Photo Request - Broomgrove Power Station

[Derek Jempson]

Sorry - wrong photo. That was the cropped one again. This is the uncropped photo.

[whiffler]

Defo taken from back window in Manor Rd (err .... Mount Pleasant Rd - sloppy work 4/10), possibly 101 or either side. approx half way between opposing Manor Rd & Quarry Rd

Note in photo the left hand tank and closer sub-station (low boxy building). You can see 'between them', so you have a line to draw back to the photographer,

OS (on-line) plan for the area 65-72 has the both these features and some house numbers.

Building is still there on google/bing maps, and tank(s) have gone but you can see where they have been 'grubbed out' (hat-tip Time Team).

[Geoff]

Aerial photo of Ore Valley after the power station was demolished, but before the new housing estate and college building was added.

Stitched together from four Bing Maps screen grabs...

Ore Valley Aerial

[Derek Jempson]

No, sorry whiffler, if you stood anywhere in Manor Road in 1966, you would have had no view at all of the Broomgrove Power Station. You would have to go right to the top of Mount Pleasant Hill to do that. I took the photo from the side of the Fortune of War with the camera angle almost parallel to the road. In the more recent photo, I tried to get the same angle of view, but didn't. That one is closer to right angles with the road. Some of the structure of the Fortune of War is still visible just off the pavement.

[Geoff]

If Derek took the photo then that's where it's from. I trust he didn't have too many in the Fortune before hand Although I have to agree the angle is very deceptive.

Either way, surely Manor Road is way off the mark whiffler?

[Derek Jempson]

Geoff - in your aerial view, the site of the Fortune of War is near the bottom right corner, beside the road where you can now see a clump of trees. So I stood at that point looking towards the right. The site of the power stations is off the picture.

[Geoff]

Okay, that's even more confusing. We agree on the location of the FOW, but the power station(s), i'm not so sure. This is the way I thought the layout was...

A - Ore Station
B - Site of Engine/Carriage Sheds (in Derek's Photo)
C - Site of Sidings/Goods Yard
D - Electricity Sub Station (in Derek's Photo)
E - Site of Tanks (in Derek's Photo)
F - Site of Old Power Station (in Derek's Photo)
G - Site of more recent Power Station (in Derek's Photo)
H - Site of Railway Siding to Power Station
I - Site of Fortune of War

[Derek Jempson]

Now I'm getting confused!

We've established the location of the Fortune of War (the white rectangle in the attached Google Earth shot), and you can see the slab of masonry that I mentioned earlier. However, if the barren patch of land at the top of the shot is the location of the two power stations, which seems increasingly likely, then to get the power stations in the position in which they appear in my original photo, I must have stood with my back to the road and not faced 90 degrees to the right, as I thought. If that is the case, then the wall in the left foreground of my photo is the Ore-facing wall of the F.O.W. and the wall on the right is a piece of the older property that stood on the Ore side of the F.O.W.

I don't know - it was 49 years ago after all, and we can sometimes have very strong memories that turn out to be false. I must admit that when I digitised the photograph from the original 35mm negative a few years ago, I thought that the viewpoint was somewhere near the Broomgrove Estate, looking towards Priory Road, but that great fount of all knowledge (my wife) soon put me right!

[whiffler]

A photo from 1947

Centre is Grammar School, with rail line under Manor Rd etc to Ore. The four slabs beyond MPR in this and earlier photo are shown as Water Coolers on a 1955 map. The photo edge right of WCs is MPR below The Shah/St George's Rd, so FoW is another chunk further over.

Comparing the angle of the WCs in original and this shot, I would say the earlier was taken from the other side of the railway alignment in this shot.

Nothing - absolutely nothing - that I have seen ties in with earlier shot being FoW. Various maps, photos trying to pin it down, but OP highlighted lack of photos of that area which is hampering us all.

Plus me wibbling on about 101 MR instead of MPR earlier ..... D'Oh !

[whiffler]

Another shot from 1947, from a little west. Edge to right of WCs is further up MPR, but still short of Priory Rd and FoW.

The comparative angle of WCs is better.