Thorpe Marsh Power Station closed in 1994. Since then it has gradually been demollished. Well, everything except the cooling towers – 6 of them. The are also two biggish buildings (I have no idea what the were for) and several small buildings.
There are various plans for the site – including a nature reserve, and a landfill site (fiercely objected to by local residents). In reality, nothing will probably happen. The towers still survive because it is feared that any explosion caused would rupture the banks of the nearby canal.
Cooling Towers
The power station had six cooling towers. These are 340ft high and have a 260ft diameter at the base.
Somehow someone had written “TIVVY” at the top of one.
Inside one
Five of the cooling towers were stripped out. But they had an awesome echo. One had a crazy invisible bird in it which kept making (horrid) squarking noises..
The sixth was “complete” inside. Somehow this cools the hot water to an ambient temperature. I’m not exactly sure how, but Wikipedia knows.
Railway
There are a couple of sidings at Thorpe Marsh which were last used in 1994.
This building was used to unload coal wagons. They were opened and closed by machines apparently known as “daleks” (the yellow things).
The coal went into underground bunkers – these are now seriously flooded.
Pump Room
This was used for pumping water from the cooling towers into the nearby river.
Other buildings
There was one 5~6 storey high building. Couldn’t get into it so don’t actually know what it was for. It seemed to have some little coal hoppers in or something. And weird pipes on the side.
Reflections
Random bits
Flowers..
..and plants. Something a bit different 
Twitter
RSS feed
The bird making that sound inside the cooling tower was likely a peregrine falcon – a pair was nesting in one of the towers up to 2008 and successfully raised young….the bird was probably squawking at you to try and scare you away and protect it’s nest. Cracking photo’s by the way
Has anybody got pictures of the turbine rotors. I turned these and would be interested to see them
i have noticed the peregrines still nesting at the door like thing at the top of nearest tower to the river don. last time i saw one flying around was just before xmas 2011. so as its only january 2012 not very long ago at all.
it does concern me that they are going to pull these towers down and we lose some of the most exciting wildlife in the area.