England's Redundant Post-War Coal- and Oil-Fired Power Stations

England’s Redundant Post-War Coal- and Oil-Fired Power Stations Guidelines for Recording and Archiving Their Records Summary This guidance note, published by Historic England – the Government’s adviser on the historic environment – provides advice to the Energy Industry on the appropriate and proportionate level of recording of redundant power plants for posterity. The guidance covers description, investigation, photographic and videographic recording of the structures; approaches to oral history and information-gathering from the workers on the site and the local community, and advice on archiving the historic records and artefacts. This guidance was written by Jonathan Clarke. Edited by Susie Barson, Wayne Cocroft and Paul Backhouse. Published by Historic England February 2016. All images © Historic England unless otherwise stated. https://HistoricEngland.org.uk/research/current-research/assessing-significance/industry- and-infrastructure/power-stations/ Front cover Ironbridge B power station, Shropshire. Cooling towers at night. Contents Introduction .........................................1 3 Historic Records and Artefacts: Archival and Curatorial Procedures ..................9 1 Recording and Archiving Guidelines ....................2 3.1 Historic records ............................................9 3.2 Historic artefacts ........................................10 1.1 Overview .......................................................2 4 Oral History Recording ....................12 2 Recording of Power Stations and Their Landscaped Settings ...........3 5 Where to Get Advice ...................13 2.1 Investigation .................................................3 2.2 Photographic recording ..............................4 2.3 Videographic recording ...............................8 6 Bibliography ..............................14 2.4 Synthetic report ...........................................8 Image above Kingsnorth power station, Medway. Interior of control room. Introduction Coal- and oil-fired power stations are among the largest and most recognisable industrial complexes the 20th century produced. They had a profound impact on the British landscape, visually, environmentally, and culturally, and the electricity they generated had a transformational impact on our economy and society. Reaching an unrivalled scale and level of technological sophistication by the 1960s, these enormous installations – the ‘great temples to the carbon age’* – are fast reaching the end of their useful lives. *Neil Cossons, Conservation Bulletin 65, Winter 2010: Inherited Infrastructure: 6. Historic England as the Government’s principal To complement this initial work further records adviser on the historic environment, has been are needed, especially of those power stations considering the extent to which post-war that have closed or are facing closure. Such coal- and oil-fired power stations have historic records should be undertaken to an appropriate and architectural interest. When assessing for and proportionate level that is necessary listing, particularly careful selection is required to understand the history, operation and for buildings from the period after 1945, and development of these sites. Such an approach is at this time protection of these power stations in line with the policies set out in the National by listing, and of any associated designed Planning Policy Framework (DCLG 2012) and, landscaped by registration, is very unlikely. in particular chapter 12, paragraph 141, where A number of Certificates of Immunity from developers are required: ‘to record and advance Listing (COIs) have already been issued. Further understanding of the significance of any heritage advice on listing can be found in ‘Utilities and assets to be lost (wholly or in part) in a manner Communications Structures: a guide to outline proportionate to their importance and the impact, the selection criteria used when listing utilities and to make this evidence (and any archive and communications structures’ (April 2011). generated) publicly accessible’. Historic England recognises the important role Although this guidance specifically refers to these power stations played in meeting the post-war coal- and oil-fired power stations it nation’s energy needs during the twentieth outlines a methodological approach which can be century, their high technological interest and applied to other types of large scale 20th-century wider landscape impact. We have commissioned industrial heritage assets and infrastructure that a number of reports (Clark 2015a) and a are being or about to be decommissioned. summary overview on 20th –century coal- and oil-fired power stations is available on-line in the Historic England in the ‘Introduction to Heritage Assets’ series (Clark 2015b). < < Contents 1 1 Recording and Archiving Guidelines 1.1 Overview 2. The creation of an oral history archive, based on the oral testimony of a range of There are three strands to this historic personnel who served in these installations environment exercise, designed to collectively unlock the rich store of information contained in 3. The selection and deposition within local or these enormous installations and to safeguard national repositories of historic documents their most significant records and artefacts: and artefacts 1. The creation and compilation of an These three mutually reinforcing elements form investigative record for each power station the basis of a method of capturing and studying site, based on the description, analysis key evidence, material and intangible, of the and interpretation of evidence embodied remains of England’s surviving post-war fossil- in the buildings, structures and designed fuelled power stations, and of conveying the and working landscape and in a range of historical, technological, social, and architectural documentary sources. understanding and significance of each site. They also make allowance for the selection and This will consist of a number of interrelated deposition of significant documents and artefacts activities and products: produced for, or during the life of the works, such that they can be conserved and publicly accessed ■ Investigation within local and institutional archives and local, independent or national museums. ■ Photographic recording ■ Videographic recording (where appropriate) ■ A synthetic report 1 < < Contents 2 2 Recording of Power Stations and Their Landscaped Settings 2.1 Investigation Power stations created their own distinctive industrial landscapes, through coal and fuel oil The principal aim for the recording of any coal- and transmission, ash and dust disposal, road and oil-fired installation should initially be to gain a high rail access systems and so forth. Additionally, level overview of the facility in its landscape. Such landscape architecture became a key aspect of an approach will enable broad functional areas the Central Electricity Generating Board’s to be identified and illustrate the relationships (CEGB) policy from its formation in 1958, with and linkages between the different areas, many of leading specialist architects brought it to which may have altered through time as activities ameliorate, or help harmonise the sites’ built have changed. From this preliminary analysis it components. An analytical understanding of should be possible to identify groups of buildings, the layout of the buildings, and the functional individual structures or structural elements, plant relationship between them and the landscaped and machinery, and landscape features that are environment they both inhabit and created is a worthy of more detailed documentation. fundamental objective. Figure 1 Fawley power station, Hampshire. Exterior of turbine hall. < < Contents 3 Figure 2 Grain power station, Medway. This information will probably be most intelligibly 2.2 Photographic recording gathered and collated by annotating large-scale plans, maps and diagrams of the site. These The size and complexity of these sites favours records can be subsequently re-presented photography as a more efficient way of capturing to depict, in intelligible form, the phased data than either drawings derived from accurate development of the site and the functional areas measured survey or written description. As noted within it. Diagrams interpreting the movement above, Historic England aerial photographic of materials and production of energy (process recording is ongoing, so only ground-based flow), or the segregation of activities (eg, photography is required, to supplement that permeability diagrams) might be warranted, so being undertaken by Historic England. The aim long as these are not unduly technical in nature, should be to photograph before closure, to and the evidence supporting the interpretations record how spaces and plant are being used. is provided. Such graphical exercises should be relatively straightforward since the vast majority Photography should be used to document the of the buildings will have been used for a single exterior appearance of the site from a variety of function throughout their working lives, and viewpoints, and, within the site itself, to document diagrams are often contained in brochures that the buildings/structural components in relation to marked the opening of the facility. one another, and to the landscaped environs. 3 < < Contents 4 Figure 3 (top) Figure 4 (above) Kingsnorth power station, Medway. Kingsnorth power station, Medway. Exterior of turbine hall and boiler house Interior of control room. <

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