On Monday night we saw a giant about to die: a giant of mechanical, electrical and civil engineering. It was around 9pm, and our train from Derby to London was passing the eight great cooling towers of the coal-fired Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. Each more than twice the height of Nelson’s Column, each almost three times the diameter of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, each a wonder of 1960s’ civil engineering, the concrete walls being only seven inches thick. Think of an eggshell: as strong as it is delicate.
Twice a week for 45 years I have watched this marvel as I pass, hardly a stone’s throw from the railway line. You could see between the steel pillars at the base — the “throat” as