Willington Power Station Cooling Towers Then & Now Explore 

Nice bit of work that. Excellent 👍

I was getting tired of watching all these exploration videos with techno music and drone footage 2000 ft in the air.. finally a great video!!, relaxing to watch, good music, love the close ups!

The cooling towers are like pieces of art. :)

Amazing. I've seen them from outside but never like this. Thank you for sharing.

That was twelve minutes well spent👍 Thanks for taking us into the secret inner world of the cooling tower - now we know!!!! Great stills shots as usual, they add flesh to the bones of the story. Good shot of Pickfords heavy duty transporter in a couple of those shots - memories of Matchbox!!! Great stuff as usual. ❤

Lived here for 30 years, known locally as the Five Ladies so you're not wrong there, fab place to visit ❤

Thank you for the tour today. Cheers buddy. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🙂👍🇺🇸

I visited there with work in 1980's. The boilers were unique in that they weren't enclosed in buildings so you could get a great view from the stair cases climbing up to the top of the boiler - so long as you had a good head for heights! Good to see in more detail what you normally see from the road - Thanks :)

I live very close to these towers and have visited many times. Your video was excellent especially the old photos thanks for sharing subbed

Great vid. I live near here and have passed them many times. There were Perigrin falcons or similar nesting on the towers at one point.

I live close to these and have been around the site many times since it closed (although parts of the site are still used by sub-stations), and the original plan was to bring them down and build 1800+ houses on the whole site. These had peregrine falcons nesting in them so got spared, then the developers tried and failed to get government subsidies to clear the site before building as the ground was contaminated. I believe there are still plans for the building work, but nothing seems to have happened for years. Personally, with so many coal fired power stations going, one or more of these towers should be listed and kept. They are works of art now.

What a brilliant video. Really enjoyed. Many thanks chris 👍

Wow Ant, those cooling towers look impressive, awesome yet ugly, spooky and sinister all at the same time. Must be quite an experience to be inside one of those towers looking straight up. The music added to the sinister feel at the start, perfect music for this video!

great video and very interesting, the history and old pictures were very good, nice to see the old Pickford trucks

Superb video !!!!!

Just caught up on this one,another place I’ve been to, played football there and had a pint in the onsite club in early 90s, great videowork btw

Another very well produced video well done. I know these towers very well having grown up in the area and spent a lot of time fishing in the river. The Trent had so many power stains along its course that the water was never cold, even in winter. The outflow for Willington Power Sta was a particularly popular fishing spot as the water was very warm, and it attracted the fish. On a winters day the river steamed! The site itself was huge and included extensive rail sidings, coal piles, etc. I think that there is still quite a large number of transformers at the back but the rest has all gone.I too would like to see the towers or at least one remain but I doubt it as the cost of maintenance would be considerable and who would pay? All the best.

Wow, that's cool! Thanks for showing us something I would never get to see. Brilliant! Beautiful work!

Another great video. Last time I was there was on an open day where we were given guided access to all areas, the highlight for me was to watch the mgr trains passing slowly through the dumping shed and seeing each wagon slowly empty into the hoppers as if by magic, and all without stopping. The empty train would then proceed and wait to be let out onto the main line for the return trip to the yards at Toton. Thanks for showing?

Another great video Ant, what lovely views from the top of the tower =)

Hiya again mate, it's Mike from Chesterfield, just found this video on your page, I'm going through the videos one by one there that good. Anyway what I wanted to know was, I travel pass these old cooling towers on the train every time I go to Burton on Trent and was wondering if you could give me the directions on how to get there by foot? Is it anywhere near to Willington Railway Station at all, as I can see the towers from there too, but they look in the distance. Anyway hope to hear from you soon. Keep up the good work mate. 👍👍

Glad to see these going,no place for these dinosaurs in the future.

That was awesome Ant. I didn`t know the power station proper had gone and I hope the sisters linger on cos apart from anything else they are a useful landmark for the A38/A50 crossing when we do the coach runs to Alton Towers and anywhere else local. The design of cooling towers is such that as the air rises the smaller diameter of the tower speeds up the air before ejecting it out of the top. This of course draws in more air at the bottom so the cycle is self perpetuating. Simple and effective.

Beautiful towers I hope they will not demolish them. You mention fans at one point, but these are natural draft cooling towers, they didn't have any fans. When hot water starts to spray from sprinklers hot vapor rises up and height and shape of the tower helps to suck fresh air from below and cool dripping water. There are some other designs of cooling towers that use fans but they look different. I apologies for nitpicking, it is very interesting video and I'm new sub. I saw you in Martin's video.

Hi, great video (s) ! Very interesting. My father, uncles and grandfathers were all ex miners. I have always had a personal interest in coal, power stations, trains canals in no particular order of course. Me and my wife visited Willington towers a few years ago now and I took some pics. Like you say it is surreal when your standing inside and outside of them. Did you see the pumping station on the other side of the road by the trent? They always said it was some of the best fishing around the Trent Valley because of the warm water being put back in. As you know if you want to see a cooling tower in action you can stand on East Midlands Parkway station viewing Ratcliffe on Soar power station and you are literally right next to them and can see the water flowing down. Becoming a rare sight now another 10 years and they will all be gone as king coal is no longer on top. I am waiting for Fiddlers Ferry to be gone next I can see this from my bedroom window across the Cheshire plain from Staffordshire. To my amusement they keep firing it up every winter so it must be still needed as they cannot fully make the switch over just yet! The link to my Willington pics on Flickr. flic.kr/s/aHsk6jJwht

i like your video's there what i do myself but i do find there a bit short at times.

THE FIVE SISTERS DEEPLY MISS THEIR 2 BROTHERS AFTER 22 YEARS (2 CHIMNEYS)

Bloody brilliant ,thanks for taking us along with you. What is on the horizon @6.45 another power station ? Ratcliffe power station ??

@trekkingandtowpaths I've just caught up with this video, I can't believe I missed it to be honest, but I'm glad that I eventually got to it. The camera work was superb really giving a feeling of the vastness of the towers, I loved the shot of the drone coming up out of the tower and looking out over the others, it was like something out of Star Trek!! I'm actually going to Derby on Saturday to compete in the European Masters Hammer Decathlon Championships, so if I have enough energy left after all that I'm going to pop in and have a look. Is it easy enough to access the site?

Is it really 20 years since the power station closed? I used to go past on the train regularly around that time and there seemed to be less there every journey. Cooling towers are amazing pieces of architecture.

You could explore cottam power station because that shut down in September

is this the one that they just tore down, that was in the news? I didn't pay attention to the story, just saw it pop up in my Twitter feed and scrolled past it. from what you said in this vid, sounds like it WAS a different cooling tower site. some of your shots at the beginning had an almost Blade Runner look to them. talking the ORIGINAL Blade Runner, not the remake, and of course, Blade Runner in daytime, which never happened in the film. (that I can recall) at least, that was the impression that I got, but I'm kind of an oddball, so I may be the only one who got that. what I am trying to imply is very Blade Runner artistic-ness about the shots! I liked it!

Educate this 63 yo Brit, in sight of these, please.... Htf does a concrete tower sat on steel supports have owt to do with generation of power ?

Think about the concrete formers all calculated and drawn by hand.

All that weight held up by thin spindley legs.