Stourport Power Station
Stourport Power Station was built by the Shropshire & Worcestershire Electric Power Co., and opened in June 1927 by the Prime Minister, and MP for Bewdley, Stanley Baldwin. Unusually the power station did not have the customary cooling towers, drawing cooling water directly from the adjacent River Severn and River Stour.
Coal was initially delivered via the River Severn or the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal (which passes under the SVRSevern Valley Railway at Falling Sands Viaduct). A branch line from Stourport station along the embankment was constructed in 1940 so that coal could be brought in directly by rail. A portion of the coal for Stourport Power Station came from Collieries served by the Severn Valley Railway, with approximately 30% of the output of Alveley Colliery being sent to the power station. The majority of the coal came from Cannock Chase, with such coal arriving at Hartlebury from Stourbridge, often behind a Midland engine. A shunting locomotive was stationed at Hartlebury to shuttle coal wagons between there and Stourbridge. [1] A former NCBNational Coal Board employee's recollections of coal workings can be found in Tales from the Severn Valley.
The power station closed in 1984 and has since been demolished, with the area now mainly being a housing estate.
