Time is up for the 'Terrible Twins'...

[rfletcher72]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/con ... lery.shtml

Must we obliterate every unfashionable reminder of our heritage?

[g0fthick]

If that's your sort of thing then you should take a trip to Middlesbrough, you'll be in heaven.

[rfletcher72]

If that's your sort of thing then you should take a trip to Middlesbrough, you'll be in heaven.

I've been to Middlesbrough umpteen times and the sight of such structures there, though interesting, it is not the same for me as the ones in question.

These have been part of my local skykine since long before I and my parents where born and in some essence, throughout my childhood when all around was either changing or vanishing altogether, the towers remained the one constant feature.
A landmark for all, you knew you where near home when the towers came into view, and a lasting reminder of our industrial past. I am not against progress, but not for the sake of it. Structures such as these where ten a penny 30 years ago, but not anymore, and though having little other use, travel to Soweto and see what the South Africans' can do with theirs. South Yorkshires' own 'Angels of the North'.

Anyhow, a biomass power station will appear on the site, so things in a way will have come full circle. But how many more acres of Brazillian rain forest will be cleared to fuel this supposed 'green' method of power generation?

I will be there at 0300 on Sunday morning, suitably tanked up to watch 6 and 7 come down

[spartacus]

It'll be a great shame. I doubt I'll be there when they come down but I'll be going past the day before, and possibly after they do. Those towers are one of my first memories, I can't remember when we went on the motorway but I can remember first seeing the cooling towers as clear as day; to me they're the greatest landmark of South Yorkshire.

I can't help feeling that Battersea PS would never be treated this way, no matter how much money in consumes to keep it safe.

[rtracey]

Im one of the many that doesn`t want to see `em get flattened & I hope both towers fall onto Tinsley viaduct. And the folks that think the towers are an eyesore & can`t wait to see `em flattened you can watch the hours, minutes & seconds tick away here http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdown.html ... 0Countdown

[rtracey]

Well done EON & the brilliant demolition company for nearly getting both towers down! Its like the north cooling tower is sticking a finger up to EON & saying "Is that all thas got?" & how clever of the DJ at BBC Radio Sheffield to play "I`m still standing"

[jbilton]

A lot of people there.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zxUxYcJpPrQ

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=d6V78IJVmac

And a video showing them the other day

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dtexeDidjj4

Cheers
Jon

[rfletcher72]

Well, it is with some satisfaction that, in some perverse sense maybe, this act of vandalisim did not go exactly to plan .

We were told by E.On that the technology of demolition had progressed sufficiently to allow demolition to occur so close to the Viaduct without complication, and/or that the towers were structually unsafe and had to come down. Well, it would seem that both statements could be questionned as the demolition men obviously failed and if the towers were so intrinsically unsafe, why did 1/3 of tower 7 stay aloft despite 1/4 ton of TNT? (NB. both towers has significant work carried out on them in the 1970s to strengthen them, the aim of which was to double their lifespan (source: The Sheffield Star)). Dare I say a last 'middle finger' to the powers that be? . E.On say the towers should have gone with the rest of the plant in 1983, but for those who know the area, there were two towers of similar size slap bang in the centre of Rotherham, which in 1980 were brought down by jackhammer, due to the hammerblow that would have occurred when 3000+ tonnes of reinforced concrete hit the ground yards from a busy town centre. I suppose 'the twins' were lucky?

I have to laugh at the comments by the E.On spokeswoman that all went as planned. Alrieght luv, happen someone may believe you . But now they are gone for good and yet again, big business rides above the overwhelming wishes of local people. So now the path is clear, E.On are going to develop a Power Station in one the most highly polluted areas of the UK? (Thanks to the M1, and were are you, Sheffield City Council, allowing this). The 'raison de etre' of the towers was indeed a Power Station, but we live in an age that is intolerant (rightly so) to pollution, but having said that, owes a debt of gratutude to the very people who built the original Blackburn Meadows Power Station way back in the 1920s.

And that is why, for me, that the towers should have remained, as an inert reminder of that age that brought to us, in some sense, the life we take for granted somewhat today. The towers predated nationalisation of the electricity generation industry by 12 years (the CEGB was formed in 1948). Before that time, power supply was the responsibilty of the local municipal authority - Sheffield Corporation in this instance.

How many of you can remember the local Power Station in your town or city? Rotherham (sic), Halifax, Lincoln, Peterborough, Wigan, Bradford, Darlington, Mexborough, Stoke, Hull, Huddersfield, Carlisle, Barrow, Walsall, Ipswich, Belfast, York, Dundee, Stourport-on-Severn, and so on and so forth - all made redundant by that last great surge of public investment in electricity generation in the 1960/70s with the opening of the Aire and Trent Valley power stations (now mostly safe in private hands).

Back then, it was local leadership (dare I say socialist?) that progressed the lot of the working man and his family. The two towers were built as a result of the need to supply the burdgeoning power needs of an expanding Sheffield. Local councils pioneered the provision of the very things me and you take for granted today, long before big business got their hands on the everyday things that me and you rely on - heat, light, water and so on: water supply, sewerage, gas supply (do you remember town gas?), electricity supply, the humble tramcar > public transport, council housing, recreation grounds (red rec?) and so on and so forth. They represented this golden age of municipal enterprise for which in an aggregate sense our lives are better off for today.

The gateway to the North has now gone and I for one am saddended to see it gone, though not without a sting in the tail . E.On are now free to collect whatever 'green' incentive they no doubt stand to receive from hitting a 'green' percentage target of their total generation.

Sheffield and the region are now lacking their only great landmark. Shame on you E.On, long live the towers

[jbilton]

How many of you can remember the local Power Station in your town or city? Rotherham (sic), Halifax, Lincoln, Peterborough, Wigan, Bradford, Darlington, Mexborough, Stoke, Hull, Huddersfield, Carlisle, Barrow, Walsall, Ipswich, Belfast, York, Dundee, Stourport-on-Severn, and so on and so forth - all made redundant by that last great surge of public investment in electricity generation in the 1960/70s with the opening of the Aire and Trent Valley power stations (now mostly safe in private hands).

Back then, it was local leadership (dare I say socialist?) that progressed the lot of the working man and his family. The two towers were built as a result of the need to supply the burdgeoning power needs of an expanding Sheffield. Local councils pioneered the provision of the very things me and you take for granted today, long before big business got their hands on the everyday things that me and you rely on - heat, light, water and so on: water supply, sewerage, gas supply (do you remember town gas?), electricity supply, the humble tramcar > public transport, council housing, recreation grounds (red rec?) and so on and so forth. They represented this golden age of municipal enterprise for which in an aggregate sense our lives are better off for today.

I certainly do............and you're right about the socialist benefits.
Lincoln made its own electricity and gas.
The profit from these helped keep the council rates down,ran all the libraries, public baths, and the surplus also funded cheap Corporation buses for all routes.
Oh how I love Capitalist progress, now we help fund Chelsea footballers to earn grotesque sums etc.
We also had cheap water as it only came 25 miles or so, and was treated locally before being discharged into the Witham.
Cheers
Jon