The Stella power stations were a pair of now-demolished
coal-fired power stations
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
in the
North East of England
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authority ...
that were a landmark in the
Tyne valley for over 40 years. The stations stood on either side of a bend of the
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
: Stella South power station, the larger, near
Blaydon in
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...
, and Stella North power station near
Lemington
Lemington is an area and electoral ward of Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England.
History
Lemington has a strong industrial history. It is famous for its brick glassworks cone, built in 1787. The River Tyne used to pass very close to Lem ...
in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
. Their name originated from the nearby
Stella Hall, a manor house close to Stella South that by the time of their construction had been demolished and replaced by a housing estate.
They operated from shortly after the
nationalisation of the British electrical supply industry until two years after the Electricity Act of 1989, when the industry passed into the
private sector
The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government.
Employment
The ...
.
These sister stations were of similar design and were built, opened, and closed together. Stella South, with a generating capacity of 300
megawatts
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...
(MW), was built on the site of the
Blaydon Races
"Blaydon Races" ( Roud #3511) is a Geordie folk song written in the 19th century by Geordie Ridley, in a style deriving from music hall. It is frequently sung by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club, Newcastle Falcons rugby club, a ...
,
and Stella North, with a capacity of 240 MW, on that of the former Lemington Hall.
They powered local homes and the many heavy industries of
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...
,
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
and
County Durham
County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly â€About North East E ...
. The large buildings, chimneys and cooling towers were visible from afar. Their operation required
coal trains on both sides of the river to supply them with fuel and river traffic by
flat iron barges to dump ash in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
. After their closure in 1991, they were demolished in stages between 1992 and 1997.
Following the stations' demolition, the sites underwent redevelopment: the North site into a large business and industrial park, the South into a housing estate.
History
Development
The British demand for electricity increased after the Second World War. In the North East of England this led to the expansion of existing power stations at
Dunston and
Billingham
Billingham is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. The settlement had previously formed its o ...
in the late 1940s, the two new Stella power stations, and the construction of two more large stations built at
Blyth later in the 1960s. This new generating capacity quickly met the demand for power.
The
British Electricity Authority
The British Electricity Authority (BEA) was established as the central British electricity authority in 1948 under the nationalisation of Great Britain's electricity supply industry enacted by the Electricity Act 1947. The BEA was responsible for ...
were granted permission to construct the Stella North and Stella South power stations in 1951. The two stations were originally projected to cost around £15,000,000.
![Blaydon Races Picture by William Irving at the Shipley Aret Gallery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Blaydon_Races_Picture_by_William_Irving_at_the_Shipley_Aret_Gallery.jpg)
The site chosen for Stella North was the Newburn Haugh, which was the site of Lemington Hall.
Lemington Hall was demolished in 1953 during the construction of Stella North. Stella South was built on the Stella Haugh, the site of the
Battle of Newburn
The Battle of Newburn, also known as The Battle of Newburn Ford, took place on 28 August 1640, during the Second Bishops' War. It was fought at Newburn, just outside Newcastle, where a ford crossed the River Tyne. A Scottish Covenanter army o ...
in 1640. A cannonball from the battle was on display in the South station for many years, after having been
dredged
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
from the river bed.
Between 1887 and 1916, the Stella Haugh had been the site of the annual
Blaydon Races
"Blaydon Races" ( Roud #3511) is a Geordie folk song written in the 19th century by Geordie Ridley, in a style deriving from music hall. It is frequently sung by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club, Newcastle Falcons rugby club, a ...
,
which stopped after a riot broke out following allegations of
race fixing
In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
.
[ ] Just before the construction of the South station the haugh had two uses.
Blaydon Rugby Club's ground had been there since 1893, but in 1950 it was
compulsorily purchased by the
British Electricity Authority
The British Electricity Authority (BEA) was established as the central British electricity authority in 1948 under the nationalisation of Great Britain's electricity supply industry enacted by the Electricity Act 1947. The BEA was responsible for ...
for £1,000. The club moved to a new ground in
Swalwell, which it still uses.
Newcastle University Boat Club
Newcastle University Boat Club (NUBC) is the rowing club of Newcastle University, UK. Established in March 1911 as the boat club for Armstrong College, it celebrated its centenary in 2 ...
had owned a boathouse on the site since 1929, but in 1951 the British Electricity Authority requisitioned it, forcing the club to move upstream to its current location in
Newburn
Newburn is a semi rural parish, former electoral ward and former urban district in western Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. Situated on the North bank of the River Tyne, it is built rising up the valley from the river. It is situated ...
.
The addition of various power lines was needed to connect the power stations to the
National Grid. These included a 275
kilovolt
The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827).
Defini ...
(kV) connection from Stella to
West Melton, and another 275 kV connection from Stella to
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...
. The towers for these connections were to stand at , rather than the towers of the existing grid system.
The line from Stella to Carlisle, which was to consist of 250 towers spaced at 320 metres over a distance of around , came up against opposition when first proposed. The Northumberland County Planning Authority launched a public enquiry in 1951, and Hexham Rural District Council held a meeting. The
Ministry of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...
and other outdoor associations voiced their concerns, as it was feared that the line would interfere with good farming land. An alternative route was proposed, but in view of its additional cost of £72,000 it was turned down, and the
Ministry of Fuel and Power
The Ministry of Power was a United Kingdom government ministry dealing with issues concerning energy.
The Ministry of Power (then named Ministry of Fuel and Power) was created on 11 June 1942 from functions separated from the Board of Trade. ...
gave the line the go-ahead.
Construction
Both of the stations were designed by Newcastle upon Tyne-based architects
L J Couves & Partners, and construction work began in 1951.
The
Cleveland Bridge Company were contracted to construct the steel frames for the stations' main buildings, including their turbine halls, boiler houses, workshops and stores buildings.
Various other companies were contracted for the construction of other parts of the station.
Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons
Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...
were contracted for site clearance, provision of the foundations for the main and ancillary buildings, as well as the diversion of streams and sewers.
Davenport Engineering Co. were responsible for the construction of the North station's cooling towers, as well as the stations' ancillary buildings. P.C. Richardson & Co. built the stations' brick chimneys.
Aiton & Co. installed the stations' low-pressure piping equipment.
Underwater electrical work was carried out by British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
frogman
A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, comb ...
Lionel "Buster" Crabb, chosen for the dangerous job because he wore a rubber diving suit at a time when most divers used canvas.
[
]
The first generating sets of the stations became operational on 20 December 1954.
However, it was not until 1956 that all four of the North station's units were commissioned, and 1957 before all five of the South station's units generated electricity.
The cost of the two stations in total came to around £40,500,000.
On the morning of 14 December 1955, during the stations' construction, switchgear exploded in the South station's substation, closing down the generators. Dunston power station could not take the extra load and it also shut down, creating a total blackout on Tyneside. Around 400,000 people were affected by the fault, including 20,000 miners trapped in over a hundred collieries. Power was fully reconnected by that evening. but the failure caused an interruption of work and services worth more than £1,000,000, as well as the loss of 300 megawatts of electricity.
[ ]
Post-commissioning
Although developed by the
British Electricity Authority
The British Electricity Authority (BEA) was established as the central British electricity authority in 1948 under the nationalisation of Great Britain's electricity supply industry enacted by the Electricity Act 1947. The BEA was responsible for ...
, the stations were first operated by the
Central Electricity Authority
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) was a body that managed and operated the electricity supply industry in England and Wales between 1 April 1955 and 31 December 1957. The CEA replaced the earlier British Electricity Authority (BEA) as a r ...
, following the
Electricity Reorganisation (Scotland) Act 1954
Electricity is the set of physics, physical Phenomenon, phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagne ...
. From 1957 they were operated by the
Central Electricity Generating Board
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
(CEGB), following the
Electricity Act 1957
The Electricity Act 1957 (repealed 1989) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The principal impact of the Act was the dissolution of the Central Electricity Authority (UK), which it replaced with the Central Electricity Generating Boar ...
.
In 1961, Stella North was presented with the Hinton Cup, the CEGB's ''"good house keeping trophy"''. The award was presented by
Sir Christopher Hinton, the first chairman of the CEGB. The station's achievement was attributed to the fact the station's annual efficiency had never been less than 29.1%. The station also won the North East regional award for the second year in a row in 1961. In March 1967, Stella South's male
first aid
First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery. It includes initial in ...
team won a national first aid competition in
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
, organised by the CEGB. Over 150 teams took part.
In 1966, Stella North was at the centre of a legal case in which three men were found guilty of
conspiracy to defraud Conspiracy to defraud is an offence under the common law of England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
England and Wales
The standard definition of a conspiracy to defraud was provided by Lord Dilhorne in '' Scott v Metropolitan Police Commissioner'' ...
after trying to sell the CEGB poor quality coal when contracted to deliver high quality coal. The three men involved were D.C.P. Brooksbank, a salesman for a coal firm; J.W. Patterson, a sampler at the power station, and M. Ridley, a contractor. Their scheme was for Patterson to substitute samples of reasonably good coal for the samples of poor coal taken from the lorries. However they were found out only two days after starting the scheme, when a foreman at the station saw Patterson dropping a bag of cement into the sampling bin, and reported the incident. Ridley was found to have planned the fraud, and was jailed for a year, while Brooksbank was fined £150 and Patterson £75.
