EDF_West_Burton_book

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KEEPING THE

LIGHTS ON

40 YEARS

KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON | CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION AT WEST BURTON

CELEBRATING

OF ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION AT WEST BURTON

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Designed and produced by to the point, london 020 7378 6999 ref 8528

LARGER THAN LIFE.

Let’s celebrate who we are. Each and every one of us has contributed in one way or another to the West Burton story. This book recalls the people we know and those we wouldn’t ever want to forget. It’s a snapshot of memories and a testament to our well-earned place in the modern world.

big!

This is our West Burton. The place and the people are larger than life. For more than 40 years our special community has been generating power for millions upon millions of homes and businesses. We’ve kept the lights on and the machines running.

PERSONALITIES IN A BIG PLACE

Amazingly, as if by chance, our paths have crossed in the middle of a patchwork landscape on the Nottinghamshire Lincolnshire border. This magnificent industrial edifice which we work in is our forum, our market square, our village green. Those giant cooling towers the backdrop to untold dramas. The mess rooms a stage for endless banter.

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HISTORY

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West Burton is magnificent.

When we began producing electricity in the 1960s this was one of the largest and most modern power stations of its type anywhere in Europe. In fact the technology was so new that the experts bringing the project to life effectively wrote the rule book for 500 megawatt generation.

The birth of the national grid Electricity production began in a haphazard way. The motley collection of small power stations existing in the early 20th century were owned by either private companies or municipalities and tended to supply their local neighbourhood. There was no consistency or co-ordination, and very few stations were inter-connected.

Change came in 1926 when the Central Electricity Board was established.

Its aim was to build a ‘gridiron’ of high voltage transmission lines to link the most efficient stations. Ownership of the stations didn’t change, although the CEB did control output. At first the CEB thought it risky to have too many stations connected in one network and so seven virtually independent systems developed. However, the problem with this was that while the south didn’t have enough power, the north had capacity to spare. In 1938 work began to pull everything together and by 1939 Britain had the largest integrated power system in the world. Despite the grid, power supplies were still unreliable and a massive freeze during the winter of 1946 brought the country to its knees. It was time for a re-think. The following year saw the introduction of the Electricity Act 1947, which led to nationalisation of the power stations and the formation of the British Electricity Authority. The future as we know it had begun.

WHY But what lay behind the need for West Burton? Why was there so much pressure to succeed? To understand that we have to step back to the early 20th century and look at the ramshackle roots of our country’s electricity industry.

WEST BURTON?

Muddled thinking London in the 1920s illustrates the fragmented approach of the early power industry. The city had 50 different electricity supply systems which, between them, had 24 different voltages and 10 different frequencies. The 160 megawatt Deptford station was considered large for the time, but most stations had a capacity of just 5 megawatts or less.

The CEGB When the British Electricity Authority came into being in 1948 the power industry was in a mess. Much of the newly nationalised plant was more than 25 years old with many sets generating less than 8 megawatts. Power cuts were the order of the day.

However, by the mid 1950s a massive amount of new plant had been built to increase generating capacity by two thirds and a new supergrid of 132kV and 275kV line was under construction. The name also changed to the Central Electricity Authority.

In 1958 a new electricity council was set up to co-ordinate policy for the industry as a whole and the CEA evolved into the Central Electricity Generating Board.

In effect, the CEGB’s role was to become the industry’s manufacturer and wholesaler. It was tasked with achieving the most economic generation possible and reliably delivering bulk power supplies to a network of Area Boards for distribution to customers.

West Burton church

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It was in such an environment that ambitious plans were laid for the first 200 megawatt set at High Marnham. This would be bigger than anything anywhere in Europe. Yet, before it could be completed, within three years new orders were placed for eight 500 megawatt sets. So it was then that the concept for West Burton came into being.

TIMELINE No Man’s Friend Back in medieval times the River Trent had two ox bow meanders.

One passed by the old West Burton village and was known as the Burton Round. The other passed by Bole village and was called No Man’s Friend. History has it that when entering No Man’s Friend, a bargee would traditionally throw his cap on to the bank of the river at the bow’s neck. Then, having navigated the bow, he would pick it up again using the boat hook.

1597 William Shakespeare’s play ‘Henry IV, Part I’ mentions the two oxbow lakes at West Burton.

1710 George Green leaves 3 acres of land in Sturton Ings to Charity. The rental is directed towards educating 3 poor children at West Burton.

1750 Sheffield firm of surveyors Fairbanks produce the first known map of West Burton village.

1792 ‘No Mans Friend’: one of two oxbow lakes is broken through by the river Trent at Bole Ferry.

1797 The River Trent breaks its banks and the Ox Bow Lake known as the Burton Round is passed from Lincolnshire to Nottinghamshire at the Village of West Burton. The land quickly becomes an Ozier Holt where willow is grown and harvested.

1896 The West Burton Church of St Helen is pulled down.

1920 After the first world war, Harvest thanksgiving services begin at the West Burton Church Graveyard.

1943 A Stirling bomber from Wigsley in Lincolnshire crashes into the Trent bank at West Burton. The crew all bailed out safely.

1955 On 26 May the Ministry of Defence installed two aviation fuel pipelines to RAF Waddington and Conningsby from the nearby fuel store at Misterton over the West Burton site.

Harvest thanksgiving

THEN AS NOW

Even in the early 1960s there was pressure on us to use contractors.

It was the politicians. They’d go on their jaunts to places like Canada and the United States and have VIP tours of the power stations. That would introduce them to the concept of contracting. They’d come back and start pointing the finger at the CEGB. “Why are you so top heavy in people?” But they never checked the details. Out there the stations were mainly oil or gas fired. They didn’t need so many people because they didn’t have our overheads like the coal, milling and ash plants.

1958 The Central Electricity Generating Board begin looking at sites suitable for a planned 2000MW coal fired power station.

1961 CEGB begin commencement of the civil works for the new 2000MW station under the Northern Project Group, headed up by Project Manager Douglas Derbyshire. Douglas had previously completed the build of High Marnham Power Station.

1965 His Imperial Majesty the Shahandshah of Iran visits West Burton on 6 March at the invitation of the English Electric Company who are keen to sell their steam turbine technology around the world.

1969 West Burton is declared open by the Right Honourable Roy Mason MP Minister of Power.

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Image problems Nationalisation of the power industry in 1948 brought with it an army of cynics determined to oppose the British Electricity Authority’s every move.

Even the name was called to ridicule because the initials clashed with those of British European Airways. “Which carries the most passengers?” was a common remark.

Changing hands By the early 1960s the CEGB was organised into five regions that operated and maintained the power stations, and three project groups which designed and built the stations. West Burton was built by the Northern Project Group and operated by the Midlands Region.

In 1987, the Government announced its decision to privatise the electricity supply industry. The intention was that the existing power stations would be split 70/30 between two new private companies, National Power and Powergen, with National Power incorporating all the nuclear plant. The national grid was to be jointly owned and operated by 12 distribution companies; formerly the Area Boards.

So it was then in 1990 West Burton became part of National Power Ltd. Then, in 1996 it was sold to the Eastern Group, which later became TXU Europe Power Ltd. TXU Europe ran into financial difficulties and in November 2001 West Burton was sold to London Energy (a part of the worldwide EDF group) for £366 million.

In 2003, three UK energy companies – SEEBoard, London Energy and SWEB – were amalgamated to form EDF Energy, which is now one of the UK’s largest energy companies.

A GOOD HEART THE CEGB HAD ITS HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE. ITS PRIORITIES WERE FIRSTLY THE SAFETY OF THE MEN, THEN SAFETY OF THE PLANT, THEN CONTINUITY OF SUPPLY. MINIMISATION OF COST WAS NOT A BIG ISSUE. Sharing the knowledge “The CEGB was very good at spreading knowledge around the organisation. Right back in the early days I attended a course at the training facility in Buxton. All the key figures in the development of West Burton were there. The level of hard core experience in that room was extraordinary. But most of us knew we wouldn’t stay at West Burton for long. Our job was to get the site up and running. When that was achieved we were encouraged to move on to other plants and share our expertise with the next generation of managers and engineers.”

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Setting the standards “I was part of the CEA as a young aspiring engineer and had to deal with the consequences of the BEA’s and CEA’s attempts to build their own power stations.

Problems arose because they hadn’t been very careful when contracting the design work. When we became the CEGB we changed the approach. We commissioned our own stations and laid down standards for everything. In retrospect there was a tendency for us to over-engineer. But you’ve only got to consider how many of our original stations are still running to wonder whether it was really such a bad thing.”

TIMELINE CONTINUED 1972 The last harvest thanksgiving at West Burton Church of St Helen is held on 17 September.

1989 Lord Marshall of Goring (Chairman of the CEGB) gives a presentation on the new West Burton ‘B’ Coal fired power station 2 x 900MW units. The proposal is later shelved by Mrs Thatcher’s Government and the industry is privatised.

West Burton village West Burton was never a particularly big village.

We know from the old church that it existed in Norman times, but the Elizabethan population of around 100 was probably the largest it ever became.

Originally the village stood on the edge of the River Trent. Then in 1797 the river broke its banks and the meander known as the Burton Round was cut off leaving West Burton high and dry. No river meant no trade and the village soon fell into decline. A map dated 1865 shows that the village had disappeared completely except for the church. The church itself was eventually demolished in 1896, although harvest thanksgiving services continued to be held in the graveyard until 1972.

The graveyard still exists today in the corner of the West Burton site. When viewed from the air, it is possible to clearly see the outline of long lost buildings.

1990 West Burton becomes part of the newly privatised company National Power nearby Cottam and High Marnham become part of Powergen.

1993 National Power demolishes the old Low Farm House building after it has fallen into ruin at the edge of West Burton Village. It was originally owned

by George Warburton who is buried in the West Burton Graveyard.

1996 The Advanced Plant Management System (APMS) is installed on unit 2 during the summer outage.

West Burton is sold by National Power to the Eastern Group which later become TXU Europe (Texas Utilities).

1998 Derrick Wells is awarded the OBE for services to the power industry in developing countries.

1999 Project Manticore is assembled in the office next to the canteen. It is headed up by Stuart Reardon with the intention of implementing a new finance and work planning programme called SAP. 2001 London Power Company later to be known as EDF Energy purchase West Burton to join their existing Cottam Power Station portfolio.

2002 Management introduce a site PPE map to reduce the amount of commonly occurring health and safety issues.

2003 A one hundred million pound Flue Gas Desulphurisation project designed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and installed by Danish Company FLS Miljo.

The last harvest thanksgiving

2006 HP Turbine retrofit unit 4.

2007 New SOFA (separated over-fire air) burners are installed by GE Energy to meet new EU Nitrogen Oxide emission levels.

