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Report - - Millbrook Railway sidings and Heyrod Power Station - Jan 2012 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Millbrook Railway sidings and Heyrod Power Station - Jan 2012

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The Lone Ranger

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Millbrook Railway sidings and Heyrod Power Station – Jan 2012

History

There has been a fair bit written on both these sites over the years; so I’ll keep it fairly brief.

Heyrod/Hartshead Power Station was a coal-fired power station situated at Heyrod, between Mossely and Stalybridge; now a part of Greater Manchester.

Preparations for a power station at Heyrod began in 1916 when 26 acres of land were purchased. The station was opened in 1926 by the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Transport and Electricity Board. The cooling towers were constructed in the 1940s. Coal was delivered to the plant at Millbrook railway sidings on the Micklehurst Line, situated on the opposite side of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The sidings were built in 1932 and had space to hold up to 130 12-ton waggons.

Coal was fed into a hopper underneath the sidings before being transported on an enclosed conveyer belt which emerged high above the valley to cross the River Tame and the Huddersfield canal before entering the station at a high level. The station was closed on 29 October 1979 with a generating capacity of 64 megawatts. Much was demolished during the 1980s, the 2 no. cooling towers came down in 1988. Although part of the site is still used as an electrical substation; the majority of the original buildings and features are long gone.

My Visit/Report

Visited with hazzr 223 and Whitestar (both not yet on 28dl)

Another wet Sunday and a few hours to kill, option 1 wasn’t an option so went for easy plan B. For a couple of months I have been persistently asked by a local youth through Flickr to show him a few local sites, I had a rough idea he was still a youngster, but thought these would be a couple of good places for him to start.

A quick phone call just got the answering machine, result at least I tried :rolleyes: minutes later my phone went off it was hazzr 223 still wanting to come out and bring his mate, must be getting soft in my old age and agreed to pick them up.

Bloody hell; they were both vertically challenged for 15 year olds, I thought they may have added a few years on their age at first, but soon realised they were what they said and hazzr 223 had been vaccinated with a gramophone needle when a baby (I hope this makes sence to the more elderly on this site) ;) They both jumped in the car, but after about a minute I was suddenly asked if I was a paedophile; I assured them ‘Not on a Sunday, as it’s my day of rest’ :D I also pointed out that they may have left it just a bit late to ask this question!

Report includes some old and new images. We started at the Railway Siding; more so as the access is easy and I could weigh up how much I could trust my new little friends. After removing a couple of hard to explain items from their rucksack we were soon at the Siddings.

Image 1.
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No matter how many times I visit here I struggle to get enthralled at any level, but all went well and apart from the constant questions found them not to be too bad to be out with, at least they were keen!

Images 2 & 3.
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The first site was done, so we wandered down to the Power Station, a bit more fun to get into but all went well. I’ve included a couple of previous images of the upper floor as they are more interesting and have never written a report for here.

One of the few remaining buildings left standing

Image 4.
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Upper floor of the power station (about 3 years ago)

Images 5 & 6.
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Current state of the upper floor of the power station

Image 7.
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Downstairs in the main building

Image 8.
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After seeing everything here apart from some not very appealing tunnels in the rubble I headed to another site I knew they had been trying to access for a fair bit, I thought things must have changed as the assured me it was locked tight; 30 seconds and we were in I’m sure this pair must wear blinkers, spent about an hour looking around H W Shaws.

I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel, and say goodbye

Image 9.
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Alas; as it was near I showed them the joys of Butterhouse Tunnel before dropping them off near another local site they had requested. I didn’t bother with a Butterhouse Tunnel image as I was fairly wet by now, and hazzr 223 had been up to his knees in some sort of liquid shit, this would have been worth capturing :D

In all honesty I enjoyed my afternoon out with hazzr 223 and Whitestar and know they enjoyed it too, I'm surprised how small 15 year old kids are these days! Wish they talked less and listened more, but hey to be that keen again, I’m sure I must have been myself at that age.

One last thing lads, I’m sure you’ll read this at some point, look at the top right corner of the tool bar; there is a superb search function on this site, plus many other sites with good info once you learn how to use Google.

Well that’s my mini report/waffle!

TLR​
 
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