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Echoes of Blackburn Meadows project

For the latest on the Echoes of Blackburn Meadows project, click on the link below:

The famous cooling towers at Tinsley were demolished in 2008. Until that summer, they were all that remained of Blackburn Meadows power station which was mostly demolished in the 1980s.

Take a look through our galleries to get a feel for Tinsley Towers and Blackburn Meadows power station in the past.

In 2009 Blackburn Meadows was just a derelict site across the M1 from Meadowhall. There's a small substation, pylons and sewage treatment works but not the original building. The power station itself is just rubble and even the iconic Tinsley Cooling Towers are no longer there. Plans are in the pipeline for a new generation of power station on site however.

Radio Blackburn Meadows

Now a group of two "sound artists" and a historian have embarked on a project to construct an audio-art-walk which will be built along the public footpaths surrounding the site of the former power station.

They were granted Β£8000 from the Arts Council to launch the prototype in September 2009, which takes people on a walk across the landscapes surrounding the site.

Spoken memories from former workers of the power station are broadcast from a hidden solar powered transmitter so that participants can walk around the perimeter of the site while listening to memories of the power station - hence the name of the project, Echoes of Blackburn Meadows.

Jennifer Rich came up with the idea for the project after her postgraduate dissertation in cultural geography, which looked at the history of Blackburn Meadows power station, in particular β€œhow the power station was wrapped up in the progress and development of Sheffield during the inter-war and post-war period.”

Jennifer lives in Sheffield and for the Echoes of Blackburn Meadows project she's helped by sound artist and graphic designer Lewis Heriz who will compile the archive material and the memories of people from around South Yorkshire to create the art and sound walk.

"The prototype will be launched towards the end of 2009 and will be accompanied by a series of launch workshops in which participants will be able to build their own FM radio receivers," explains Jennifer. "We will then seek further funding to launch the remainder of the artwork, which is to be completed in the summer of 2010.

"Over the recent weeks, I've been busy interviewing the old boys at the power station.Μύ I've been hearing tales of Tinsley's infamous purple rain, a result of the air pollution from Blackburn Meadows and the culprit for soiling clean washing as it hung out to dry. I've been hearing about to the wares of Wigfalls, or Wiggie's as it was better known, which was where electrical appliances could be hired or purchased.ΜύMost inspiring of all has been listening to narratives first hand about what it was like to be inside of one of the most technologically advanced power stations in the country during the mid-twentieth century."

Tom Dixon works on the artistic side of the project and is also the project's technician. He's installing FM transmitters around the walk so that you'll be able to listen to bits of audio histories as you walk around... a kind of Radio Blackburn Meadows!

Your memories

The Echoes of Blackburn Meadows team want to gather memories from people who used to work at Blackburn Meadows or live nearby.

Electric fires on display, 1933

Jennifer would also like to hear people's recollections of the 'Golden Age of Electricity' in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. "People will remember the adverts that co-erced them to take on electricity," says Jennifer. "Do you remember your first oven, iron, fridge...?"

You may rememberΜύthe electrical retailers Wigfalls - better known as Wiggies... or the electricity showrooms on Commercial Street at the town side of the tram bridge - "People can still remember queueing between the lamps at the electricity showrooms to pay their electricity bills," says Jennifer. "There were exhibitions and demonstrations showing you how to cook with electric."

Tinsley Towers were demolished on 24th August 2008

Jennifer, Tom and Lewis came to speak to Rony Robinson in January 2009 to appeal for people's memories of Blackburn Meadows Power Station.

Gordon Sykes from Jordanthorpe phoned Rony with his memories of working at Blackburn Meadows. "I started as an apprentice in 1952 and stayed there for 24 years. It was wonderful - but very Victorian in the attitudes. I was stopped from wearing I studs in my boots as a lad because the turbine hall floor was washed and polished every day.

"Mr Gill the foreman wouldn't let us call the fitters by their first names, it had to be Mr Smee, Mr Hadfield and so on. You wouldn't dream of speaking to the foreman unless you had something to say. Mr Gill had his armchair carried up on to the operating floor on the turbine hall and he sat in it like it was a throne, with his bowler hat on and his hands in his waistcoat directing operations. He was an amazing man."

Charles Bowser was a 16-year-old joiner's apprentice on the site in 1936.Μύ"I was employed by CH Gillam & Son, carpenters and joiners. One day I went to the gate office for tea mugs. I asked why the fire brigade were there and was told that a man had fallen off the scaffold while they were erecting the towers. The fire brigade had come to let him down and unfortunately he slipped through the sling and died."