The Low Farm House

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WEST BURTON GEORGE NICHOLSON (1963-1968) DERRICK WELLS OBE (1968-1990) RON TAYLOR (1990-1993) DOCTOR DEREK CHEETHAM (1993-1996) ARTHUR WRIGHT (1996-1999) NICK PLANT (1999-2002) PETER MCGRISKIN (2002-2007) NIGEL BERESFORD (2007-PRESENT)

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A FEW GOOD MEN

STATION MANAGERS

THE APPRENTICE

YOU’RE HIRED! 1968 KEITH ASKEW, MICK COOK, ANDY PAUL 1970 PHIL CARTER, RICHARD BROCKLSBY, STUART FOOTTIT, MICK KETTLEWELL, CHRIS MARSHALL, DAVE SCOTT, TONY SMITHSON, MICK WEGNER 1971 MARTIN WILLIAMS 1972 PAUL BASSETT, CHRIS CHAPPEL, MICK FLYNN (PADDY), GARY KEELING, ROB KENDAL, DAVID NAYLOR, PAUL ‘TIC’ PRIESTLY 1973 GRAHAM HOWITT, DAVE LANE, STUART SAXELBY 1974 PHILIP APPLEYARD, PETE COX, JOHN COOPER, PETER CRESSWELL, PAUL ELLAM, PAUL OTTER, JOHN PETTINGER, IAN SCOTT, LES TWIGGER 1975 KEVIN CHILDS, DAVID DUNN, ANTHONY GARWELL, KEVIN LANE 1976 JERRY BLOOMER, ROBERT DEAN KING, PETER LARGE, IAN RANSBY, DAVID VERNON 1977 DAVE HANCOCK, JOHN HAVERCROFT, ANDREW HUMPHRY, KEVIN SENIOR, KEN ZAITSCHENKO 1978 ANDREW GELSTHORPE 1979 MARK BROOKS, GARY CLAY, ROBERT PICKERSGILL, CRAIG MORLEY, MELVIN RANDALL, ANDREW STIMSON, ROBERT WESTBY, DALE WRIGHT 1980 RICHARD CLARK, EDWARD HALL, ALAN HAMILTON, WILLIAM HUGHES, DAVE PEDDER, NEIL PULLEN, CLINTON ROSE, NIGEL WILLAMS 1981 IAN PRESTON 1983 SHAUN GREGORICK, PAUL HIRD, JOHN KIERNAN, ANDREW SMITH, PAUL THURLOW, SIMON TOMKINSON, MARTIN WALKER, SHAUN WOFINDEN 1988 STEPHEN PERRY, ROBERT SAMPSON, ROBERT STRICKLAND 2005 PAUL FALKINER, LUKE WARNER, STEVE BIDDLE 2008 KIERAN GREEN 2009 JONATHAN SANDERSON We’ve done our very best to ensure that everyone has been included, please accept our apologies if any names have been omitted.

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CONSTRUCTION OF WEST BURTON

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Making history Coal merchant Thomas Benjamin has a special place in the history of West Burton. He recalls a memorable day: “I’d been asked to deliver 10cwt to the old farm house at West Burton, which was the site headquarters for Mertz and McLellan the civil engineers.

I arrived at 8 o’clock on a Monday morning and was met by a chap called George Holmes. He was the general factotum and tea boy at the office. George showed me where to unload the coal and when that was done we stood around for a bit of a chat. Suddenly, out of the office rushed a gentleman in a tin hat clutching a bundle of papers, a big sledge hammer and a piece of pointed wood. “Come with me”, he demanded.

DRIVING

the first peg

Not knowing what was going on we duly followed him to the middle of the field until he said, “Stop here”.

He then gave me the hammer and George the pointed wood and told us to knock it into the ground.

We did as instructed and then the gentleman congratulated us, “You’ve made history,” he said “for that is the starting point of West Burton power station.”

“YOU’VE MADE HISTORY,” HE SAID, “FOR THAT IS THE STARTING POINT OF WEST BURTON POWER STATION.”

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The first measurement Right at the beginning of the construction process, before the first clod was dug, someone had to mark out the land to show where all the buildings and roads would go. And, to do that, they had to establish a single set-out point that indicated the centre line of the complex and against which all other measurements would be taken.

The task fell to Douglas Derbyshire, Chief Project Engineer for the CEGB Northern Project Group, and colleagues from Merz and McLellan civil engineers and Mitchell Construction. The group assembled on a hump-back bridge over the railway that led to West Burton village. A plumb line was dropped over the edge of the bridge down to the tracks and from that intersection the measuring began.

The bridge was later demolished during construction of the site. Ordinance Survey subsequently introduced benchmarks (reference points) at either end of the turbine hall on the corners of row ‘A’ and at the foot of chimney 1 plus the coal plant emergency drainage pump house.

Things are much more sophisticated today. The new CCGT site has been laid out using technology based on an advanced satellite global positioning system.

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A blessing in disguise Bad weather normally plays havoc with building projects. But that wasn’t the case when construction work at West Burton was just beginning in 1962.

The type of thick clay subsoil underlying the site usually becomes unmanageable when wet. In particular, it can cause no end of problems for workers trying to dig foundations and lay drainage systems. However, the winter of ‘62-63 was one of the coldest on record and the clay froze solid. For once, bad weather was turned to an advantage and excavation proceeded without the anticipated winter delays.

1961-69 14

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Home from home West Burton’s rural location meant there was very little accommodation available for the hundreds of workers brought in from all over the country to construct the site.

The solution was to build a special, temporary compound.

The compound was erected adjacent to the then still existing derelict Low Farm buildings and close to where the mediaeval village of West Burton once stood.

More than 1400 workers could be comfortably housed.

There were special cabins allocated for managers and a modern canteen block capable of serving up to 2,000 meals a day.

ON-SITE ENTERTAINMENT WAS IN SHORT SUPPLY THOUGH AND SO THE PUBS, CLUBS AND CINEMAS OF RETFORD, GAINSBOROUGH AND THE LOCAL VILLAGES DID A ROARING TRADE.

WARTIME RELICS THE STIRLING BOMBER! During the early stages of construction in 1963, workmen excavating a trench came across the shattered remnants of a WWII aeroplane. In fear of what might be found, work was immediately stopped and the police and RAF informed.

Fortunately no bombs or bodies were involved. After checking the records it transpired that the plane was a Stirling bomber operating from Wigsley. It had been on a night-time training flight in 1944 when it developed problems and crashed. All the crew baled out and landed safely.

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NOW THERE’S A

QUESTION: Why there?

Have you ever wondered why the gatehouse seems to be at such an odd angle? You’re not alone. But there’s a good explanation.

Scotland Yard started the process by saying we needed the gatehouse at the top of the drive for better security. The trouble was that their favoured location was crossed by an MOD fuel pipeline, two 15” water mains and a 132KV cable. More than that, the land itself was very much lower than the road. Clever thinking came to the rescue.

“We drew up plans for the gatehouse to sit right in the middle of the triangle created by the pipes, mains and cables. Then we used rubble from demolition of the old chimneys as a thick layer of hardcore to raise the ground level. That done, building work commenced.”

The result is a piece of perfect logic, albeit a touch off-centre!

Fancy a dip?

Back in 1993 you might have thought your luck had changed when a new pool was built near the pump house. In for a swim anyone? Not so.

This was us tightening our environmental standards. 42 metres wide, 49 metres long and over two metres deep, the tank was designed to catch oil and slurry from site drainage and stop it fouling the River Trent.

Band of gold As you walk around the site today and look up at the cooling towers you’ll notice one with a distinct goldish yellow band around the top. This is not an accident. It is in fact the remnants of the station’s original award winning design scheme.

Back in the 1960s the sheer size of the West Burton development posed new challenges for the architects and landscape designers. How could they comfortably fit such huge shapes into the gentle countryside of the lower Trent Valley?

The answer at the time was revolutionary. They positioned the towers so that some were always partially obscured by others. One group of four was laid out as a lozenge and the other four in a meandering line. More than that, they also coloured the towers. Two of the towers in the lozenge were constructed in a dark grey concrete to contrast with the light grey of the other two. Similarly, one of the towers in the line formation was finished in a dull yellow to add a different perspective.

The idea behind the scheme was actually quite simple; ‘You can’t hide such an enormous construction, so let’s make it interesting to look at’.

YOU CAN’T HIDE SUCH AN ENORMOUS CONSTRUCTION, SO LET’S MAKE IT INTERESTING TO LOOK AT.

Ring of strength By 1999 the structural stability of the cooling towers was coming under increasing scrutiny. The shell of C1 in particular was starting to show signs of deformation and cracks had appeared. Although the cracks were filled with resin, this didn’t resolve the underlying problem.

In keeping with the traditions of West Burton an innovative solution was employed. Rather than the usual method of applying a completely new concrete skin to the structure it was instead fitted with a series of concrete rings. The process locked the tower into shape and, in doing so, created the distinctive appearance that we still see today.

Feathered friends It was always hoped that ducks would populate the ponds naturally. Nothing happened and after 30 years we still only had a couple of stragglers.

Then, when chatting to a local farm lady, she made a remark about being over-run with the things.

“Not one to miss an opportunity, I spoke to the station manager and he agreed we could buy some in, “But no wing clipping,” he insisted, “they must come and go as they please.” The original floating platform we built for them sank, so we constructed a permanent island. That did the trick.

They love it. We’ve now got about 30 and the number increases every spring.”

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A tense occasion West Burton sealed its place in the history of UK power during a memorable three day commissioning period beginning on August 1st 1967. In the space of 72 hours, unit 1 averaged a then remarkable output of 502.75 megawatts. In doing so it became the first of Britain’s new generation 500 megawatt single shaft sets to achieve full commercial production.

Speaking at the time, Derrick Wells, West Burton Superintendant, said “It was a very good, steady run. Everyone knew what was at stake and the importance of what they were doing. They were determined that unit 1 would be the first set in.

You could sense that everybody was willing it through those 72 hours.”

SHOWPIECE OF BRITISH INNOVATION National pride Even before it opened, West Burton was acclaimed as a showpiece of British innovation; a pioneer of 500 megawatt electricity production. Its engineering, construction and design were symbols of national pride. So much so that through the mid 1960s the site received a regular flow of visitors from all around the world accompanied by politicians and industry dignitaries.

Memorably, the Shah of Iran was entertained with lunch and a guided tour in March 1965. His name and signature have prominence on the very first page of the station’s leather bound visitor’s book.

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The helicopter “My take on opening day is different from most. I was a youngster. Only just started as a plant attendant in Ops. The people from Ferranti came by helicopter and landed on the forecourt in front of the pump house by the river. The boss told me to watch over the helicopter and keep onlookers away. I was there for the whole of my shift and so missed the ceremonies.

It didn’t matter though. I’d never been so close to a machine like that before.”

