This photo was taken at the end of November not long before Ironbridge Power Station was spectacularly demolished. I’ve always been drawn to the epic quality of the cooling towers, though not necessarily always in a comfortable way. I’m ever a sucker for earthenware and the smooth curves of the terracotta brickwork, and the way it caught the light, certainly did appeal. I’ve not yet been back to Dale End Park in Coalbrookdale to see what the Severn Gorge looks like without the towers. I’m thinking a loss of grandeur.
The CGI below envisages a complete small town of 1000 houses plus community infrastructure for this riverside cul de sac, though there is the surprising inclusion of a steam railway. You can see the recently submitted plans HERE and HERE. The cooling towers occupied the area above the far left-hand bridge. The bridge on the far right is the Buildwas Bridge. This is the road to Much Wenlock a few miles away. The road to Telford (a new town with massive ongoing housing development, plus well planned existent infrastructure, schools, shopping centres, station, motorway and industrial complexes) runs along the bottom of the photo. Access to it from the Power Station site is over the narrow Buildwas Bridge (???)
Photo: Harworth Group Ironbridge Power Station Proposed Development Plan
Tish Farrell 
Progresss ?
Indeed ???
Not likely…..
No secondary school so I guess older kids will have to travel to Telford. A railway line would be useful, but where? Nice photo in foglight 😊
We’ve got a big secondary school Academy in Wenlock so that’s another option. The railway line is the existing one that brought in coal and wood chips for the power station. The line runs through Coalbrookdale behind the Museum of Iron, and presumably joins the main line somewhere (Wellington/Telford?). The steam train business I’m guessing will be giving the existing Horsehay Steam Trust more line to play with. Can’t see the steam train being useful for practical purposes, not unless they run a diesel trains on the line in between. Also got impression the Edwardian (?) railway bridge over the river is in need of an upgrade.
Sounds like the railway needs a lot more thought. Steam trains are a nice tourist attraction but not practical for commuting. Do you think the plans will get approved?
I expect they will. I gather Shropshire Council is keen on the added council tax.
I wonder if there is a central computer or perhaps algorithm that generates planning applications? This one reads very like those for developments here (without the steam train), and the results are never much like what’s promised.
Lovely photo Tish.
That’s a very interesting observation, Su. Package planning, eh! I wonder.
I imagine at the very least, developers look at what others have done/said — saves work on their part.
I’m sure you’re right. Time is money. And most of the housing developments in the UK look as if they’ve come from some central design file. All down to a price of course.
Same here — and they look more and more like UK developments I’ve seen.
I like the photo; not sure about when they’re planning.
janet
They always put lots and lots of full grown trees in their plans, but all too often they never appear when it comes around to actually creating it! Off now to read the plans . . . does sound as though they are trying to fit too much in and over that bridge too!
PS Loving the foglight by the way!
Happy you liked the foglight 🙂
Mark Twain once said: “Buy land they ain’t makin’ it anymore…”
Real estate is such a big business right?
Yes land is big business all right. It’s one of the reasons why UK houses are so v. expensive.
I hate to sound dumb, but what were the cooling towers cooling? Were they attached to something else that needed cooling? I have to admit I’m not exactly expert on old rural English farm technology, but I figure it had a purpose at some point, but I have no idea what.
They were part of the electricity generating system for the coal and wood chip fuelled power station, used to dissipate the heat from turbines via water vapour through the top. If you click on the link in the para referring to their demolishment it will take you to the December post where there’s a video showing the whole site. The 4 towers were HUGE – built in the ’60s I think. Now we get our power from the National Grid.
Ah. Just like the Blackstone was and to some degrees, it still is, used. Except now the plants are all nuclear generators. I think everyone in the valley must glow at night. Now they are trying to figure out what to do about all those aging generators. They haven’t fully cleaned up the mess left by the old mills and factors from the 1800s … and now there’s leftover nuclear material and nowhere on earth to put it.
We sure have made a mess of things. I’ll go back and see the demolition. Watching old generating plants be destroyed improves my mood nominally.
We are so bad at cleaning up after ourselves. Also agree – a nice bit of demolition can be briefly cathartic.
This story gets very demoralizing. My granddaughter’s generation is wondering if they are going to survive to get old. I can’t blame them, either.
What an atmospheric capture! How timely you caught it before it was demolished.
It’s a view I’ve photographed many times, so it will be strange to got back to that spot and see how the river looks without the towers.
And just like that, they are gone. This seems to be sentiment echoed too many times lately.