station was built in the 1920's, of which very little survives today. The second, Ironbridge B, was begun in the 1960's and commissioned in 1969. It was a coal fired station capable of generating 1,000 megawatts via two sets of boilers and turbines. Each unit was equipped with two cooling towers as coolant from the Severn was often unreliable. The four 120 meter tall cooling towers had a pink hue added to the concrete mix so that they would blend into the surrounding landscape (red soil) better.
The explore:
Short answer, blood mission impossible. Parked up at Buildwas Abbey, trudged along the lane by the railway (in Wellington boots I must add, I thought it would be muddy!), hopped over a fence, upa steep hill, down a hill into the coal yard, along in some muddy areas and then into the site itself. Loads of demolition workers there, even though it was a saturday which was stupidly annoying. So... another half an hour of careful scrambling up steep hills and down them then scuttling along a water pipe and we got into the cooling tower section. Again, demolition workers there so we had to be careful. Here are the photos from the day!