Award winning design In 1968, West Burton was granted an award by the Civic Trust for its, “Outstanding contribution to the surrounding scene.” The award judgement described West Burton as, “An immense engineering work of great style which, far from detracting from the visual scene, acts as a magnet to the eye from many parts of the Trent Valley and from several miles away.”

WE BUILT WEST BURTON OPEN FOR BUSINESS WEST BURTON WAS OFFICIALLY OPENED ON 25TH APRIL 1969 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROY MASON MP, MINISTER FOR POWER, PERFORMED THE CEREMONIAL DUTY SUPPORTED BY SIR STANLEY BROWN, CEGB, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, ARTHUR HAWKINS, CEGB, REGIONAL DIRECTOR AND DOUGLAS PASK, CEGB, DIRECTOR NORTHERN PROJECTS GROUP.

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CENTRAL ELECTRICITY GENERATING BOARD WEST BURTON POWER STATION - MANNING COURSE ELECTRICITY HALL, BUXTON: 2 - 13 NOVEMBER 1964 BACK ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT) T. HAYES (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), R. W. GRAY (ASSISTANT INSTRUMENT ENGINEER), M. A. FARRER (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), W. WARD (COAL AND ASH HANDLING ENGINEER), D. P. PARRY ASSISTANT OPERATIONS ENGINEER), B. J. VINCENT (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), R. E WALKER (INSTRUMENT MAINTENANCE ENGINEER).

SECOND ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT) T. MARRIOTT (ASSISTANT OPERATIONS ENGINEER), G. H. JORDAN (CHARGE ENGINEER), G. K. DARKE (ASSISTANT OPERATIONS ENGINEER), M. MCHALE (ASSISTANT OPERATIONS ENGINEER), A. R. PERRETT (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), J. L. WALKER (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), H. TURNER (CHARGE ENGINEER), D. P. PHILLIPS (CHARGE ENGINEER), G. S. SMITH (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), P. R. CASSON (CHARGE ENGINEER), T. J. PRICHARD (ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE ENGINEER), A. M. BROWN (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), L. J. CRADDOCK (PLANNING ENGINEER).

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FRONT ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT) S. SUNDERLAND (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), H. E. BLEAZARD (MECHANICAL MAINTENANCE ENGINEER), R. K. DOWLOR (MAINTENANCE SUPERINTENDENT), P. J. CRESSWELL (CHARGE ENGINEER), D. F. KILNER ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER), G. NICHOLSON (STATION SUPERINTENDENT), D. E. WELLS (DEPUTY STATION SUPERINTENDENT), T. RONAN, ASSISTANT TUTOR, ELECTRICITY HALL, BUXTON, J. F. MATHEWS TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT OFFICER), W. J. HARRISON (OPERATIONS, SUPERINTENDENT), F. KIRKBY (ASSISTANT OPERATIONS ENGINEER), P. WALKER (ASSISTANT CHARGE ENGINEER).

WE OPERATED AND MAINTAINED WEST BURTON

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TECHNOLOGY & AUTOMATION

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1960’S

TOUCHY, FEELY In the old days the panels in the control room used to be hard wired. You could feel things activating, there’d be a vibration. Likewise you could see and smell if something had burned out.

There’s none of that with computers. All we get now is a little message on screen.

It’s worse if the screen freezes because then we haven’t a clue what’s going on.

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2000’S

They’re not toys! Oh yes they are When APMS was about to be introduced the technical team was concerned that staff wouldn’t want to work with computers. Their answer was to put a terminal loaded with games in the control room so that people could get used to it. Fancy a game of pong anyone? Contrast that with today and the inevitable ear-bashing for anyone caught playing games in work time.

Getting computerised By the mid 1990s the case for a computerised process management system was compelling. Financially there were the demands of a competitive marketplace, which called for two shifting. Equally, environmental concerns were driving a need for much finer control of the combustion processes.

Dick Wright, who was the site’s control specialist, and Station Manager Nick Plant took the initiative and sourced an APMS best suited to West Burton. By the time it was installed in 1996 each area of plant had been thoroughly tested offline and emergency back-up desks situated in the control room.

The team thought all the angles had been covered.

That is until the screens started going blank, often for hours at a time. Why did this happen? Nick explains with the calm of hindsight: “The cause was contractors trying to save money on software licenses. They set things up so that if the main computer failed it would automatically hand over the licenses to the back-up. But they didn’t check this would actually work. It didn’t, and without the licenses neither system could operate.”

Fortunately the error was spotted and corrected.

The system was soon absorbed into daily life and nowadays it’s hard to imagine running West Burton without it.

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Praise where praise is due “The West Burton plant has been adapted over the years to cope with a completely different set of demands than it was designed for.

You’ve got to remember that West Burton was originally run as base load. But, with more and more big stations coming on stream, supply exceeded demand and we had to start two shifting.

Constant shutting down and starting up wasn’t in the blueprint and it stressed the components.

Our maintenance departments did a great job. They recognised the problems and overhauled, repaired or replaced all those parts that couldn’t take the strain. Rapid vacuum pumps were installed for a quick start-up. Likewise, electrical actuators were fitted to replace all those valves and dampers that previously required manual effort to open and close.

My compliments to the engineers who put West Burton together in the first place. The computers and instruments we’ve added have worn out and been changed many times. But the mechanical bits seem to last forever. They’re still running.

Today our operators regard two shifting as the norm. I don’t think they realise just how much skill and ingenuity has gone in to making that possible.”

1960’S

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It’s a secret When computers were first introduced the managers were told to use passwords to protect the confidentiality of their work. One very senior manager (whose name is best withheld) had the bright idea of using ‘BOSS’ as his password. Of course the code was cracked within minutes and so everyone knew everything that was going on.

How’s that for open management!

Press the red button “‘If the computers fail, press the red button’. That was the instruction given to us when APMS was introduced. But, believe me, pressing the red button was the last thing you wanted to do. That shut everything down. It would cause mayhem. We knew there was a fault with the system and if the screens went blank, well, it was probably just the screens.

At least that’s what we thought. We’d hold our breath, cross our fingers and hope it would come back to life.”

Give it a tap lad “This was the old days. Before computers. There was me with my Sunday evening shift routines doing mill PA diff checks. A needle was sticking so I reported it on the radio. “Give it a tap with a rubber torch,” came the instruction. I did. Though perhaps a touch too hard. The needle moved violently and the mill tripped. Before I knew the team was down on me like a ton of bricks. “I said tap it not . . . . ”, someone screamed in my ear.”

BACK TO THE FUTURE “YOU KNOW WHAT I FIND FASCINATING ABOUT THIS PLACE? THINK OF PARSONS, WHO INVENTED THE STEAM TURBINE IN THE 1880’s.

IF HE CAME BACK HE’D IMMEDIATELY RECOGNISE THE TURBINES WE’RE RUNNING TODAY. THE CONTROLS WOULD BE NEW TO HIM, BUT THE FUNDAMENTAL DESIGN IS STILL MUCH THE SAME AS IT EVER WAS.”

For the workers by the workers The thinking was like a breath of fresh air, ‘This system will have the greatest impact on the workers, so let’s get them involved in its commissioning’.

“The system in question was PR-ISM, a new computerised work control system launched in 1994. Stuart Reardon lead the team and he co-opted Dave Thornsby-Smith for his experience with boilers, Craig Morley from mills and Martin Walker who knew the coal plant and turbines.

With mechanical craftsmen inputting data and introducing updates we knew there was far greater chance of the system being right for the maintenance staff that would use it most often.”

HATS OFF T’ ENGINEERS 2000’S

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A FAMILY AFFAIR

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There have been many family ties throughout the history of West Burton.

The photos below illustrate just one example – brothers Mick and Nigel Beresford next to the original drying out kit their father Wilf bought in 1970 when he was the assistant overhaul project controller (pictured in black and white).

The adjacent photo shows them with today’s more compact version.

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“WITH FGD WE GOT ANOTHER STRING TO OUR BOW AND KNEW WE’D BE OK FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER FIFTEEN YEARS OR SO”

CLEAN UP YOUR ACT 30

A vote of confidence Getting the go ahead for the FGD plant was a massive morale booster for us. This was a hundred million pound investment and it proved that Eastern was committed to our future. In effect it rubber-stamped their confidence in the station and the people who ran it. You see, FGD was a forward looking decision. Without FGD we couldn’t meet the environmental standards and we would’ve had to close. With FGD we got another string to our bow and knew we’d be OK for at least another fifteen years or so.

But that was just one side to it. Besides the job security, FGD also introduced us to a different style of working. While the process is run remotely by our people in the control room, the activities on the ground, the operational and maintenance aspects, are handled by an embedded contractor. We’d had contractors on site before. It wasn’t a new idea. The difference was that with FGD both sets of people became fully integrated.

You can see it now. There’s real teamwork at play.

It’s shown us what can be achieved when you put your mind to accepting change and having a determination to make new things happen.

Guess the location “In the early days we relied on fixed land-lines for communications around the site. For us in maintenance this meant that if you wanted to get hold of someone on the team you’d have to call the operator, guess where your mate might be, and then she’d ring the nearest phone. It was inconvenient in an emergency, but we got by. Today we’ve all got hand-held radio phones, our own walkie talkie system, and they work perfectly. Too well sometimes. Constant bloomin’ interruptions.”

Conflicting signals It’s amazing to think how we ever managed to communicate properly on a site this big before mobile phones. There was the time we first introduced walkie talkie radios. They seemed like a great idea, until we found that the radio signals interfered with the electronics on the cranes and stopped them working.

Stuck in a box “My first job was working the PABX. Honestly, I felt as if I was shut in a coffin. The room was so small and pokey. And the technology is laughable today. When a call came in there’d be a light on the panel and I’d plug the wires in and out of sockets.

They were elastic and when we got busy the whole panel looked like a bit of bad knitting. There weren’t many internal phones either. Managers had their own extensions of course.

But if I wanted to get hold of an engineer or someone like that I’d just ring an area and hope for the best.”

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STAFF & CULTURE (THERE’S NOWT SO QUEER AS FOLK)

04

33

NOT MY FAULT GONE ARE THE TIMES WHEN A TITLE AUTOMATICALLY EARNED RESPECT. NOWADAYS WHAT MATTERS IS BEING GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO. SUCH PROFESSIONALISM HAS SEEN US ADAPT TO CHANGE, EMBRACE NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATE WORKING PRACTICES. BUT THINGS WEREN’T ALWAYS SO GREAT. BY CONTRAST, IT’S INTERESTING TO RECALL AN ANECDOTE FROM THE EARLY YEARS: A MAN WALKING AROUND THE BOILER HOUSE REALISES HE’S LOST. HE SPOTS ANOTHER LEAVING THE LIFT AND ASKS, “EXCUSE ME, CAN YOU HELP? I PROMISED TO MEET SOMEONE HERE HALF AN HOUR AGO, BUT I’M LOST.” THE MAN REPLIES, “YES. YOU’RE ON 131 LEVEL, CENTRE OF THE BOILER HOUSE, BETWEEN UNITS 2 AND 3.”

“YOU MUST BE AN ENGINEER,” SAYS THE LOST MAN. “I AM,” CAME THE REPLY, “BUT HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?” “WELL,” SAYS THE LOST MAN, “WHAT YOU’VE TOLD ME IS TECHNICALLY CORRECT, BUT I’VE NO IDEA WHAT IT MEANS AND I’M STILL LOST.”THE ENGINEER SMILES AND REPLIES, “YOU MUST BE A MANAGER.” “I AM, BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?” “WELL”, SAYS THE ENGINEER, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE OR WHERE YOU’RE GOING. YOU’VE MADE A PROMISE YOU CAN’T KEEP. AND NOW YOU EXPECT ME TO SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM. THE FACT IS YOU’RE IN EXACTLY THE SAME POSITION AS YOU WERE BEFORE WE MET. BUT SOMEHOW IT’S NOW MY FAULT!” THANKFULLY TIMES AND ATTITUDES HAVE MOVED ON!

A time for everything “In the early ‘70s, time and motion was the big thing. We even had a works study department to run it. Time and motion looked at our performance individually. Everything we did got measured and all jobs had a time allocated to them. This saw the introduction of performance related pay and bonus schemes based on productivity. It was good for us because we received big rises and the bonuses were great.

The trouble was that no one kept on top of it. New technology meant we became more efficient, but jobs weren’t re-measured. Some people took advantage and would sit around after finishing their work simply to use up the spare time. The scheme was phased out at the beginning of the ‘80s. After that we returned to proper job management and work levels became much better.”

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CHECK OUT THE

BRAINS ON THIS LOT!

First in line for NVQs With the demise of the CEGB it became clear that in-house qualifications from the electricity supply industry would soon have little meaning in the outside world. West Burton recognised this and, as part of the Investors in People Award scheme, began implementing training programmes that met nationally recognised standards.

At the head of the queue in 1994 were Steve Walker, Steve Lee and Vaughan Boot. These three became the first from West Burton to set off on the NVQ level 3/4 supervisory skills trail. In the same year the station earned a ‘highly commended’ in the national Chief Executive’s training award scheme.

STEVE LEE STEVE WALKER VAUGHAN BOOT

RECRUITMENT

Initiation “It was one of those things you do when someone new starts. This lad wasn’t the brightest spark it’s got to be said. Phil brought some bones from home and put them in the reject box. Another bloke added an old boot and a battered helmet. “Check the box is clear lad, will you!” Across the room another shouted, “Oi, has anyone seen Tony?” The lad looked. He couldn’t handle it. Face white as a ghost he wandered off without saying a word.”

My interview “I’d been working for myself. Repairing people’s cars, doing mechanical odd jobs, stuff like that. A bloke in the pub told me they were recruiting at West Burton and so I applied.

At my interview the manager looked at my application form and straight away started asking about Morris Minors. “What’s wrong if it does so and so, how would you fix it?”

After about fifteen minutes of me telling him what and how to do it he said, “Right, that’s sorted my daughter’s car, now pop off for your medical and you can start next week.

I’ve been here ever since.”

A mixed bunch “To start with lots of the people who came here lived locally. Apart from working on the land there wasn’t much else. We also had quite a few ex Royal Navy.

The thinking was they’d know about steam turbines, but I remember one bloke who was signals and he’d never been in an engine room in his life. Then of course there were the railway people. It was the Beecham era with lines being closed and so we had plenty of ex drivers, stokers and signalmen.

As they said at the time, ‘you can always tell a railwayman, but you can’t tell ‘em much’.”

A better class in Ops Ops was different when it came to recruitment.

The CEGB was engineer driven and so quite a few of the lads came from other stations. Back in the 1960’s West Burton was the future. Everyone wanted to be part of it. The discipline was tight though.

There was a rigid management system and it filtered down through all the levels. Even the supervisors had to be called ‘Mr’.

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The mark of excellence 1995 saw West Burton earn the prestigious Investors In People award for the first time. In doing so it became only the third location throughout National Power to achieve the distinction.

The award followed a lot of hard work by the Personnel and Training departments, which culminated with an in-depth assessment by North Nottinghamshire TEC. Commentating at the time on the success, Station Manager Derek Cheetham said, “The process has been long and demanding. The TEC certainly don’t make the award lightly.

But this isn’t the end of the story. We’ll be reassessed in three years and by then we’ll have to demonstrate we’ve made substantial improvements.”

Three years later we were even better than before.

36

WHERE THE HEART IS You ask anybody and they’ll say their loyalty’s to West Burton. We’ll work just as hard and just as conscientiously no matter whose name is on the door. You see there’s a passion and camaraderie here that runs deep. This is where the heart is.

West Burton’s in our blood.

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West Burton used to be pretty much self-sufficient.

It was the CEGB way. Then came privatisation.

The focus moved from efficiency to profit and contracting entered the equation.

“The early steps were obvious. In around ‘94 we had a partnership arrangement to run the ash plant. That worked OK because ash really wasn’t our business. Not long after we had facilities management to do odd jobs and run the canteen.

It was low key stuff, these were non-core activities and no one minded too much.

A race apart “It wasn’t a good atmosphere when contractors started taking over core functions. They were seen as the enemy. People really did fear for their jobs. It was almost like they were a race apart. There were signs saying ‘no contractors’ to keep them out of our parts of the site. These blokes might have been your best friends, but you didn’t talk to them in work time.”

But towards the end of the ‘90s we started to contract some of the core services. First to go was the coal stock ground. This was uncomfortable because the contractors really weren’t as good as the original staff. It was definitely them and us.

There was tension and a blame culture developed.

It was as if there were two sets of rules.”

THEM US WE

Part of the fabric “‘Bloomin’ Contractors’, they used to say. We got blamed for everything. This was back in the mid ‘90s and our firm had been appointed to handle all sorts of hard and soft services. The problem was communications. People weren’t sure what we were doing, they hadn’t been told, and so there was fear we’d take over their jobs.

People then were stuck in their ways. ‘Our core business is not your core business, and vice versa’, we’d say. But it took a long time to sink in. There was confusion. Blokes would turn up with bits of plant for us to fix. It wasn’t what we were there for.

“I suppose the breakthrough happened six or seven years ago. Contractors and our own fitters started working together in the same workshops. The change was cultural. Almost without realising we switched to a position where our blokes provided the knowledge and the contractors provided the skills. We manage; they do.

Today it’s almost seamless. Having contractors on site, sharing offices and work spaces, we’re a proper team. Many of them operate with ‘life of station’ contracts and so the feeling is ‘we’re in this together’.“

40

Nowadays it’s completely different. I’m still here as a contractor, though with a different firm. We handle all the minor civils like plumbing and small building works. In fact things became so good we started having problems. ‘If you want anything doing, go speak to Pete’. We were a short-cut. And of course that upset the cart because some of the jobs hadn’t been authorised. How was I to know?

It’s settled down now and there’s a good system in place. We report to a technical officer for the contract and only do things when a work order card has been issued. ‘Not a yard without a card’ is what I tell my lads. The relationship is well balanced. West Burton is an institution, and we like to think we’re part of the fabric.”

WEST BURTON IS AN INSTITUTION, AND WE LIKE TO THINK WE’RE PART OF THE FABRIC.

Think first Risk assessment was probably one of the most important practical developments in management at West Burton. It made us think about what we were doing, and about the consequences of doing it properly or not.

Wages day “Preparing the wages started on Wednesday. There were no bank transfers, it was all cash. When the money arrived we’d be locked in a room with two security guards outside the doors. We’d make up each wage packet by hand, more than 700 of them, and woe betide if you got a single penny wrong. The packets were stored in the safe overnight. Then on Thursday we’d help give them out.

They weren’t taken round, instead people would line up in a long queue and we’d hand them through a little window one by one.

Sounds unreal nowadays doesn’t it!”

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LEGENDS & MYTHS

05

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Buzz Webb - Electrical Foreman The unforgettable Buzz Webb! He was one of our original electrical foremen. Who can forget the cry of “come on you lucky lads” to get us going. Or that old fashioned torch he wore on a cord around his neck.

There was one occasion when Buzz and an electrician were on their way to a job. A couple of burly scaffolders squeezed into the lift and Buzz straightaway told them, “The safe number of occupants is being exceeded.” An easy remedy. They grabbed his arms and hoisted him out of the lift back into the boiler house. Later, when he eventually caught up with the electrician, Buzz mustered all the dignity he could find and demanded, “Did you get their names?”

“C’MON

Bad weather Buzz “The thing about Buzz was that he had a reputation for attracting really bad weather on his holidays. We used to ask when he was going just so we could plan our own holiday for a different week. There was one bloke, a mechanical foreman, who’d been having perfect weather in Cornwall. He took an excursion down the coast and it starting pouring with rain. Not to be put off he wrapped up and went for a stroll along the sea front. Who do you think he bumped into – you’ve guessed it!”

Buzz

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must

be her

e!

YOU LUCKY LADS” BUZZ “EVERY TIME I LOOK OUT THE CORNER OF MY OFFICE DAVE I SEE YOU DOING NOTHING.” DAVE “SO DON’T LOOK OUT OF YOUR OFFICE BUZZ.”

Raffle tickets “Do you remember the bloke who used to sell the raffle tickets? I’m not sure what he did, or even if he did anything. He just seemed to be around when the place was being built.

Every couple of weeks he’d turn up selling raffle tickets at a pound a go and there’d be a single prize. Usually it was a great big flashy car, a Cadillac or a Jag. The builders in the compound loved it, we all did. This was the 1960s and so we jumped at the chance of winning something like that.”

Where have all the rabbits gone? Did I hear you say?

Where have all the rabbits gone? Have they gone away?

Have they gone to Scunthorpe or have they gone to Bole?

Have they been on night shift or are they sleeping down their hole?

Have they gone on holiday, lazing in the sun?

No. They met the pigeon man and he shot them with his gun.

The pigeon man The legendary pigeon man used to come in on night shifts to cull pigeons trapped in the boiler house. When admin staff on their lunchtime walk around the grounds noticed a lack of rabbits they immediately assumed the pigeon man had extended his responsibilities.

All for show “Peter Mathews loved his old BMW. It was immaculate. Everything else took second place if something had to be done for the car. “Come on Ken,” he said to me one day, “I need new wiper blades, let’s go to the garage”. “Why not,” I thought, “it’s better than working.” But, you know what, this guy was a principal engineer and yet he drove virtually all the way there and back in third gear. “Is there a problem with the box?” I asked. “No lad, it just sounds best in third!”

Fair exchange?