Design and specification
The main visible features of the stations were their large
boiler houses,
turbine halls,
cooling tower
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and ...
s and pairs of
chimneys
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...
; other facilities on both sites included offices, coal sorting areas, small fire stations and workshops. The power stations had the "brick-cathedral" style of design
popular for power stations in the 1930s and 1940s and, as of 2009, still tenuously surviving at
Battersea power station
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned Grade II* listed coal-fired power station, located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Nine Elms, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built by the London Power Company (LPC) ...
in London.
The main buildings of the South station had a total length of and a width of ; their tallest point, the roof of the boiler house, was high.
The main buildings of the North station were of a similar length and height, but in total slightly narrower as the station had one less generator unit. This also meant it had a smaller generating capacity; it was sometimes erroneously termed the South station's ''"B"'' station.
[ ]
The boiler houses and turbine halls were all-welded
steel structures, consisting of box-type
main columns and
roof girders,
clad with brick and
glazed in parts.
Each of their four chimneys was made of brick and stood tall, weighing about 5,000 tonnes.
The North station's four cooling towers were made from
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
and were of the typically
hyperbolic
Hyperbolic is an adjective describing something that resembles or pertains to a hyperbola (a curve), to hyperbole (an overstatement or exaggeration), or to hyperbolic geometry.
The following phenomena are described as ''hyperbolic'' because they ...
,
natural-draft design.
The South station had five generating sets and the North station had four.
[
] Each generating set had a bunker for 1,250 tonnes of coal, fed by a
conveyor
A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transport of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow ...
from the coal store.
This conveyor belt system was built by E. N. Mackley & Co,
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...
.
[
] Each bunker fed coal into a
pulveriser
A pulverizer or grinder is a mechanical device for the grinding of many different types of materials. For example, a pulverizer mill is used to pulverize coal for combustion in the steam-generating furnaces of coal power plants.
Types of coal p ...
, manufactured by Raymond.
From here it was fed into a
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...
in powder form and burned. All of the boilers were suspended from the boiler houses' steel frames, and were made by
Clarke Chapman Group Ltd, Gateshead.
[ ] The boilers were forged in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
, the first of the nine arriving at Stella South in 1953. At 62 tonnes, the boilers were at the time the largest ever made in the UK. The boilers were of the radiant-heat type, comprising a water-cooled
combustion chamber
A combustion chamber is part of an internal combustion engine in which the fuel/air mix is burned. For steam engines, the term has also been used for an extension of the firebox which is used to allow a more complete combustion process.
Interna ...
, controlled-type
superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...
and an
economiser
Economizers (US and Oxford spelling), or economisers (UK), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, po ...
. Each of the boilers had an evaporation rating of 550
kL/h, a steam pressure of and a steam temperature of .
Each boiler was equipped with two forced and two induced
Howden fans, twenty-two electrically operated Clyde
soot blower
A sootblower is a device for removing the soot that is deposited on the internal furnace tubes of a boiler during combustion to prevent plugging of the gas passes and maintain boiler efficiency.
Types of soot blowers:
#Wall Blowers also known as I ...
s, an automatic control system made by Bailey and Sturtevant
electrostatic precipitator
An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a filterless device that removes fine particles, like dust and smoke, from a flowing gas using the force of an induced electrostatic charge minimally impeding the flow of gases through the unit.
In cont ...
s.
Each station was designed to burn 2,000 tonnes of
bituminous coal
Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...
a day.
Each boiler powered a
turbo generator
A turbo generator is an electric generator connected to the shaft of a steam turbine or gas turbine for the generation of electric power. Large steam-powered turbo generators provide the majority of the world's electricity and are also used b ...
, made by
Parsons
Parsons may refer to:
Places
In the United States:
* Parsons, Kansas, a city
* Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Parsons, Tennessee, a city
* Parsons, West Virginia, a town
* Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...
,
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
.
These were three-cylinder reaction type steam turbines operating at 3,000
rpm
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
, generating 60 MW of electricity.
The stations used them because of a
Statutory Order
In many countries, a statutory instrument is a form of delegated legislation.
United Kingdom
Statutory instruments are the principal form of delegated or secondary legislation in the United Kingdom.
National government
Statutory instrument ...
of the
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...
in November 1947 that all turbo alternators made for the home market could only be of 60 MW at advanced steam conditions.
Stella South had a total generating capacity of 300 MW and Stella North originally 240 MW (later recorded as only 224 MW).
The stations were the first to use silica removal beds in their turbines, a development which became standard within the CEGB's power stations for some time. In 1967, one of the sets at Stella South became the world's first in commercial operation to use brushless excitation. The set was modified by Parsons to use
A.C. exciters and
silicon diode
A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other.
