page_title: Blackburn Meadows Power Station
section_title: Coal-fired power station
hierarchical_section_title: Blackburn Meadows Power Station / Coal-fired power station
caption_attribution_description: Blackburn Meadows cooling towers
context_page_description: Blackburn Meadows power station is a biomass power station situated at Blackburn Meadows on the River Don, between Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. Operated by E.ON UK, it was opened in 2014 and has an operating capacity of 30 megawatts.
  The biomass plant was built on the site of a former coal-fired power station which closed in 1980. The coal power station on the site was most well known for its two cooling towers, which remained standing for nearly thirty years after closure, forming a landmark along the M1 motorway in Sheffield and coming to be known as the Tinsley Towers, after the district of the city in which they are located. They were demolished by controlled explosion on 24 August 2008.
context_section_description: The first power station on the site was built in 1921 by the Sheffield Corporation, to support the steel industry in the Lower Don Valley. The station originally comprised three 6 MW and one 10 MW steam turbines. The station was expanded in the 1930s. Hyperboloid cooling towers 6 and 7 were constructed between 1937 and 1938, replacing earlier square cooling towers. They were designed by LG Mouchell and Partners. The cooling towers had a total capacity of 10,500,000 gallons per hour. The station was nationalised in 1948 and operated by the British Electricity Authority (1948-1955), the Central Electricity Authority (1955-1957) then from 1 January 1958 the Central Electricity Generating Board. It had a generating capacity of 72 megawatts and was closed on 27 October 1980. The station comprised two Metropolitan Vickers 50 MW and two 30 MW English Electric turbo-alternators. The coal-fired boilers generated 1,500,000 lb/h (189 kg/s) of steam at 580 psi (40 bar) and 427°C. There were three Stirling tri-drum boilers each rated at 100,000 lb/hr; three Stirling tri-drum and three Mitchell ti-drum boilers each rated at 160,000 lb/hr; and two Mitchell tri-drum boilers each rated at 190,000 lb/hr.
  the annual output of the station was:   
  Most of the station was demolished following the closure in October 1980, but two of the cooling towers were left standing until August 2008.
caption: The cooling towers of the old coal-fired power station standing before their demolition.
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