Clifton Colliery And Wilford Power Station Remembered.
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- Опубликовано: 3 фев 2025
- Subscribe to my you tube channel for 229+ more coal mine tributes and counting. Clifton Colliery,Nottingham was Sunk In 1868 And Opened In 1870.The pit closed in July 1968 but North Wilford Power Station continued to serve the national grid for another decade before it was demolished in the 1980s, the site being redeveloped as the Riverside Retail Park. Wilford power station was authorised in 1920. In September 1921 tenders were invited by the Nottingham Corporation for three 10,000 kW turbo-alternators and one 1,000 kW combined turbo-generator-alternator. And for six water-tube boilers with mechanical stokers, super-heaters and forced draught fans.
Construction took 5 years, cost £700,000 (equivalent to £40,220,000 in 2019)[5] and the first 30 MW section was completed and formally opened on 17 September 1925.Much of the coal came from nearby Clifton Colliery immediately north of the power station, there were also railway connections to the Nottingham branch of the Midland Main Line and the Great Central Railway. The power station provided power for Nottingham and the local surrounding area.
The cooling water system abstracted and returned up to 45,500 m3/h (10 million gallons per hour) of water from the River Trent.
Upon nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948 the ownership of Wilford power station was vested in the British Electricity Authority, and subsequently the Central Electricity Authority and the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). Responsibility for the local distribution and sale of electricity was transferred to the East Midlands Electricity Board.
In February 1947 a new low pressure station was commissioned to the south of the existing station. This comprised four 40 kg/s steam boilers operating at 41.4 bar and 454 °C. These supplied two 30 MW, a single 53 MW and a single 52.5 MW turbo-alternators. This gave a net electricity generating capability of 118 MW.
In May 1957 a new high pressure station was commissioned. This comprised two 38 kg/s steam boilers operating at 62.06 bar and 482 °C. There was a single 62 MW turbo-alternator (commissioned in May 1957). This gave a net electricity generating capability of 58 MW.
In 1971 Wilford power station comprised the following plant. Pulverised fuel boilers with a total capacity of 3,180,000 kg per hour of steam. There was a range of steam conditions - 250/600/900 psi (17.2/41.4/62.1 bar) and 354/427/454/482 °C. The installed capacity of the generators was 308.5 MW comprising three 30 MW, one 52.5 MW, one 53 MW and one 62 MW turbo-alternators. The total electricity output that year was 625.459 GWh.Wilford power station closed in 1981 and was demolished shortly afterwards. Much of the area was redeveloped with the neighbouring clay works and railway terminus demolished around the same time.
I served most of my apprenticeship at Clifton. Elec Engineer in Charge was Lol Adcock, I bumped into him while working at Wilson Ford Rewinds a few years after Clifton closed. Sadly many of the electricians who taught me my trade have passed on now. I'm privileged to have worked with some fine tradesmen during my time at Clifton. Most of the old photos here were taken in the Deep Hard seam north of pit bottom heading north. All the last workings were south of the Trent in the Tupton seam.
A lot of coal was mined under West Bridgeford in the Deep soft, Tupton, Deep hard and Piper seams.
41's face worked to the boundary with Cotgrave, there were plans to drive it's Main Gate to Cotgraves workings to form an emergency egress, but that never materialized.
We were planned to work the seam under the Tupton seam, roadways were developed to drive a drift down to the Ashgate seam from 51's M/G, that would have given us another 50 years of life, with a drift from the inbye bunker to the surface coming out into what was to be a new washery and coal handling plant. Sadly the coal from the Tupton seam was "dirty" with high ash content, and our customers didn't want it, so the NCB in it's wisdom closed the pit.
Clifton was the last colliery to work the Mech/Elec scheme.
I recall when 41's face in the Deep hard was still going. basically 41's was a continuation of 1's main road, although you went up a small drift to 41's.
41's was Cliftons first fully mechanised face, it employed Dowty Roofmaster hydraulic roof supports, two and three leg, powered by oil, used to be a mess when a hose blew. The machine was an AB 16/125 shearer, single fixed drum with an AB15 precutter mounted on a bedframe linked to the shearer bedframe, no idea why we used a pre cutter, which eventually was taken out of service.
Afternoon shift was a pig!! Usually both bunkers were full, so plenty of stoppages due to the washery unable to keep pace with the three faces cutting at once. Then, end of shift was a long walk to pit bottom, approx 6 miles!!!
