Kearsley Power Station

Kearsley Power Station was a coal fired power station in Stoneclough, near Kearsley, Greater Manchester, England. It was designed in 1927 by Mr H.F.Parshall for the The Lancashire Electric Power Companycite web | url = http://www.swehs.co.uk/docs/news30su.html | title = "Bristol Tramways Power Stations 1895 - 1941" | publisher = Marcus Palmén] . The station closed in 1981. The 5 cooling towers were demolished during the week of May 14th, 1985.

History

The power station opened in 1929 by the Earl of Derby, was to become highly regarded within the industry due to its excellent record of thermal efficiency. The power station went on to set new records for low coal consumption in relation to power output. Due to increased power demands there were a further two extensions made to the site in 1936 and 1949, one of which was a new cooling tower reported at the time to be the tallest in the world.cite book | date = February 19th 1922 | title = Lancashire Electric Light and Power | publisher = The Times newspaper, page 22] . The 1936 extension was attended by the Earl of Derby, son of the original Earl of Derby who had opened the company's Radcliffe Power Station 31 years previously.cite book | date = February 19th 1922 | title = Lancashire Electric Light and Power | publisher = The Times newspaper, page 22]

By 1937 the station supplied a maximum load of 101,800 kW of electricity.cite book | date = February 19th 1922 | title = Lancashire Electric Light and Power | publisher = The Times newspaper, page 22]

By 1965 the power station (as stated in a GEGB advertisement) employed around 500 people and could produce enough electricity to supply the area of Farnworth and much of Bolton recorded at 272,000 kilowatts of electricity. In 1979 two years before the site closed experiments were carried out at the station in burning the town of Bolton's refuse to produce electricity.cite book | last = Entwistel | first = Kathryn | title = Kearsley Resource Pack | publisher = Bolton Environmental Education Project | chapter = 17. Modern Industry: The Power Station] This was not the first occasion that the station had burned such refuse, in 1962 Tobacco offal, battery cases, bathroom fittings and oil saturated clay were burnt as fuel additives in an experiment to establish their calorific value.cite book | date = July 12th 1962 | title = Power station tests with waste products | publisher = The Times newspaper, page 15]

References

External links

* [http://www.dflitcroft.co.uk/the_railway_image/Early_Years/1970s/1977/content/298_large.html Image of the Power station in 1977]
* [http://pub26.bravenet.com/photocenter/album.php?album=5093&usernum=2217090239 Images of Old Ringley - many images here show the power station in the background]