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End of the Cooling Towers

By Bill Nicholls

I have been sadly lacking in blogs of late mainly because I have been concentrating on my own personal blogs but I thought my recent exploits should be shared here. Didcot Powerstation as we all have heard is now coming down. The first of the three cooling towers were blown up early one Sunday Morning witnessed by many thousand people. In the weeks leading up to the event the contractors announced they would be coming down on the 27th July between 3 & 5 am much to the annoyance of all the local people and councils. The contractors and owners said they had checked with the relevant people and this would be ok. Relevant people being Oxford County Council ?? Network Rail (ok the railway runs past) & the police
They never asked the locals what they thought nor South Oxfordshire district Council & White Horse district Councils where the Powerstation is situated.
When the site owner was interview and asked about people watching he said it was not a spectator even it was a demolition, then admitted he had asked his nephew to come and watch. When told that Network rail had no objections to it being put off till 6am he said they did not know that, nor did they know the railway was being closed the following weekend.
All that said the time was set and people were told to stay away in case they got covered in dust. They seemed to forget that the Powerstation can be seen for miles around. Wittenham Clumps and the Rigeway being some great vantage points SU6187 : Didcot Power Station in the Morning by Bill Nicholls SU5087 : Didcot Power station by Bill Nicholls. Come the day of the event my sons and I went over to just outside Harwell to watch the event after I thought there would be too many people at Hagbourne hill and Harwell was a tad closer to the Powerstation. We got there at 2.40 SU5090 : Waiting for the end by Bill Nicholls to find the roadside packed with people but were lucky to find a space to park. By 3am the road was nearly impassable and the roadside was lined with people waiting for the bang. We waited till just before 5 am for the event to happenSU5090 : Three minutes left by Bill Nicholls. One person had a twitter feed going so kept people up to date then we hear the warning bangs and next someone said “they are falling”. I just pressed the shutter release and fire off a burst getting thirty frames of the towers falling SU5090 : The end by Bill Nicholls SU5090 : Going down by Bill Nicholls SU5090 : Third going down by Bill Nicholls SU5090 : Last moments by Bill Nicholls SU5090 : And they are gone by Bill Nicholls, then we heard the sound of the explosion just as the last tower collapsed to the ground. Little dust seem to come off. It seemed a long time to wait around for something that was over in less than ten seconds after that we went home. I took a couple of back up photos later in the day SU5090 : Half a day later by Bill Nichollsand some of the Powerstation a few days later SU5191 : All Gone by Bill Nicholls. My wife said the explosion could be heard from where we lived miles away. Thousands of people came out to watch the event happen and Eon and their contractors must have had egg on their faces from the miss handling of the PR they could have gained from it. Instead as one local paper put it “they snatched a humiliating Defeat from the jaws of Victory” I hope they learn from this but somehow I doubt it.
SU5090 : Thank you for visiting by Bill Nicholls Didcot Powerstation 1968-2013


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Thu, 7 Aug 2014 at 13:25
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