A diode ...
rectifier
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an Power ...
s. The stations'
switchgear
In an electric power system, a switchgear is composed of electrical disconnect switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical equipment. Switchgear is used both to de-energize equipment to allow work to be ...
was manufactured by
A. Reyrolle & Company.
The power stations were illuminated by what was then the most powerful lighting installation in North East England. The North station was lit up by 60 flood lights, 15 on each of four towers; the South station also had four towers, but each held 26 flood lights. The
Central Electricity Authority
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) was a body that managed and operated the electricity supply industry in England and Wales between 1 April 1955 and 31 December 1957. The CEA replaced the earlier British Electricity Authority (BEA) as a r ...
justified the use of 194 flood lights over the two sites as "economical, safe and much more efficient than lighting the stations at street level".
[
]
Operations
Coal transportation
![Stella power station coal Newcastle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Stella_power_station_coal_Newcastle.jpeg)
The stations were in the heart of the North East coal field, which at the time of their opening had hundreds of
collieries
Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...
.
Coal was delivered straight to the stations by rail. The
Newcastle & Carlisle Railway
The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between ...
was used for the South station, where 22 railway sidings were built.
Trains could only enter the
sidings when travelling in a westerly direction.
The
Scotswood, Newburn & Wylam Railway (SN&WR) supplied the North station, trains reaching the power station via a junction at
Newburn
Newburn is a semi rural parish, former electoral ward and former urban district in western Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. Situated on the North bank of the River Tyne, it is built rising up the valley from the river. It is situated ...
.
Despite the SN&WR's closure on 11 March 1968, and the rerouting of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway through Dunston in 1982, the track between
Scotswood
Benwell and Scotswood is an electoral ward of Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England. The ward encompasses the Benwell and Scotswood housing areas, as well as the Newcastle Business Park, which is located on the banks of the River Tyne and h ...
and Newburn was retained for supplying the North station, as well as for rail access to the neighbouring
Ever Ready battery factory and
Anglo Great Lakes Graphite Plant
The Anglo Great Lakes Graphite Plant was a large graphite works situated in the North East of England. It was positioned at Lemington in Newcastle upon Tyne, on the north bank of the River Tyne. The plant was operated by the Anglo Great Lakes C ...
.
The tracks outlived the power stations, and were finally lifted when the Ever Ready factory shut down in 1992.
Part of the line serving the station is now a well-used section of the
Hadrian's Way National Trail
National Trails are long distance footpaths and bridleways in England and Wales. They are administered by Natural England, a statutory agency of the UK government, and Natural Resources Wales (successor body to the Countryside Council for Wa ...
.
A small home fleet of locomotives was used to
shunt the coal wagons once they had arrived at the stations. Originally this included
Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns
Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd (RSH) was a locomotive builder with works in North East England.
History
The company was formed in September 1937 when Robert Stephenson and Company, which was based in Darlington, took over the locomotive ...
0-4-0ST No.20 and No.21, and
Sentinel
Sentinel may refer to:
Places Mountains
* Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana
* Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica
* Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring grani ...
No.25.
Engine No.25 was used exclusively at the North station, but was converted to
diesel-hydraulic
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...
by
Thomas Hill of
Kilnhurst
Kilnhurst is a village in South Yorkshire, England, on the banks of the River Don and the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation. It grew up around the coal mining, ceramics, glass, brick-making and locomotive industries; none of these ind ...
in 1967, becoming Thomas Hill 188. It returned to the station but was taken out of use in 1983 and scrapped by
CF Booth
C F Booth Ltd is a family-owned scrap metal and recycling business based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.
Operations
Clarence Frederick Booth founded the business in 1920, as a metal purchaser and trader. Over the company's history, t ...
of
Rotherham
Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...
.
After the closure of the stations, engine No.21 was sent to be preserved at the
Tanfield Railway
The Tanfield Railway is a heritage railway in Gateshead and County Durham, England. Running on part of a former horse-drawn colliery wooden waggonway, later rope & horse, lastly rope & loco railway. It operates preserved industrial stea ...
site, near
Sunniside, Gateshead.
During the 1970s the steam locomotives were replaced by
diesel locomotives
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...
. These included a
Fowler 0-6-0 and
Central Electricity Generating Board
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
No. 24 Vanguard 0-4-0
[ ][ ] CEGB No. 24 has since been sent to
Statfold Barn Railway
The Statfold Barn Railway is a narrow gauge railway based near Tamworth, Staffordshire and partially in Warwickshire, England. Founded by engineering entrepreneur Graham Lee and his wife Carol at their farm-based home, they originally designed wh ...
for preservation.
The stations were
picketed during the
UK miners' strike of 1972, stopping coal deliveries to them.
