Ironbridge Gorge played host to a poignant moment in history when hundreds of people trooped to the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution to witness the controlled demolition of the iconic cooling towers of the Ironbridge Power Station.
Take a look in the video below!
[rumble video_id=v5x4vf domain_id=u7nb2]
Video credit: Rumble
In just four seconds, the 400-foot towers collapsed in an impressive cloud of dust. The station served to provide electricity for 46 years and dominated the heart of Ironbridge Gorge.
Andy Holden, a former Ironbridge Power Station worker, had been invited to watch but he declined.
He said: “I spent nearly 40 years maintaining the place, running the place, looking after it, doing my job as best that I could. I don’t want to be part of the demolition.
“The power station has been part of my life, it was nearly 40 years. It’s helped me raise my children, it’s helped me pay off my mortgage and it’s gone now and I do miss the place, I miss the camaraderie and the work.”
Holden’s former colleague Trevor Childs added: “They looked nice, they blended in, but they were part of a power station, the cooling towers.
“The problem is, to keep them would have cost an absolute fortune.”
Ironbridge closed down in 2015 and developers Harworth Group PLC bought the 350-acre site in order to build 1,000 new homes.
The demolition took five months to prepare and cost £10million($12million).
Operations manager Shaun Hockley said: “There’s a h*ll of a lot of prep work before these actually came down to ground level.
“We’ve been working on the project regarding drilling the towers and preparing the towers for approximately five months.
“The project overall should take in the region of about 12 years to complete.
“From doing the demolition work to the housing development and industrial units so it’s a large project.”
Ironbridge started life as a coal-fired power plant but in 2012, it was converted to run on biomass so that it could qualify for renewable subsidies.
However, because of the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive, the plant was forced to shut down. The directive mandated polluting plants to put emissions abatement equipment to address acid rain. Those who failed to comply would be forced to shut down.
Ironbridge saw the directive as not economically viable and elected to shut down instead.
Replaced!