21 nostalgic pictures of iconic Ironbridge Power Station - and its explosive end
They dominated the skyline in Ironbridge, a power station built with pink cooling towers to blend into the landscape.
When the power station in Ironbridge closed, a series of explosions were organised to remove the cooling towers, chimneys and main buildings.
Today, as plans move on to create a new community on the site, we take a look back in the archives at some images of the power station, as well as the moment it came down.
Engineer Iain Thomson said it was a demolition job unlike any other he had had cause to deal with.
Speaking in 2019, as his team at Harworth prepared to push the button to blow up the huge towers, he said: "There are four cooling towers, each 120 metres high, so that's half a kilometre we're bringing down."
The cost of the demolition work is similarly stratospheric. Mr Thomson couldn't be too specific, but said it would be in excess of £10 million.
"The costs of the demolition far exceed the cost of acquisition," he said.
About 100 workers were employed on the site, including 80 workers from contractor Demolition Services Ltd.
The giant, terracotta-tinted towers beside the River Seven, had been a familiar sight for half a century. But demolition contractors spent six months preparing for them to come down in a matter of seconds.
You could't really get a feel for the scale of the towers until you stand underneath them.
Features writer Mark Andrews said at the time: "In Tower No. 1, the hundreds of concrete posts and layers of asbestos sheeting which formed the base of the tower were been removed, leaving nothing more than a narrow bridge running through the centre. Looking up to the sky, it resembles standing in the middle of a giant toilet roll.
"A small hole, about the size of a large television screen is visible inside the vast concrete wall. This, along with a break in one of the 'legs' that holds the tower off the ground is the only tell-tale sign of one of the test explosions which has been carried out to calculate the quantity of explosives that will be required."
Thousands of people descended on the site for the demolition of the cooling towers, an event that was also screened live on television news channels. Similar crowds turned up for the subsequent blowing up of a remaining chimney on the site, as well as other main buildings.
The site now flattened, development company Harworth, which bought the entirety of the power station site in 2021, has secured overall planning permission for what will effectively be a new town, made up of 1,000 homes – called 'Benthall Grange'.
The landscape of an area once dominated by its power station is set to change for ever, bringing a new community to the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge.