Monument record 6235/1 - Northampton Power Station (Hardingstone Junction Power Station)

Built by The Northampton Electric Light & Power Company in c1920 to augment its first power station in Angel Lane. The site continued to develop for the next three decades. Now demolished

{1} Steam turbines generating a.c., the power station came on load in 1919. Built by The Northampton Electric Light & Power Company to augment its first power station in Angel Lane (where supply of electricty commenced in 1891).

{3} Work began on the site in 1920 by the Electric Light Company, and the site continued to develop over the next three decades. At the height of its operation the station was burning 240,000 tons of coal. The station closed in the 1970s and the first cooling tower was demolished in 1979. The second tower was demolished by the next year but the other buildings still remain.

{4} Groundworks involved with the construction of the new university necessitated the removal of the underground tunnel that extended along the length of the former factory building in the northern part of the site.

During the initial construction of the power station, ground level across the entire area had been artificially raised by c. 1-2m, with extensive deposits of made-ground covering the former land surface. It is likely that the area of raised ground was extended throughout the lifetime of the power station, as the site was further developed and the complex expanded. The made-ground generally consisted of coke and clinker, presumably waste material from the power station boilers, but extensive deposits of building rubble and other material were also recorded, suggesting that material was also being imported to the site from the wider area to build up the ground level. Refuse contained within the made-ground included domestic and industrial waste (dumps of glass bottles, stoneware bottles, oil cans etc.), most of which dated to the mid-20th century or later, although some late 19th/early 20th-century material was also noted.

{5} A photographic study was undertaken of derelict and partially demolished buildings at Nunn mills, Northampton. The larger buildings comprise the remains of Nunn Mills Power Station; operational from 1930s to the mid 1960s. Following decommissioning of the station buildings part of the site was occupied by light industrial buildings, concerned with motor services.

<1> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2001, NIAG Industrial Gazetteer, (unchecked) (Draft). SNN101121.

<2> Beamish H., 2003, Nunn Mills Site, Delapre, Northampton: Desktop Assessment, (unchecked) (Report). SNN103890.

<3> Freeman, S., 2004, Chronicle Memories: The Was A Job With Real Power, (checked) (Newspaper cuttings). SNN107634.

<4> Cotswold Archaeology Ltd, 2017, Northampton Waterside Campus, Phases 1-3 Nunn Mills, Northampton: Programme of Archaeological Observation, Investigation & Recording (Report). SNN111263.

<5> Walsh, T., 2007, Photographic survey of buildings at Nunn Mills, Northampton May 2007 (Report). SNN108093.

<6> Chapman P. (Editor), 2008, Archaeology in Northamptonshire in 2007, p. 299 (Article). SNN106430.

<7> Horne B. (Editor), 2008, South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter (38), p. 42 (Journal). SNN106282.

Record last edited

Nov 20 2018 2:26PM