This was a time when the face workers were on contracts, so many shears and then the contract started, as long as the belts could handle the coal, those lads were earning big money.
@@yauwohn i did a couple of years on afternoons, great feeling arriving at the boozer for for around 9pm. 6 miles ... uphill is tough, i think the 7 1/4 hour shifts did alot of damage to productivity, 4 x 9 hour shifts would of been better, but that's an argument for another day, how many of the 6 miles could you ride out on a belt or a train?
@@MakeAllThingsBeautiful Wasn't all uphill though, but the last 3/4 mile was up the Stone Head Drift to pit bottom, that stretch made one's heart feel like it was bursting. Problem with UK pits was manpower, too many men!! As the years went by manning levels never decreased, whereas in Australian Collieries, most only had about three hundred to cover four shifts. I migrated there in 1979, at first I worked in Bord and Pillar districts as a face electrician, then pillar extraction. We had one Continuous Miner driver, two shuttle car drivers, cable man to watch the CM cables and a bolting timbering crew of two, the Deputy was the only Official in the team, no Overman etc.. I finished at a Colliery with one longwall, Shearer was a 500HP Anderton double ended ranging drum, Dowty heavy duty shields self advancing roof supports. Manpower, one elec, one fitter, two shearer drivers, one guy at the stage loader/boot end belt cleaner, two men for pushing over and a
roof support advancing. Our weekly output was 48,000 tonnes. We could have cut well over 50,000 a week had the belts been able to take it. We worked seven hour shifts bank to bank, transport all the way to the face rail mounted personnel cars, so very little wasted time.
Clifton was old, nothing more could be done with the shafts to modernize those to high speed skipping. That's why plans were for a drift to carry all coal to a modern washery. BUT, in saying that, we only had an aging power station as a customer. Who would buy our product had we been a million tons a year pit??
Cotgrave was planned around a brand new huge powers station with
a merry go round" train haulage system, although direct conveyor would have been better.
Geological conditions plagued Cotgrave, bad floor lift, heavy weighting in gate roads. First four Deep Soft faces were abandoned due to weight problems. They later concentrated on the Deep Hard seam, attempted to work the Parkgate seam, made up of the two piper seams joining, then finished in the Blackshale Seam. They also had other workable seams they could have fallen back on, but never exploited.
@@yauwohn crikey, you really know alot and more impressive you can remember so much detail and facts from so long ago. There is a huge irony here in the UK, all the so called social reform, workers rights, health and safety ... and in the end it just killed off all the industries. There is a huge myth regards most coal miners ... in many ways it was an easy life and a dream job ... the main dangers were the gate ends and secondly travelling the roadways to and fro, more than few got done in by the long uphill walk when the belt or haulage had broke. But thinking about the 7 1/4 hour shift, snap notes, subsidised canteen, workwear, free coal, all tools provided, showers, free transport ... and alot of snuff breaks listening to the old boy tell us a long story, it sort of had to end ... especially when the weight came on!
@@MakeAllThingsBeautiful We have the same problem here stateside where I live now.
Ask me the names of people I worked with and my minds a blank...LOL
I own and run the "Coal, Collieries and Mining" website tons of details on there from members and myself.
No, was not an easy job, but far easier than it used to be when all coal was handgot, machines only make life easier.
There are coal mines with just one longwall producing 6 million tons per year now, both in the USA and Australia.
Joy manufacturing finally broke the "glass ceiling" and have a ROLF face, just a dream with the NCB in the 60's, it's a plough face but everything done from the M/G end. Next step is a ROLF with a shearer, many problems still.
You might also look into LW top cave in method, where they have an AFC in the goaf behind the shields on very thick seams, no dream, there's one face installed in a NSW colliery in Australia and operating successfully for a couple of years, they get about 80% of the seam in a very thick seam while cutting about 14 feet the normal method.
Amazing research, this coal mine was so fascinating so close to the city and Wilford and the river, i wonder what it was like underground during those floods. You say the pit closed in 1968 though the pic in your film says 'last tub of coal raised from Clifton Colliery 30 Dec 1955', no reason both dates aren't correct though, just thinking about it though seems they knew in 1955 it was the last tub of coal.
Closed 1968, I was transferred to Cotgrave to complete my apprenticeship.
Pit top, the winders, elec workshop fan house and telephone exchange were built on raised ground, 12 feet off the main yard as that was the flood plain. Wouldn't have affected U/G workings