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Spondon Power Station Cooling Towers

Dated: 1987

Built by British Celanese, sold to Notts & Derby Power Co in about1922; nationalised; re-purchased by Courtaulds.

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Submitted by Robin King on Sun, 22/09/2013 - 05:47

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I see that you say that Spondon was sold to the Derby and Notts Electric power Company about 1929.
The correct date is 1922. The first offer was made in the August of that year by Balfour Beattie and the sale was completed by the end of December 1922.

My father, Harold Spencer, joined the Derby & Notts circa 1922. He worked firstly in Ilkeston and moved to Spondon shortly afterwards. The 1922 acquisition date seems to fit with that.

From old photos, the 'A' station was extended a number of times - as judged by the number of chimneys on the boiler-house. Also, the cooling towers do not appear on early photos.

Perhaps the most significant expansion was the construction of 'H' Station in the 1950s. This was a combined heat and power plant, supplying process heat to Celanese and generating electricity. As such it was for many years by far the most efficient power plant in the UK - over 60% from memory.

Submitted by C Mellors on Fri, 13/03/2015 - 16:18

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This image was taken from the back garden of number 141 Derby road, the dogs name was Kim and she loved looking for rats which was what she was doing at the time.

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