Willington Cooling Towers: UK January/December 2014

Willington was home to two coal fire power stations, simply known as A and B.

Work started here in 1954 with the construction of Willington A. The station consisted of four 100 megawatt generating units and was of a revolutionary design. Only the burners and steam drum were enclosed the boilers were only semi covered which was a considerable cost saving. Two 425 foot chimneys were needed to service the power station along with two cooling towers.

Before the A station was complete work was started on the B station.

Only two generating units at this station but they were 200 megawatt to equal the A station. Only one chimney was built but three more cooling towers were added.

Just for the A station alone the site went through one million tons of coal a year!

The station was privatised in 1989 and this was the beginning of the end. In 1993 the first unit was shut down. This slowly continued over the next two years until all of the A station stopped production.

The B station continued operation until 1999. Demolition was swiftly started the same year. All that is now left are the five 300 foot cooling towers.

In 2011 planning consent was granted for a new gas fired power station. For whatever reason there are still no signs of these plans coming to light.