Cooling system
Water is essential to a
thermal power station
A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...
to produce the steam needed to turn the
steam turbines
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
and generate electricity. Water cycled through the Stella stations' systems was taken from the
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
; after use it was cooled before being discharged back into the river. The North station's water cooling system consisted of four large
natural draft cooling tower units,
tall and made of
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
.
The South station used a
syphon cooling system instead of cooling towers, consisting of five units, made up of five underground pipes, each in diameter, with valves and screens.
Ash removal
Fly ash
Fly ash, flue ash, coal ash, or pulverised fuel ash (in the UK) plurale tantum: coal combustion residuals (CCRs)is a coal combustion product that is composed of the particulates (fine particles of burned fuel) that are driven out of coal-fired ...
and
bottom ash
Bottom ash is part of the non-combustible residue of combustion in a power plant, boiler, furnace or incinerator. In an industrial context, it has traditionally referred to coal combustion and comprises traces of combustibles embedded in formin ...
are two by-products from the burning of coal in power stations. Ash from the Stella stations was taken out to sea by three
flat iron
Competitor for Canada
Flat Iron was a First Nations lacrosse player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics for Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocea ...
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
s: ''Bobby Shaftoe'', ''Bessie Surtees'' and ''Hexhamshire Lass''.
All three were built by
Charles Hill & Sons
Charles Hill & Sons was a major shipbuilder based in Bristol, England, during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Background
Established in 1845 from the company Hilhouse, they specialised mainly in merchant and commercial ships, but also undertook th ...
of
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, in 1955.
''Bessie Surtees'' was the first to be put into service, in April 1955.
[
] On each trip, each ship took up to 500 tonnes of ash from the stations down the river and dumped it in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
, off the coast. Originally, they carried ash waste from
Dunston power station
:''Sometimes confused with the nearby Stella power stations.''
Dunston Power Station refers to a pair of adjacent coal-fired power stations in the North East of England, now demolished. They were built on the south bank of the River Tyne, in ...
as well.
Their frequent passages made them a common sight on the Tyne. Each was long and wide, weighed 680 tonnes, and had a crew of seven. They were managed by
Stephenson Clarke Shipping Ltd but owned by the
CEGB
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
.
[
] The ships went further up the Tyne than did any other, and so needed a shallow
draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...
.
The entire load of ash was dumped through two
hydraulically operated doors in only a few minutes.
As early as the 1960s, the power stations' operating hours were decreased due to the opening of the much larger
Blyth power station in
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
. This meant that less ash was produced by the Stella and Dunston stations; so by the end of the 1960s, the CEGB sold ''Hexhamshire Lass'' and ''Bobby Shaftoe''. The former went to a firm in
Fareham
Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...
,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
, where it worked as a
sand dredger until scrapped in 1993; the latter to a French dredging company.
After the closure of
Dunston Staithes in 1980, the
Swing Bridge
A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...
downstream of the stations seldom had to be opened. (Because ''Bessie Surtees'' was low lying, it was able to pass underneath the bridge at low tide.)
However, on 15 December 1975, ''Bessie Surtees'' collided with the Swing Bridge, forcing it to close for the rest of that weekend.
Environmental impact
When built, the power stations were fitted with
electrostatic precipitator
An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a filterless device that removes fine particles, like dust and smoke, from a flowing gas using the force of an induced electrostatic charge minimally impeding the flow of gases through the unit.
In cont ...
s, to reduce the amount of smoke and dust emitted from the stations' chimneys. At the time, this was the most up-to-date method to prevent pollution from power stations.
Despite these precautions, pollution from the power stations was still a factor. In 1954, consideration was given to scrapping the plan to build the ''Union Hall'' housing estate in Lemington because of probable pollution from nearby power stations. This was mainly because some of the houses were as high as, if not higher than, the power stations' chimneys. At times, this meant the estate being exposed to as much as 1.25 parts per million of
sulphur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
. However the estate was still built, as these peak conditions were thought unlikely to occur on more than 18 days in a year.
Smoke was not the only thing emitted from the power station. In July 1956, the discharge of cooling water from the stations was noted to have increased the water temperature of the river by 1.5 °C between
Ryton and
Scotswood
Benwell and Scotswood is an electoral ward of Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England. The ward encompasses the Benwell and Scotswood housing areas, as well as the Newcastle Business Park, which is located on the banks of the River Tyne and h ...
. However, this was found to not be too deleterious, as it did not seem to affect the passage of migratory fish.
In fact, because of the stations' introduction of warm water into the river,
basking shark
The basking shark (''Cetorhinus maximus'') is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach in length. ...
s were known to be attracted to the area.
From the start, the power stations' fly ash was dumped in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
, and 800,000 tonnes of fly ash were dumped between the Stella and Blyth stations in 1976.
