A double row of power lines stretch northwards towards distant West Burton power station.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
Marching pylons
Tag: home developed
Cottam power station
After yesterday’s post about West Burton power station, here’s one about Cottam power station, which also stands beside the Trent a few miles upstream to the south.
Cottam power station went into operation in 1968, generation power for fifty years (20 years longer that it’s original life expectancy). It ceased generation in 2019 and demolition began in 202/ The chimney and cooling towers are due to be demolished by 2025.
Some of the buildings in these pictures were demolished just a few days after I photographed them on the 22 February 2024. I expect the views of, and from, the village of Cottam will look considerably different when the demolition work is complete.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
West Burton A power station
West Burton power station, or rather stations (as there are two on the site – West Burton A and B), sit alongside the River Trent in Nottinghamshire. West Burton A was a coal-fired station, one of only three remaining in the UK in 2022 when it was due to be decommissioned. Due to energy uncertainty caused by the Ukraine War, the station was kept open a further year, before decommissioning took place in 2023.
Demolition of the site has commenced in 2024 and is planned to be complete by 2028.
While I’m glad that we are moving away from environmentally unfriendly coal-fired power stations, I shall be sad to see the structure go. The station can be seen on the horizon from many tens of miles away, including the hills of Sheffield, my home city, and also the Lincolnshire Wolds to the east and it a feature of the landscape that has been present my entire life. It also serves as a visual marker for the River Trent which I always counted as the midway point on trips to my favourite seaside town, Mablethorpe (it’s actually closer to Sheffield than Mablethorpe, but let’s not split hairs… 🙂 ). It will be strange when it has gone.
There have been attempts to preserve the cooling towers as part on the nation’s industrial heritage, but I believe these have been unsuccessful. While West Burton A will go, West Burton B – a gas-fired station – will continue to operate, and the West Burton A site has been announced as the proposed location for the UK’s first nuclear fusion plant.
I hope to visit the site whenever I get the chance to get more photographs before it disappears (or changes) permanently.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
Catchwater drain
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
Farmyard and cooling towers
I have a batch of photos I made during a visit to the countryside surrounding the West Burton power stations, and will be posting some over the next few days.
These two seemed to work well as a mini set though, with a view of the distant cooling towers serving as the backdrop to a farm near Sturton le Steeple.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
Mud
I went for another hike today, picking a circular route from the Ordnance Survey app that looked like it could be interesting. The full route was around seven or eight miles. I didn’t make it that far though…
I’ll post more about it in a future post but, suffice to say, it’s not a route to take when it’s been raining. The entire part of the walk I managed was claggy with mud, in some places impassable without wellies, and I ended up with wet feet. On a positive note, the hiking clothing I’ve bought recently held up nicely, even when it rained.
The picture below was from another outing a few weeks ago. The ground was muddy in places then too, but not like today!
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
Brick barn
I’m claiming this to be a barn, but I really don’t know. I guess, looking at the doors (and also at the taped -electric? – fence) that it could be also be a stable or something?
What it definitely is, is photogenic. Old, weathered, buildings usually are.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
Bypass graffiti
Another short post today. I have been out shooting a lot of new photos though! I’ve decided that I’m going to do a lot more hiking this year where the purpose is the walk as much as the photography. I plan on writing about these hikes and illustrating the posts with pictures I made during the outing. I’ve got pictures from three walks in various stages of development, scanning, and publishing, so they will be appearing on here at some point. More about this when I have the first post ready to go!
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 February 2024
Electric Washlands
I’ve photographed these power lines on a number of occasions now. It doesn’t take much for me to press the shutter on a pylon in any case, but there’s something about the structures crossing Woodhouse Washlands that draws me to them when I pass with a camera.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 February 2024
Back beneath the bypass viaduct
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 February 2024
Steel City Snapper photography 