“Security was never a strong point in the early days. During the outages all kinds of things used to go walkabout. There was one bloke, an Italian, not sure if he was one of ours or not. He’d hold out a bag of sweets and ask, “Got any bolts you don’t want?” That was the deal. You’d take a couple of sweets and he’d stuff his pockets with any old bits and pieces of scrap lying around. Why? Who knows! But he turned up every year so there must have been something in it for him.”

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BUBBLES, CLINGER, MAD DOG, BAT MAN, SPUD HEAD, SHODDY, HOLLY BUSH, FRUIT, SHAG, ANIMAL, FINGERS, CHOPPER, ZIPPY, WOOF, STUMPY, EMMA, CHICKEN, EGG, SAUSAGE JOCKEY, SMELLY, MUPPET, MOTHER, BOXES, CHUCKLE BROTHERS, TEA POT, BALD EAGLE, SINEX, ROCKET RON, BLACK ADDER, TWO HEADS, LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, FATHER CHRISTMAS, CHEYENNE, COACH EAST, BLACKNESS, YORKIE, MOVIN, TRACEY LEGS, SWAMPY, MUM, THE OLDMAN, LISTERS, WEETABIX, BREADMAN, ALE CART, BASHER, GIANT HAYSTACK, SARGENT BILKO, DIP DAZZLE, PLUSSY GASSEE, PORKY, KNOBBY,

TOP CAT, SELWYN, CHALKY, BLACK CLOUD, PRINCE CHARLES, FAT CONTROLLER, SCORCH, BOOM BANG-A-BANG, CURLY, POISONED DWARF, SLASHER, FIFO, GLADYS, CAPTAIN CHAOS, LEVER BROTHERS, FUB, CAPTAIN KIRK, SPIKE, BLACK MAC, CABLE TRAY, PERVERT, BERO, LOVELACE, GRUMP, IRON HORSE, GRAVEL GOB, LIVERSLUDGE, MOANVIN, BUTCH, PERCY, BUD, SELWYN, MAGPIE MICK, BALD EAGLE, PIGGY, BATMAN, LORD HAVERCROFT, STOCKINGS, BLACK CLOUD, YORKIE PUD, ALI BONGO, LA LA, HARRY (P), OTTER, UNCLE FESTER, LADY, MOGGY, JUDY, DIDDY, PUGH PUGH BARNEY MAGOO, MARDY WARDY, SERGEANT SLAUGHTER, DABBERS, ROO, DIZZY, TEA POT, CHOPPER, BLACKNESS, BLACK MAC, BENNY, SWEETIE WHEATIE, SLASHER, NIC NIC & SKEGGY, BOBBLE, ANORAK, BRIGGER, TRIG

46

“ WHAT’S YOUR AMBITION IN LIFE SON?” “ TO GET A BRAND NEW BLACK FORD CAPRI.”

Dream on Dave Naylor. Now there’s a lad and a half. A top bloke.

Could fix anything. But do you remember that old Mini of his? He’d hand painted it to cover the rust. The exhaust was broke and you had to leave the windows open ‘cos fumes came in through a hole in the floor. No ignition. You had to hard wire it to get the thing started.

He was off to Burton on Trent once for training and got pulled. The brake lights weren’t working. Somehow he talked his way out of a ticket. But the officer asked him, “What’s your ambition in life son?” “To get a brand new black Ford Capri,” came the reply. He did an’ all. After leaving West Burton he made an absolute mint running his own business.

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“GET THOSE POODLES OUT OF MY WAY.”

Poodles Roger Grey didn’t like it when things got in the way of efficiency.

Not surprisingly, he went ballistic when “a bunch of stuck-up toffs on horses” interrupted work on the coal plant. It was the Grove and Rufford hunt and they were chasing a fox through the site.

“Excuse me,” he said, standing threateningly in front of the riders, “I’ve got a ninety million pound power plant to run. Get those poodles out of my way.”

The hunt chased a fox down the road onto site and it jumped into the cooling tower pond to try to get away from the hounds. The fox was fished out of the pond and taken into the stores to recover it was exhausted. The security staff stopped the hunt coming on to the site to chase the fox. When the fox had recovered it was taken down to the coal plant and released to find its way home.

Wind-up merchant Dan Caunt loved to wind-up the bloke in the pub. He’d get a round of drinks and then offer to pay by credit card. OK today, but believe me it was well out of order back then. He turned up once with a home-made arrow stuck through that old deerstalker of his. “Give us a pint landlord,” he shouted, “I’ve a splitting headache.”

Some of the jokes were a bit close to the mark though.

He’d wade through the boxes of rags brought in for cleaning until he found something wearable. Then he’d put them on at shower time. The one that sticks to mind is him in a baby doll nightie, his work boots, and nothing else. Not a pretty sight!

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The original caveman Barry Barker had country blood. He’d walk to work and on the way stop to scrape up road kill or pick mushrooms. Likewise he’d collect fish or eels found on the band screen. Then he’d cook the stuff during shift. His favourite, much to our disgust, was tripe.

None of us ever accepted his offer for a taste.

That old cast iron stomach of his stood him in good stead one day when he was left to open the bar in preparation for a darts match.

True to form he was well into the beer by the time we arrived. “Hey lads, we’ve got a good brew tonight,” he said holding up a pint to the light. “It looks a bit watery mate,” replied one of the team, “are you sure you flushed the cleaning fluid?” “What cleaning fluid?” said Barry.

The longest run “No matter what the blokes at Ratcliffe say, it’s our record. We ran unit 4 for the best part of nine months. It didn’t stop rotating once.

The difference is that we played by the rules.

We did things properly like the statutory overspeed protection on the turbine.

They didn’t do this and so kept going longer.

We’d have got them anyway if it wasn’t for a bloomin’ tube leak. We were one day short of their make-believe record, but just couldn’t pump in any more water. We had to stop.”

Barry the bruiser “I used to play football with Barry Barker. He wasn’t the most skillful bloke on the pitch by a long way. Bit of a monster to be honest.

Good for the team though.

No one ever tried to get past him more than once.”

“HORRIDGE! OFFICE! NOW!” Colin Horridge - Site Postman “I’ve lost count of the times that instruction bellowed down the corridor.

You see Colin always knew what was going on around the station. But, he liked a gossip and so everyone else also got to know what he knew. Steve McKiernan, his boss, couldn’t handle it. “A confidence is a confidence,” was his approach. One minute you’d hear Colin’s merry whistling, the next it would stop dead with a blast of “Horridge – Office – Now”.

Colin Horridge was the site postman. Everyone knew and liked him. Equally, everyone at some time or other was collared by his, “Hey, have you heard the one about . . . “ opening gambit. Emails and facilities management put an end to the job and he took early retirement. I know we don’t need postmen nowadays, but Colin was the best morale booster this place ever had.”

Bricking it Colin was a smashing bloke, although it has to be said he was a touch gullible. One day the lads in engineering gave him a parcel to take to the coal plant. Next day the same parcel went from coal to the control room. They sent it to admin.

In fact it went to just about every room on site. It was only when the wrapping finally tore that Colin realised he’d been duped into hoicking a brick around the place.

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HERE COME THE

GIRLS 51

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UNIONS

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You’ve got to belong Unions ruled the roost back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. Not just in electricity production, but in all areas of industry. At West Burton it was a closed shop. There was the NJB for managers and engineers, and the NJIC for industrial and other grades. You had to belong. No ifs or buts.

What caused the problem though was the lack of flexibility. Everyone had their own trade and you weren’t allowed to cross into another. If you were a painter you painted, but if you needed the wood screwing down before you started painting then you had to call a carpenter. Demarcation they called it.

Everyone to their own basically. £1.10 allowance We thought it a perfectly reasonable request.

‘The station is in the middle of nowhere and we’d like an allowance for all the travelling we do to get here’. Management wouldn’t listen. We wouldn’t withdraw. So an unofficial work to rule began.

NJB, NJIC,CEGB “It wasn’t ‘till privatisation that things really started to change. By then the unions were a weakened force and there was general realisation that multi-skilling was the way forward. Our unions didn’t object and to be honest we saw it as a way of opening up career opportunities. Working culture had moved on and the station ran better for it.”

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“After three days the management stepped in and asked if we’d go back to working normally. But by then the management attitude had really got under our skin. We dug our heels in and said no. That was it.

They locked us out. It was the principle we were standing up for.

A week later a compromise was reached.

There was a meeting in the club house and we agreed to return. Equally, management offered us £1.10 allowance. That was 1977.

The allowance hasn’t been increased since, but those of us still here continue to get it.”

ROCK HARD

CAUGHT BETWEEN

Picketing the pickets Striking miners outside the West Burton entrance had their thunder stolen when a group of women turned up to picket the pickets. The leader of the women, Mrs Mell of Beckingham, explained their actions to a local newspaper at the time: “There will be no violence and we will not even talk to the miners. We have formed this silent group because we cannot see why people should be stopped from working. We have come here – all of us really very frightened – because we feel strongly that a man should be allowed to work, and that the whole community should not be held to ransom. The women, as usual, will have to foot the bill as a result of this dreadful chaos. We all hate anarchy.”

PLACE

The Miners’ strike “The miners’ strike of ‘84 put us in an awkward position. Arthur Scargill was up in arms threatening to bring down the government unless it stopped the NCB’s plan to shut pits. Margaret Thatcher wasn’t having any of it. She wouldn’t capitulate. The miners wanted our support because they thought power cuts would turn the tide in their favour.

The other side of the coin was that the Nottinghamshire miners stood against the strike and carried on working. Our loyalties lay close to home and so we continued working as well. It was uncomfortable. One union against another. We were compromised and had friends in all camps.

Opportunity?

In the early days your career was stuck in a rut.

What career? There just weren’t the opportunities.

On the one hand you’d got the CEGB, and they wouldn’t train people into new areas. On the other were the unions, if you were NJIC there was no way you could apply for a NJAB position. It was hopeless.

Nowadays it’s down to ability and application.

Today, if you start as a kid sweeping floors, if you’ve got what it takes, you can go all the way to station manager.

There were protests at the gates and stuff was thrown at our cars as we came and went. But we kept going. The pickets didn’t really try too hard because they could see from the fences that we’d got good stocks of coal. What they didn’t know was that we were desperately short of supplies. We’d hollowed the middle of the coal piles so they were actually more like doughnuts than mountains.

The strike went on for a year before the miners finally called it off.

It wasn’t a happy period and none of us took pride in the result.

The best to be said is that we survived.”

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PRIVATISATION

Timely advice Privatisation was in the air and I took myself off to an unofficial union meeting in Worksop. It was a low key affair and not many attended even though the Shadow Energy Secretary was guest speaker. That speaker was a young Tony Blair. He presented himself brilliantly and explained what was going on with remarkable clarity. Towards the end, when the floor was open for questions, someone asked about the inducements being offered. He hesitated, classic Tony Blair style, and then replied, “Look, my advice is to grab what you can.