By 1991, National Power's licence had been restricted to dumping only 50,000 tonnes of ash a year from the Stella power stations. By this point the North East coast was the only place in Europe to dump fly ash at sea. Fly ash dumping had been found to make sea bed inert, with much life being smothered and killed by the fly ash. It was also found to create problems for the fishing industry, when their trawlers caught large lumps of it. The licence for Stella was terminated in May 1991, with the stations' closure. Blyth power stations' licence was terminated by the end of 1992, ending fly ash dumping in the North Sea.
Closure and demolition
Closure
By the mid-1980s closure of the stations was being considered, and in 1984, was considered for a
combined heat and power
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
scheme. After the
privatisation
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of the
Central Electricity Generating Board
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
in 1989, the stations passed into the ownership of
National Power
National power is defined as the sum of all resources available to a nation in the pursuit of national objectives. Assessing the national power of political entities was already a matter of relevance during the classical antiquity, the middle ages ...
.
[
] After almost 37 years of use they were decommissioned in May 1991 as outdated and uneconomical to operate.
[
] They had been overtaken technologically, and had lower generating capacity than newer plants such as
Drax. Their closure coincided with that of a large number of coal mines in the North East of England, just after the privatisation of both the electricity industry and the
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...
in the early 1990s.
Following the closure of the power stations at Stella, as well as those at
Dunston and
Blyth (in 1981 and 2001 respectively), the northern part of
North East England
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...
has become heavily dependent upon the
National Grid for electricity. However, in the South of the region there are still two large power stations, at
Hartlepool
Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...
and
Wilton.
The stations' closure also forced the Tyne
Sea Scouts
Sea Scouts are a part of the Scout movement, with a particular emphasis on boating and other water-based activities on the sea, rivers or lakes (canoeing, rafting, scuba, sailboarding). Sea Scouts can provide a chance to sail, cruise on boats, ...
, who had operated from the North station since 1978, to seek new accommodation. The scouts had moved into the station when their boat house in Blyth was deemed unsafe and demolished. They had been provided with two site offices, storage in the power station complex, and permission to keep their boats at the North station's jetty, at the end of which they had a slipway built.
[
]
Demolition
![Stella north power station boiler house demo2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Stella_north_power_station_boiler_house_demo2.jpg)
The large buildings and structures of the stations were demolished in stages throughout the 1990s. The four cooling towers were demolished by explosives on 29 March 1992, in front of thousands of spectators.
St Paul's Developments then bought the two sites from National Power in 1993.
[ ] Both stations were demolished by
Thos. W. Ward
Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire, steel, engineering and cement business, which began as coal and coke merchants. It expanded into recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, and then the supply and manufacture of machinery.
I ...
Industrial Dismantling of
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
,
which started with the South station, whose twin chimneys were destroyed on 29 October 1995 by of explosives.
[ ] Its turbine hall followed, before the boiler house went on 1 February 1996.
[ ] Stella North then stood alone for almost a year before its turbine hall was demolished on 27 January 1997 and its bunker bay building was demolished on 22 June.
[ ][ ] The boiler house followed straight after, but its complete destruction took three attempts. Most of it went on 22 June; the rest followed over the next two days.
[ ] Its two chimneys, the last obvious reminder of the Stella power stations, were pulled down a month later on 27 July.
[ ]
The power stations were among the last remaining heavy industrial buildings in modern Tyneside, and their demolition was felt by many Tynesiders to have marked the end of industrial Tyneside. The
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
was then uninterested in the preservation of modern structures such as this.
Redevelopment
North site
CCGT power station proposal
In 1997
there had been plans for a £130 million
combined cycle gas turbine
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many p ...
on the site of the
Ever Ready battery factory to the West of the site of the North station.
AES Electrical applied to the
Department of Trade and Industry for permission to build the station, which would have been twice as efficient as the coal-fired Stella stations and the first major electricity generation site built in
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...
in over 40 years. The station would have had a generating capacity of 350 MW.
It would have taken three years to build, and created 400 construction jobs, as well as 40 full-time jobs after construction. But the proposal was opposed by the coal mining industry and dropped.
Newburn Riverside
![Stella House, Newburn Riverside - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Stella_House%2C_Newburn_Riverside_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1829923.jpg)
Shortly after the North station was demolished, its site was
reclaimed
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lak ...
along with the site of the neighbouring
Anglo Great Lakes Graphite Plant
The Anglo Great Lakes Graphite Plant was a large graphite works situated in the North East of England. It was positioned at Lemington in Newcastle upon Tyne, on the north bank of the River Tyne. The plant was operated by the Anglo Great Lakes C ...
. The plant had made high-purity graphite for use in
magnox
Magnox is a type of nuclear power/production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The n ...
