Huncote power (also known as Padiham ‘B’) station was built by the Lancashire Electric Power Company in the 1960’s as a sister for the power station at Padiham (Padiham ‘A’). Proposed in 1957 as a 240MW station and commissioned in 1962 with the first unit at 120MW (there were plans for Padiham ‘C’ - but these never came to fruition).
Padiham ‘A’ closed in 1969.
By 1984 Padiham ‘B’ was generating 15 million MW hours. On the 3rd of March 1993, the last load of coal was delivered and the site ceased generating electricity.
With the power station being situated on Burnley coal field it meant that there was a ready supply of local coal which until 1968 was moved by a railway line to Huncoat colliery.
The cooling towers were pulled down in 1988 and the main buildings were demolished in 1990, apart from this admin building.
The plan is for the site to be transformed into a ‘Waste Technology Park’ but there has been local bid to block this and they were successful.
Further information on the waste technology park is available at the Blackburn Citizen web page.
Oh, the twist to the solo was the ‘new age travellers’ who were ‘borrowing’ metal from the building.