We can’t stop it.”

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“LOOK, MY ADVICE IS TO GRAB WHAT YOU CAN. WE CAN’T STOP IT.”

Good money was made Lots of blokes did very well out of privatisation. When it happened the lower, non core, grades were done away with.

The severance pay offered was generous and people jumped at the opportunity. The jobs still existed though. The work had to be done. So, before you knew it, many of those same blokes were back on site as contractors doing pretty much the same as they’d done before. But this time they had a big fat bank balance to sit on.

Privatisation rewards “I’m an ordinary working bloke and knew nothing about shares and things like that. But I do know an opportunity when I see one.”

That opportunity was the share save scheme offered to us at privatisation. It allowed us to invest up to £250 a month for five years buying shares at less than float price. At the end of the time we could sell the shares for their new market price or, if the shares had fallen, cash our investment like a regular savings scheme with a good interest rate. “Whatever happened, whichever way I looked at, I reckoned this was a winner. I went for it”. Those who did take the plunge certainly came out on top. The share price rocketed. “It cleared my mortgage,” was one happy result. “It paid for my divorce,” was another.

WHAT NOW? THE OLD THEM AND US MILITANCY HAS GONE. ALTHOUGH MEETINGS ARE NOW LESS FORMAL, BOTH SIDES ARE IN NO DOUBT OF EACH OTHERS ASPIRATIONS. WE STILL WANT THE BEST FOR OUR MEMBERS BUT IF MANAGEMENT CONVINCE US OF A REAL BUSINESS NEED FOR CHANGE, THEN, (WITH A FEW COMPROMISES) WE WILL SUPPORT THEIR ACTIONS. I BELIEVE WE ALL REALISE THAT WE ARE NOW GOVERNED BY THE ‘BOTTOM LINE’ DRIVE OF A PRIVATISED INDUSTRY.

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HOW’D WE GET AWAY WITH THAT!

07

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Off side?

“At Christmas we used to clear out the old mill workshop and give it a good clean. Then, after the work Christmas lunch, we’d have our own bit of a party. Remember, this was when no one minded if we had the odd drink or two during and after the meal.

Too hot to handle “I’d just fixed the mother-in-law’s kettle as a favour.

No sooner was it turned on for a test when I got called away. Next thing I heard was this almighty BEEP, BEEP, BEEP of a smoke detector. The kettle had boiled dry. It’d overheated and blistered the worktop paint. The place was filled with smoke and fumes. I panicked and threw the red hot kettle into a skip. The skip though was loaded with card and there was a real risk of fire. That put me in even more of a state. I was just about to lose the evidence when the boss arrived. Nerves shattered, in fear of my job, I couldn’t find an excuse. The truth came out. “Is it one of ours?” was all he asked. “No”, I replied meekly. “That’s good,” he said, “no paperwork; we can get away with it.”

Anyway, the workshop became the venue for the shift versus shift football match. It was always one of those ‘anything goes, no holds barred’ types of game. The tradition continued until one year the ball shot clean through the foreman’s office window. Unluckily for us he was sitting at his desk at the time. He went berserk, ranting and raving.

That was the end of it, no more football after that.”

Nothing to cry about “Clean up days aren’t new. But, being mill men, we used to do things differently. Fire hoses were our favourites. We’d set them up to pressure-clean the outside walls and anything else within reach. It was real fun. The roller shutter door was a problem though because water sprayed into the workshop.

A cunning plan was devised. Out came a ladder and a youngster was collared. “Up you go lad, you can do this by hand”. Everything went well and we carried on talking among ourselves until there was an almighty crash followed by an agonised scream. The ladder had slipped and the lad was laid under it. “That arm of yours is all bent”, someone said amid the laughter. It was broken, but not too seriously.”

ONE THOUSAND AND TWENTY TIMES I WOUND THAT BLOOMIN’ THING! If only I’d known “I was a youngster at the time. Still wet behind the ears.

The door on the reject box wouldn’t work from the local button.

“Nothing for it lad, you’ll have to do it by hand. Just wind that handle ‘till it opens”. So I did. One thousand and twenty times I wound that bloomin’ thing. Nearly there. Arms falling out of their sockets. A maintenance bloke walked by. “What’s the game son, that looks hard work?” I explained. He smiled.

“Give us your biro”. He took the pen and pressed it down on the contactor. The electrics sprang to life and the button worked again. “That’s the trick,” he said.”

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YELLOW PERIL One of the blokes in the mill team had an old Renault. It was pretty rough, but then we were all bringing up families at the time and so none of us had money to spare.

After dinner the car was smuggled into a back store room and set upon. Anything detachable was off in a flash. The whole vehicle was sanded down and then painted with ‘hand rail yellow paint’. Obviously it was still wet at home time and there were a few confused looks from the gate house as the red faced fitter tried to sneak out a car covered in greenfly! It was a trend setter, and soon all cars came with colour coded bumpers, mirrors and grill. It was certainly the brightest car in the car park and the body was still going strong when the engine finally packed up!!

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THE DAY WE COULD’VE GONE UP IN

SMOKE!

Lucky escape I don’t know who was responsible, but somehow someone managed to spin the mill with the reject doors open. As you can imagine, the place was instantly filled with a dense black cloud. To my horror, right in the middle of it, I saw a bloke pull out his pipe and light it. I froze.

To this day I still don’t know why there wasn’t an almighty explosion.

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DODGY HAIRCUTS, CHRISTMAS JUMPERS & KNOBBLY KNEES 67

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SAFETY & SECURITY

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Which way’s up?

E shift was called on to provide fire cover when a train derailed.

They knew the procedure and set about rolling the lengths of hose from the boiler house to the coal plant. Not a difficult task you would think. The last length was ready to be connected when the penny dropped – they’d run all the hoses out the wrong way round! It was a mix of embarrassment from the team and hard to conceal mirth from members of the real fire brigade who were there to observe.

NO POINTS FOR ENTHUSIASM 70

“Back in 1993, West Burton’s first aiders made it to the final of the prestigious Lincoln League team event. We were on top form and had high hopes of winning.

It was an accident scenario and our role was to treat all the ‘casualties’. Full of enthusiasm, one of the team spotted a bemused elderly gentleman wandering around. Grasping the mettle, the gentleman was encouraged to lie down and then he was given a complete once-over to check for injuries. Clearly irritated at being pushed and prodded, the gentleman stared our chap in the eyes and said, “You do realise that I’m the judge?”

Needless to say, we didn’t get an award that year.”

WHEN YOU COMMENCE YOUR DUTIES AT THIS STATION YOU WILL BE PROVIDED WITH TWO OVERALLS AND TWO HAND TOWELS ON LOAN. EACH YEAR YOU CAN EXCHANGE ONE SUIT OF OVERALLS AND TWO HAND TOWELS FOR NEW ONES, IF THE OLD ONES ARE WORN OUT. ON THE TERMINATION OF YOUR EMPLOYMENT THE LATEST TWO ISSUES OF OVERALLS AND TOWELS MUST BE RETURNED TO THE STORES. FAILURE TO DO THIS WILL RESULT IN THE VALUE OF THE ARTICLES BEING DEDUCTED FROM YOUR WAGES. WEST BURTON POWER STATION STAFF HANDBOOK 1960s

SAFETY RECORDS! What price safety?

It’s astonishing, but in the early days people simply didn’t wear PPE. Even when it began to appear on the scene, the individual was left to buy their own.

West Burton was slightly better than the average employer because staff were given special PPE tokens. A PPE retailer was invited to park its van on site and people could choose what they wanted and use the tokens to pay for it. But, if the cost was more than the value of the tokens, the individual had to pay the difference out of their own pocket.

Banana drama “Everyone got a real shock when they turned up for work one autumn morning in 1997. Five foot high giant bananas had sprouted in the corridors. Pirates lurked in the alcoves. Parrots hovered menacingly from the beams. Was this a new take on West Burton being a funny farm? No. Things were much more serious than that.

The displays were all part of a campaign to raise awareness to safety issues around the site. It was fantastically successful and the team received nearly 1,300 responses that led to more than 450 safety defects being fixed.”

Safety wins gold 1994 was a great year for safety at West Burton. The station passed the magical 500 days mark for no Lost Time Accidents.

Up until then the previous all time industry best was only 275 days. In recognition of the 500 day achievement and continuing safety improvements, RoSPA presented West Burton with its prestigious annual Gold Occupational Safety award.

Remember to duck It was the middle of the night, the alarm sounded and the fire team sprang into action. No one had said anything about a drill. This was the real thing. Adrenalin pumping, full of nervous energy, they jumped into the fire engine then – nothing.

The motor wouldn’t start. Up went the bonnet, lots of fiddling, no, it was dead.

More fiddling. Finally it burst into life.

Bonnet down, pistons screaming, clouds of exhaust smoke, they roared out of the garage. CRASH!!!! They hadn’t thought to lower the pole with the flashing light.

Broken glass everywhere. Red faces all round. Back to the training room lads.

Fortunately it was a false alarm.

Times changed. By the ‘90s operational staff were being issued with basic PPE. Then in 2002 the whole site was mapped in terms of personal injury risk and no one was allowed into the high risk areas unless they were wearing the proper, company supplied, safety equipment.

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Then Scotland Yard took an interest and sent a team up here to advise us. ‘Victorian wages, principles and methods’ they said. It was hard to argue.

Fortunately things didn’t stop there. They worked with the station management to prepare a long term plan and we’ve been steadily improving ever since.

Our little old plastic hut with no water or toilet has gone. Now we’ve got a modern gatehouse.

There’s CCTV throughout the site, new perimeter fencing and the late shift wears night vision glasses. Check-in procedures are computerised and everyone gets a Tensor card. We’ve even got decent vehicles; a Ford Ranger and a Peugeot van.

G4 has the contract now and we meet every month with the station’s security managers. We’re organised. There’s more security staff, good quality people and the training is a hundred times better.

West Burton is always going to be a target for thieves and activists. But at least today we’re in a position to deal with things properly.”

SECURITY

Two blokes and a battered Suzuki “Back in the ‘90s, security at West Burton was very low key. It was run by a local firm. They paid peanuts and employed – well, you know the phrase.

The set-up was basically two blokes with a battered Suzuki Rhino. At night there’d be one of us in the gatehouse and the other on patrol. Sometimes we’d have two break-ins a week. Anything not nailed down was at risk.

A PLASTIC HUT, WATER AND

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Mayhem at the gatehouse At first there were just five lonely people standing on the edge of the road protesting in support of the 2008 oil refinery dispute.

Security Supervisor Phil Nicholas kept a watchful eye, but it seemed calm enough.

Then, without warning, the situation escalated: “Within a couple of hours the group of five had turned into more than 300.

