Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War
A very interesting thread indeed.When I was a trainee at Nechells Power Station in the 1960's,some of the older hands there made mention of a temporary power station that had been built at Nechells during WW1,to help supply electricity to the munitions factories.
Birmingham Corporation had started construction of what later became Nechells A Power Station in 1913,but when the war started,the Government promptly ordered work to stop.The existing power stations in Dale End,Water Street and Summer Lane,along with those in Chester Street,Aston and in Handsworth were hard pressed to meet the demand,so much so that the Government,with the City of Birmingham Electrcity Supply Department,decided to construct a temporary power station on the Nechells site.
It was situated just to the north of the Aston to Stechford railway line,and to the east of the River Rea and B'ham & Warwick Junction Canal.The ground wasn't entirely suitable,so a large reinforced concrete raft had to be cast for the power station's foundations.Coal was brought in by canal and by rail from a connection with the Midland Railway's sidings at Washwood Heath.
For the technically minded,the station had 12 water tube boilers;two 5,000 kW and two 6,000 kW steam turbine driven generators with condensers fitted beside each turbine rather underneath which was the more usual arrangement.Nine wooden cooling towers were built,six by the Aston to Stechford railway line embankment,and three more near where the switch house for the later power station would stand.The buildings were clad in corrugated iron sheets.There were also offices,battery rooms,switch rooms and transformers,as well as a workshop and locker room.This was the first recorded use of steam turbines for electricity production in Birmingham.Additional power was also obtained from the power station at the Dunlop plant.
Work started early in 1915 and generation commenced from the two 5.000 kW sets nine months later;the station being complete early in 1916.Two books held in B'ham Reference Library both agree that this was quite an achievement.Work resumed on the permanent power station in 1918,and although it wasn't complete until 1929,it was officially opened by Edward,the then Prince of Wales in 1923.
The temporary power station continued in operation after the war ended and it wasn't finally closed until 13th June 1936.All trace of the temporary power station has disappeared under the Nechells Parkway road scheme.