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
s, and operated using the North station's available excess generating capacity, as large quantities of cheap electricity were essential for production. It was demolished around the same time as the stations, and left the site littered with graphite blocks. At , the reclamation of the two neighbouring sites was one of the UK's largest land reclamation schemes; it was completed in 2000.
This made way for an
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
/
business park
A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...
,
Newburn Riverside, the first phase of whose construction was completed in 2005. As of 2009 it was still expanding, and expected to provide 5,000 jobs and £116 million of private sector investment once completed. The park has a cycle route and nature trail around its edge, which takes visitors, walkers and cyclists beside the river and past the point in which the North station's
cooling towers
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and ...
once stood. One of the buildings in the business park was named Stella House, as a tribute to the power station. It is occupied by
One NorthEast
One North East was the regional development agency for the North East England region.
History
It was established in April 1999.
The North East received government aid for regeneration.
In June 2010, it was announced that One North East was t ...
, the regional development agency for the
North East of England
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authority ...
. In early 2012, Stella House became the National HQ of the NHS Business Service Authority following the winding down of One NorthEast. Little else commemorates the power stations, but they are briefly mentioned in a plaque on Stella Road near the South station's site marking the
Blaydon Races
"Blaydon Races" ( Roud #3511) is a Geordie folk song written in the 19th century by Geordie Ridley, in a style deriving from music hall. It is frequently sung by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club, Newcastle Falcons rugby club, a ...
: "Official racing started in 1861 on Blaydon Island which lay North of here. The song was written in 1862. From 1887 to 1914 the race course was on Stella haugh, the site of the former power station."
As well as the NHSBSA, the other key occupiers of the Newburn Riverside site are
DEFRA DEFRA may refer to:
* Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, United States law
* Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom government department
{{Disambiguation ...
,
North East Ambulance Trust, MacFarlane Packaging, True Potential LLP,
Northumberland and Tyne & Wear Strategic Health Authority and Stannah Stairlifts.
South site
Following the completion of the South station's demolition in 1996, thousands of pounds were spent on a number of security measures; the site was fenced off,
bunding
Bunding, also called a bund wall, is a constructed retaining wall around storage "where potentially polluting substances are handled, processed or stored, for the purposes of containing any unintended escape of material from that area until ...
was installed, warning signs were put up and security patrols took place. However, large sections of the fencing were stolen and the warning signs were ignored. Ultimately this led to one man being trapped on the site for five hours on 22 May 1997. He had been looking for scrap metal and power cables, and had climbed through a small hole into an underground room, from which he had to be rescued by fire crews. The site was then designated a danger zone. The derelict site was vandalised in July 1999, when people hurled burning tyres into the
sub-station, creating a fire and damaging cables worth £150,000.
Riverside Crescent
![Riverside crescent 2011 d](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Riverside_crescent_2011_d.jpg)
As of 2007, the site of the South station is under redevelopment, after having sat as a
brownfield
In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...
site for almost 10 years. St Paul's Developments, the site developer, had often applied for planning permission to build housing and leisure facilities on the site over the course of six years, only to be refused. It was finally granted permission to begin building a £4.7 million housing estate on the site in 2007. Named Riverside Crescent, this is being constructed by
Barratt and
Persimmon
The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus ''Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-pers ...
. It will have 522 residential units, from two-bedroom flats to five-bedroom houses, as well as of open space, a riverside walkway and a restaurant. A new bus link to
Blaydon will improve transport links. The plans for the residential development first went on display at Stella RC Primary School on 5 October 2005. Other proposals for the site had included industrial development, which met opposition, and restoration to grassland, seen as unfeasible.
Despite the demolition in 1996 of all of the above-ground structure of the South station,
foundations
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
,
culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...
s and more remained. These needed to be removed before construction could start. The removal of these underground structures was completed in early 2007, whereupon construction of the houses began immediately.
Remnants
Due to the significant reclamation on the two sites very little evidence remains of the power stations, other than a small number of bricks and steel rods. Some minor structures have survived to the North West of the North station's site, including a road bridge over the rail line which served the station, a brick wall, and a concrete staircase. More obvious remains of the power stations are their three large
sub-stations that still supply the local region. Much of that electrical power was generated in Scotland's
Cockenzie power station
Cockenzie power station was a coal-fired power station in East Lothian, Scotland. It was situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, near the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, east of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The station dom ...
, transported via a 275
kilovolt
The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827).
Defini ...
(kV) and a 400 kV connection.
Cultural use
The power stations were a strong local landmark.
Their chimneys could be seen along a roughly long section of the Tyne valley; from Bensham near
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...
down to
Heddon-on-the-Wall
Heddon-on-the-Wall is a village in Northumberland, England, located on Hadrian's Wall. Heddon-on-the-Wall is roughly west of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, and just outside Throckley. The place-name 'Heddon' means 'hill where heather grew'.