Protestors were everywhere. They blocked the road targeting contract workers on the CCGT site. It was getting out of hand so we asked Cottam for assistance. The police eventually shut the road, but we were stretched to the limit. No one had a moment’s peace until the crowd dispersed later that evening.

“WHAT DO I HIT THEM WITH SIR?” “WHOA, HOLD ON THERE,” I THOUGHT, “THAT’S NOT HOW WE DO THINGS ROUND HERE.” I had to admire the lad though. An ex army Ghurkha, shoulders back, standing to attention. A perpetual smile, yet that steely look in his eyes. Thankfully, he’s on our side.

From time to time we draft in teams of Ghurkhas to boost security when the authorities warn us of a possible threat. They love to be out there at night patrolling the grounds. That’s when they’re in their element. But I like the deterrent approach. Having Ghurkhas checking IDs is a sight to behold. No one ever argues.

Next day only three people turned up and we thought normality had returned.

That is until the call came through from Cottam. The crowd had changed location and we had to dash over there to help our colleagues. It was two days of absolute mayhem”.

WITH NO NO TOILET Community support “When we started patrolling the tracks and roads around the perimeter it was to improve security for the station. But, as the weeks rolled on, we kept noticing a constant stream of cars visiting a certain flat in Bole. Suspicions aroused, we told our mates in the constabulary. “Well spotted”, they said. “We’ll take over from here. Let’s see what’s happening”. A few weeks later there was a big raid. Flashing lights. Sirens. The whole business.

Apparently it was a drug dealer, and we helped put him away.”

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HARD HATS, GOGGLES & BOOTS

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DISASTERS & EVENTS

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Timely advice All it took was one man and his hammer to bring the station to its knees. The day was 24th April 2001 and the time 9.35 in the morning. Bill Pettit, a regular contractor, had been assigned to remove fire barrier cement from between sub-basement floors in preparation for laying a new cable. A simple task. But Bill forgot that beneath the cement lay an existing, live, 11 KV cable. With one sturdy blow, Bill drove his chisel straight into the live cable. No one knows how he escaped with nothing worse than a burned hand. The side effect though was that he started a chain of events that nearly closed the whole station.

Damage to the cable instantly tripped station board 2, which supplies half the auxiliaries, the precipitators, the sulphur trioxide injection system and the instrument air compressors.

Chimney emissions to air rose dramatically and without air pressure the instruments began to falter. After little more than 30 minutes, units 2, 3 and 4 were shut down. Unit 1 just managed to stay available on half load.

Isolation and re-energising the tripped boards, clearing the mill tables and purging the furnaces took five hours. Unit 2 returned to service in mid-afternoon and unit 4 in early evening. Unfortunately, unit 3 had to stay off because it sustained a tube leak.

Solid team work prevented any serious plant damage. As for Bill, well it was pure luck that he survived to tell the tale!

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WITH ONE STURDY BLOW, BILL DROVE HIS CHISEL STRAIGHT INTO THE LIVE CABLE

BILL PETTIT AND HIS CHISEL CAUSED HAVOC. WITH PRODUCTION IN TURMOIL, ONE OF THE GUYS IN THE CONTROL ROOM HAD THE TEMERITY TO ASK STUART MENZIES, “SHALL I RING THE GRID AND LET THEM KNOW WE’VE GOT PROBLEMS?” THE RESPONSE WAS INSTANTANEOUS, “YOU’LL DO NO SUCH THING LAD, I’LL DECIDE WHEN WE’VE GOT A #%£!&$ PROBLEM.”

“DO YOU KNOW YOUR CHIMNEY’S WOBBLING?” Chimney wobble “It was a contractor on the phone. There was an air of disbelief. We needed to check it though and, sure enough, we had a real problem.

This was 2003 when construction had finished on the new FGD chimney 2, but the old chimney 2 hadn’t yet been demolished. There was a gale blowing and wind was bouncing off both chimneys to create a vortex between them. As a result, the old chimney was being pulled all over the place. We measured movement of up to 1.2 metres at the top.

Stuart Menzies took control. If that thing had fallen we would’ve had a disaster to deal with. All except the essential production people were evacuated and the units were shut down in an orderly manner. The emergency services were called and they set up a command centre with police, fire and ambulance on stand-by. At the same time a working party was assembled to gauge the potential effects of how and where the chimney might collapse.

Our chief engineer ran a whole load of calculations and assured us the chimney could take the strain. But it was still a major concern and, even though the winds eventually dropped, people weren’t allowed back the following day.

After the event we brought forward demolition of the old chimney to eliminate further risk. The unsung hero that day was young Sarah on reception. She stayed at her desk through it all and calmly dealt with the barrage of calls we were receiving.”

Missing without trace On the day of the chimney wobble everyone except essential staff was evacuated. Security had a problem though. Two contractors couldn’t be accounted for. Already stretched to the limit with media and onlookers, the team double checked their records and went in search of the missing people. After two hours of frantic activity and worry they received a call, “Oi mate, I hear you’ve got something going on up there. Look, me and my lad slipped away early. I didn’t think to tell anyone.

Hope it’s alright.” Guess the response!

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Q. A. 82

A 70 TONNE BULLDOZER IS STUCK. WHAT DO YOU DO? GET A 55 TONNER TO DIG IT OUT OF COURSE. DOH!

PUTTING BRAIN INTO GEAR WE DUG DRAINAGE TRENCHES AND SET UP PUMPS TO CLEAR THE WATER.

One thing after another “It was winter 2008 and there was pressure to reduce the coal stock levels. No problem. We’d got the equipment and the people. Things were going fine until our 70 tonne bulldozer sank up to its engine bay.

Why? Well the driver didn’t stop to ask. He simply got our next biggest bulldozer, the 55 tonner, and tried to dig the first one out. Guess what, that sank as well. Tension was mounting so we brought in a CAT coal scrapper.

But it just wasn’t our day; that also sank. We had a problem! With only two scrapers left we played safe and used them in a completely different location to coal the station.”

“Why was this happening? We reckoned it was a combination of poor quality coal and underground springs.

Putting brain into gear we dug drainage trenches and set up pumps to clear the water. That did the trick. It took a couple more days of solid work, but eventually we got the bulldozers and the scrapper out of the mess. With those machines costing around half a million each you can imagine our nerves were stretched to the limit.”

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That wasn’t supposed to happen!

“The noise could be heard all over the site.

People stopped work to see what was going on. The evidence was clear. Great chunks of cladding were missing from the bunker house walls.

It all started with efforts to dislodge wet coal stuck in the lower end of 4E bunker.

The head of maintenance had recently joined from another station and he had experience of clearing blockages with explosives. This time though, the wrong type of fuse detonator was used. What should of been a small controlled charge turned into a massive blast that blew the walls out. “That wasn’t supposed to happen”, was all he was heard to say!

Fortunately there were no injuries and the damage was mainly superficial.”

The end of the world?

The bunker house explosion caused large sheets of cladding to fall about 60 feet and wrap themselves around a contractors’ cabin below. Luckily, the cabin was empty except for one man. “First the bang, then everything rattled and shook. I jumped out of my skin. The whole place went dark. This is it, I thought, my time has come.”

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Water, water everywhere “We’d take around 12 million gallons of water a day from the Trent for cooling. Back in ‘72 there were nine really powerful pumps managing the water system. But one of those pumps failed. That put stress on the rest of them. Another went. Then another. It was a domino effect. Before we knew it the sub-basement was filling with water. The level rose over the cable trays and we’d no choice but to shut the station.

While maintenance worked like madmen to get the pumps going again the fire brigade was called to help. Trouble was, no one thought to explain the drainage plan to them. As they were pumping out the basement, the removed water was being dumped onto the road where it ran down the plant drains. These of course fed into the cooling towers, which was where the water flooding the sub-basement was coming from. Chasing their own tails was a phrase that came to mind.

We got it right in the end though.”

Bug off “According to the media the millennium bug was going to be a major catastrophe. Anything with a computer was going to crash on the stroke of 2000.

Nonsense of course. So I agreed to an interview with the BBC’s Emma Simpson to put the record straight.

Emma and her crew spent five hours filming everything that moved and trying to get me to justify her doomsday vision. I showed her that all the systems had been tested exhaustively. We even let them film a ‘roll-over’ where the time and date on one unit was advanced through the New Year to prove its reliability.

Unfortunately my reassurance was a newsroom damp squid. Unknown to me they filmed an extra piece outside the station boundaries. When the article was aired the theme was ‘. . . they could not give us an absolute assurance that this large power station will continue to produce power after the millennium. The whole power system could fail catastrophically, leaving the country devastated’.

At midnight 1999/2000 I was in the control room along with Stuart Menzies, Julian Ford and a full shift team. We were co-ordinating the contingency plans for the whole power division. You know what?

Nothing happened at all!”

Nick Plant

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OPEN DAYS & SPORTS

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Best ever You should’ve been here in ’98. That summer we held probably the best ever open day. More than 8,000 visitors flowed through the gates to join the celebrations.

Friday’s VIP event ran without a hitch, so lots of corporate brownie points for us and the site as a whole. This was followed by a tremendous family evening attended by around 600 staff and their guests. The night ended with a firework display that’s still talked of as being the most spectacular ever seen locally.

On Saturday the crowds flocked in. It was a beautiful day and the mix of fun, tours and displays hit exactly the right note.

Minstrels wandered around singing. There was a ventriloquist that absolutely wowed the kids. Plus we had a group of Custard Clowns who raised a smile from all and sundry.

Brilliant! Lots of hard work to get everything ready, but well worth the effort.

“WOW” THE NIGHT ENDED WITH A FIREWORK DISPLAY THAT’S STILL TALKED OF AS BEING THE MOST SPECTACULAR EVER SEEN LOCALLY.

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“Even though it was an open day, the units were still running and so everyone who wanted the royal tour had to wear PPE. We were incredibly busy handing out ear plugs, safety glasses, caps and helmets. The kids loved it. They had to be fitted individually and you could see they felt so proud and important being dressed up like that.”

Giant jellyfish “Me and the lads were working. We set up the cooling tower platforms, made safe the royal tour and did all kinds of general stuff like that. The big memory though was when a marquee tried to escape. While we were taking a break on the boiler house roof we saw the marquee company setting up one of their tents in the road below. A gust of wind got inside the tent and blew it up like a giant jellyfish. Then the moorings broke loose and this lookalike sea monster went floating down the road with half a dozen blokes chasing after it trying to grab the ropes. It was like a silent movie. Pure Charlie Chaplin.”

WE MADE A BIG EFFORT TO HELP DISABLED VISITORS. I WAS WITH A GENTLEMAN IN A WHEELCHAIR AND WE EVEN MANAGED TO GET HIM AND HIS CHAIR UP INTO THE COOLING TOWER. HE WAS ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED AND SAID IT MADE HIS DAY.

