Photo Request - Broomgrove Power Station

[Geoff]

Does anyone happen to have (or can point me in the direction of) a photo of the power station? Preferably while it was in use and not so derelict, but at this stage anything will do. It's to add to the history pages of the website. A credit will be given with anything used.

[Richard]

The first Electricity generating station in Hastings was the Earl Street Plant opened in 1882. Then came the tramway power station in 1905, in Ore, (built at the bottom of the newly laid-out Parker Road, supplying the borough’s trams with electricity. Its 176-feet high steel chimney was fuelled by coal delivered via the rail sidings. ) it was followed by Broomgrove Power Station in 1925/6, as Earl Street came to the end of its usefulness.
Broomgrove originally opened as a coal-fired Power Station (via its own railway siding, next to the Brickworks), it was later converted to a gas-powered Plant, in 1966, an even bigger one, with two Rolls Royce 55-megawatt gas turbine generators that could be started quickly when national demand was high or supply limited.
I can only find a tiny photo showing the twin towers before its 1982 closure when it was put on mothballs by the CEGB, but they briefly re-opened it late in 1984 during the year-long 1984-5 miners’ strike.

During the night of 15 May 2000 the power station caught fire. About 30,000 old tyres had been dumped there over a long time, and these ignited on that day, causing irreparable damage to the station. Demolition did not take place for over a year because of the dangers in the building, including much asbestos. It cost £1.96m to create the building site that it became.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sout ... 218083.stm

Credit to Steve Peak for much of the information.

[Geoff]

Yes, there's plenty of textual information available. It's really a photo i'm after.

[Derek Jempson]

I took this photo in the mid-1960s and it shows both the old and new Broomgrove power stations. The viewpoint was the side of the Fortune of War pub (since demolished, along with the two power stations). I would be interested to know the name of the road in which the houses in the foreground stand (also long gone).

[Geoff]

Wow, that's perfect The only photo (that i've ever seen) showing both power stations. Thank you so much Derek.

The newer power station was opened in 1966 so I will go for that as the year your photo was taken, before the old one was demolished.

As for that row of houses, interesting! They must be very close to the railway. My initial thought was Broomgrove Road but not sure now. My 1899 map doesn't show any houses there.

[Gerry Glyde]

I have maps for 1928 and 39 it looks as if it might be a short terrace of houses on the first part of Broomgrove or perhaps although the angle looks wrong, Hurrell Rd. I'm not near to check but the first part of Broomgrove was an unadopted stony road.

If the Fortune was at the junction of Priory/ Mount Pleasant the pub is marked

[Derek Jempson]

Thanks Gerry. The F.O.W. pub was a little way past the junction of Priory and Mt. Pleasant Roads on the Ore side and it protruded into the road, as can be seen on your map. The terrace of houses looks likely to be in Hurrell Road although on the map they look further away than in the photo (foreshortening, I suppose). Broomgrove Road is now (in part, at least) fully made-up.

[Geoff]

I have to admit I am struggling with the perspective of this too. If what we are seeing in the foreground (just beyond the houses) is the long roof of the engine shed shown on the map then it doesn't seem to tie in with being taken from the FOW.

I am guessing that this might have been the position, with the roofs in the foreground belonging to Hughenden Road just before the bend. Of course this is 100% guesswork.

[Gerry Glyde]

There is the question of the concrete structure in the foreground that looks as if it was a low horizontal wall with a vertical rise on the left. Given the low height of the roofs below the vantage point must have been very high- but perhaps close.

[Derek Jempson]

The viewpoint was definitely alongside the Fortune of War, looking across Ore Valley towards what is now the Broomgrove Estate. The pub had the remains of some kind of structure immediately on the Ore side, consisting of parts of two vertical walls and a low interconnecting wall - rather like a large "U" shape. I cropped the photo that I posted earlier to emphasise the power stations. Attached is the whole photograph along with another that I took from the same viewpoint in 2012.

And roughly the same view taken in 2012