...
in
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
: almost no other building was present to obstruct the view.
When still in operation, the power stations appeared in films and television programs shot in the
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
area. They appeared in ''
Payroll
A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...
'', a movie made in 1961, starring
Michael Craig. One of two security van operators lives in
Stella park, a housing estate above the power station. It is prominently in the background whenever the van operator's home is shown.
In 1985, the Stella power stations are seen briefly in a shot in ''Seacoal'', a movie made by
Amber Films
Amber Film & Photography Collective (often shortened to Amber Films or Amber) is a film and photography collective based in Newcastle upon Tyne with an aim to capture working-class life in North East England. Often combining professional and non- ...
. They appear during a scene where the two protagonists, Ray and Betty, are travelling from
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
to Newcastle. (
Lynemouth power station, a North East power station still in operation, is more prominent in the film.)
In ''
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'' is a British sitcom which was broadcast on BBC1 between 9 January 1973 and 9 April 1974. It was the colour sequel to the mid-1960s hit '' The Likely Lads''. It was created and written, as was its prede ...
'', a British sitcom broadcast between 1973 and 1974, the stations themselves did not appear in the series, but in the end credits their ash boat, ''Bessie Surtees'', could be seen passing Spiller's Wharf near
Byker
Byker is a district in the east of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne. Home to the Byker Wall estate, made famous by TV series ''Byker Grove'', Byker’s population was recorded at 12,206 in the 2011 census. Byker is borde ...
.
In 1981, it was featured in Swing Bridge Videos' ''Check it Out'', a short film about youth unemployment in the west end of Newcastle. In the mid-1990s, the decommissioned stations were photographed by north eastern artist John Kippin as part of his work ''The Secret Intelligence of the Silent''. This piece was exhibited at the
Laing Art Gallery
The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is located on New Bridge Street West. The gallery was designed in the Baroque style with Art Nouveau elements by architects Cackett & Burns Dick and is now a Grade II listed building. It ...
in 2012 as part of the exhibition ''Futureland Now''.
[
]
See also
*
Electricity Act 1947
The Electricity Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 54.) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which nationalised, or bought into state control, the electricity supply industry in Great Britain. It established a central authority called t ...
*
Electricity Act 1957
The Electricity Act 1957 (repealed 1989) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The principal impact of the Act was the dissolution of the Central Electricity Authority (UK), which it replaced with the Central Electricity Generating Boar ...
*
Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
Energy in the United Kingdom came mostly from fossil fuels in 2021. Total World energy supply and consumption, energy consumption in the United Kingdom was 142.0millionTonne of oil equivalent, tonnes of oil equivalent (1,651TWh) in 2019. In 20 ...
*
List of power stations in England
This is a list of current and former electricity-generating power stations in England. For lists sorted by type, including proposed stations, see the see also section below.
:''Note that BEIS maintaina comprehensive list of UK power stations'' ...
*
Northern Electric
Northern Electric was an electricity supply and distribution company serving north east England.
History
It had its origins as the North Eastern Electricity Board, formed as part of the nationalisation of the electricity industry by the Elect ...
*
Timeline of the UK electricity supply industry
This timeline outlines the key developments in the United Kingdom electricity industry from the start of electricity supplies in the 1870s to the present day. It identifies significant developments in technology for the generation, transmission and ...
Footnotes
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
External links
Barratt Homes– website for current redevelopment of South site.
Flickr– an album of photos from during the stations' demolition.
– designs for Riverside Crescent.
RootsWeb– an account of a worker being injured during the construction of the power stations.
SINE Project– a collection of images showing the power stations.
YouTube– a short animation of the failed attempt to demolish the boiler house.
YouTube– a collection of newsreels showing the demolition of the Stella South chimneys and the Stella North boiler house.
YouTube– a documentation of the
Blaydon Races
"Blaydon Races" ( Roud #3511) is a Geordie folk song written in the 19th century by Geordie Ridley, in a style deriving from music hall. It is frequently sung by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club, Newcastle Falcons rugby club, a ...
centenary celebrations in 1962, which includes footage of a
boat race
Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...
past the power stations.
YouTube– a film showing a train journey between Gateshead and Hexham on the Newcastle to Carlisle railway, which includes passing the power stations.
YouTube- footage from a train passing the power station in 1983
YouTube- Check it Out by Swing Bridge Video, which features the stations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stella Power Stations
Coal-fired power stations in England
Power stations in North East England
Buildings and structures in Tyne and Wear
Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom
1954 establishments in England
Buildings and structures demolished in 1996
1991 disestablishments in England