SOLD!

All but the kitchen sink Everyone loves a bargain.

So it proved when close on 1200 people turned up in 1993 for an auction of surplus stock from the station’s stores. Gardening equipment, office furniture, plant, machinery, even an old road sweeper went under the hammer. It all sold. The only thing remaining at the end of the day was a trailer, which was bought in error and left unwanted by its new owner.

Mini racers August bank holiday 1981 saw West Burton host the BRCA national model car racing championships.

For three days, more than 120 enthusiasts from all over the country pitted their machines and driving skills on an especially constructed track. Sand filled fire hoses marked the circuit. Our painters had coloured the run-off areas bright green. And our scaffolders erected the temporary drivers’ rostrum and spectators’ stand. We even put up barriers with mesh and nets to contain out of control cars. The social club was open for the whole time and did a ‘roaring’ trade.

Damp, but not downhearted Space hoppers, bouncy castles, and lots and lots of water. When the last joker had been played, the final event competed, West Burton’s finest of Stuart Reardon, Graham Ellis, Steve Walker, Kathy Wright, Sara Harrison and Keith Irving patted themselves on the back for finishing – last!

Well that’s ‘it’s a knockout’ for you. Heads held high though because we were the only team in the inter-power station competition not to have cheated. Allegedly.

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Freaky Friday “It started with me suggesting to a few friends in the Caravan Club that we could have a small get together outside the social club.

Before I knew it, West Burton had somehow become hosts for the Club’s famous Halloween Rally. It was fantastic. We ended up with 78 caravans neatly spaced on the golf course.

Friday night began with trick or treat for the kids followed by a Freaky Friday Social in the club house. I was kicked off the music to be replaced by our regular DJs Pants, Dec and Fat Boy Tim. They sorted things out with line dancing, sequence and disco plus the odd Guns n’ Roses to humour me. We even had Halloween images projected onto the cooling towers.

Saturday was craft sessions for the kids in the discovery centre and then a ghost walk after dark. This basically followed the discovery trail, but we dressed it up with people in ghost outfits, someone rising from a grave of leaves and two trolls hiding under the bridge. Great stuff! Even the grown-ups got scared. The evening rounded off with a Monsters’ Ball featuring some truly excellent homemade South Yorkshire entertainment.

It was an amazing weekend. The best Halloween ever! We raised £500 for the social club, £100 for charity and left the place looking better than when we arrived.”

DJ’S PANTS, DEC AND FAT BOY TIM!

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An unfair advantage The club’s first sports section was football run by Cyril Littlewood. The team was brilliant and included Ken Scott who used to play for Derby County. Do you remember Ted Brazel, Pete McGuinness and Bernard Featherstone? They beat whoever dared stand before them. Maybe we had an unfair advantage. But, everyone likes a winner so there were no complaints.

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY STARRING *MARTI CAINE *NORMAN COLLIER *GRANDAD *CHARLIE WILLIAMS *PICKETTYWITCH “It started in the mid ‘60s with a sports and social committee. There was me, Ray Adlington, as the assistant secretary, plus Alan Cole, Fred Fletcher, Buzz Webb and a few others. We hadn’t got a clubhouse in those days and met in the conference room.

We’d hold dances in the canteen, and the table tennis section played in the old library.

Then we were offered what had been the contractors’ ‘wet bar’ as our very own clubhouse. The first thing we did was to move in a snooker table. We shifted those heavy blocks of slate piece by piece by hand.

It was a good time to be involved. Activities increased and by the early ‘70s acts like Norman Collier and Tony Adams and Grandad were regulars. Marti Caine appeared a few times before she found fame on TV. We even had Charlie Williams once.

He cost us just £25 because he doubled up with a booking in Scunthorpe. A really big night was when the group Pickettywitch played to a full house.

The New Year’s Eve dances were the best though. They were packed out. We made it ticket only and even then had to ration the tickets because there was so much demand.

But those were the good old days. What did it for us was when drink driving came in. That put a lid on things and the attendances soon started to drop off.”

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HE ROLLED HIS OVERALLS DOWN TO THE WAIST AND THEN BEAT EVERYONE OUT OF SIGHT Alex walks it “The turkey trot at Christmas became a really big thing in the ‘90s. It started with a group of us running to the river and back. You know, loose a few pounds, that kind of stuff. Then we added variations with different course lengths so some people could walk and others could cycle. It was fun. We offered a bottle of whisky for the winner and had a special ‘cranks’ prize for whoever made the biggest fool of themselves.

One year, in an effort to boost the numbers we invited the contractors to join in. We were all assembled ready for the off when Alex Pond, a fabricator, ambled over to the starting line. Resplendent in heavy protective boots, he rolled his overalls down to the waist and then beat everyone out of sight. There was some discussion as to how Alex completed the walk so quickly. But, he did a bit of boxing as well so nobody argued the point too keenly!”

Stella who?

“The old clubhouse bar was run on a voluntary basis and a committee was set up to organise it. One afternoon we were invited up to Sheffield to taste a new beer being introduced in Britain for the first time. There were a couple of ladies drinks launched as well, Wicked Lady and Calypso, neither of which lasted for long. But the beer wasn’t at all bad. We decided to order some for the club.

Its name? Stella Artois!”

All for one and one for . . .

“We gathered in Keilder Forest on a brisk September’s weekend in 2004.

The occasion was the Rievers Challenge corporate team building event.

We weren’t practised and some of the tasks were daunting in the extreme.

But, with more than 100 teams from other blue-chip companies taking part we were determined to put on a good show.

Our first team was led by action man Roger Winmill from procurement.

Our second by Commercial Manager Nigel Beresford. And our third team, the novices, was led by Gary Fielder from Ops. It was hard going.

A five hour orienteering course, hikes through the forest and a 200 foot ravine decent took their toll. Yet that old West Burton ‘never-say-die’ spirit kicked in and we dragged ourselves bruised and bedraggled to the finish.

Roger and Nigel’s teams even managed top 30 places. Rumour has it though that Pos is still out there running around the woods somewhere!”

THE TEAMS

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Team 1 Roger Winmill, Steve Walker, Martin Walker, Andy Lowe, George Gilbert and Will Collins Team 2 Nigel Beresford, Paul Otter, Dave Pedder, Charmian Heaton, Nigel Wallis and Ian Postlethwaite Novices Gary Fiedler, Sara Beevers, Kathy Wright, Ken Marsh, John Ward and Sam Jackson

BACK WHERE IT BELONGS WE ALWAYS THOUGHT OF THE FOSTERS CHALLENGE TROPHY AS OURS. WE WERE THE GOLFERS. IT BELONGED IN OUR CABINET. WELL, IN 1999 WE FINALLY GOT IT BACK WHERE IT BELONGED.

Dating to CEGB days, the trophy was annually played for by power station teams in the region. With the competition having survived the rigours of privatisation, it was somewhat ironic that the two teams facing each other in the last match of the century, West Burton and High Marnham, were both part of the same company again.

Three times a winner Our runners had been practically unbeatable throughout the 1998 season. We topped it off by winning the ESI Northern Region trophy for the third year on the bounce. “As I remember it, Thorpe Marsh was the toughest race,” recalls George Gilbert. “It was blowing a gale and the run took us through the nature reserve where the surface was particularly cloying because ash had been tipped all over.”

The victorious West Burton team was Kathy Wright, George Gilbert, Ian Scott, Trevor Newby, Phil Marshland, Vince Naylor, Shaun Johnson and Ken ‘I’m only here for the free buffet’ Durdey.

Rafted!

It was a needle match. Our rafters had beaten Lound Ski Club in the previous year’s competition at Lound Gravel Pits. Revenge was in the air as we took to the waters in 1995. Our team of Kathy Wright, Dave Thoresby-Smith, Martin Walker and Geoff Tasker paddled to an easy first round victory. Then it was the Ski Club again in the final. History repeating itself? Not this time. They pulled a flanker, stopped us dead in our tracks, then rowed away to beat us by a mile. We was robbed is all that can be said.

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PEOPLE THINK THAT WEST BURTON IS POWERED BY COAL. IT’S ACTUALLY POWERED BY TEA...

FANCY A

BREW?

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...AND BEER

IT’S YOUR

ROUND!

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TODAY

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PRIDE AND PASSION.

“My journey back to West Burton took the route of an apprenticeship at Ironbridge Power Station and various roles across the power industry, before joining EDF Energy in a trading role in London. When I got a call about the Commercial Manager role at West Burton, I jumped at the chance. On my first day, as I drove over Leverton hill and saw the cooling tower plumes and the huge site, it felt like coming home.

Times have changed since the CEGB. We can all see that. Yet, through everything, this fantastically engineered plant of ours has kept moving forward. Like a giant supertanker it has slowly twisted and turned to meet the needs of the country we serve. Looking ahead, what we’re doing now is absolutely right for the station. Everything we are working on puts us in the best shape possible for the future.”

Nigel Beresford

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WE WERE ON AN OUTING TO THE THEME PARK. THE COOLING TOWERS OF WEST BURTON STOOD PROUDLY ON THE DISTANT HORIZON.

making 106

clouds “LOOK MUMMY” CAME AN EXCITED CHILD’S VOICE FROM THE BACK SEAT,

“THEY’RE MAKING CLOUDS” 107

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SWARFEGA

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24 7 365

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 112

It's been a fascinating journey to understand the story of West Burton and its proud history. There have been many people who have helped create this book; many have recounted their tales, and others have brought in their photos. However there has been a special group of people who have worked hard to create what you have in your hands. They've trawled the archives, contacted retired colleagues, searched in drawers, cupboards and attics and most importantly used their grey matter to remember an infinite amount of detail. We've had photos from far and wide and special thanks go to George Gilbert for spending hours of his own time scanning these for us.

I've enjoyed working with them hugely and getting to know West Burton in such great detail. So, thank you: Jim Reeves, Paul Howitt, George Gilbert, Ken Marsh, Phil Gibson, Des Ingamells, Steve Lee, Dave Shaw, Chris Bailey, Steve Walker, Suzy Middleton and Kathy Wright. Not forgetting Paul Otter for all his great photographs which appear throughout the book. I'd also like to thank Kevin, Nikki, Greens and Emily from the agency who helped us create this - their dedication, eye for detail and artistic flair have been at the heart of making this possible. And finally huge thanks must go to Robert Davis, the copywriter who has spent weeks talking to many of you and writing out every story and piece of text in the book. Thank you.

We hope you've enjoyed the book as much as we've enjoyed making it.

Vanessa Northam Internal Communication Manager December 2009

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LARGER THAN LIFE.

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KEEPING THE

LIGHTS ON

40 YEARS

KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON | CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION AT WEST BURTON

CELEBRATING

OF ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION AT WEST BURTON