They are “echoing concrete cathedrals” that stand like “giant sentinels on the horizon … kissing the clouds”, said James Graham the playwright. For him, and others who lived in the shadow of the cooling towers of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, their appearance in the distance meant he was home: they were “a greeting party of eight welcoming me back.”
Soon they will welcome him no more.
As Britain stops coal power, all our remaining cooling towers are scheduled for demolition by 2030. Unless, that is, a campaign to save one set for posterity is successful.
The closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar ends a 142-year era of coal power
CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGES
Graham, writer of the BBC drama Sherwood, has made a plea to “people who make such decisions, as you begin to stack the dynamite and lay the cables and attach