PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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The earliest record of electricity being used in Plymouth for purposes of providing lighting was in 1849 when Mr J M Hearder installed an arc lamp at the top of the Devonport Column. However, it was to be over thirty years before any further use was found for electricity in the Town. That was in May 1884, when the new Promenade Pier was lit by 18 arc lamps and 32 incandescent filament lamps. Power was supplied by two Brash generators driven by 16 horse power Otto gas engines. To encourage the supply of electricity to the public, the Parliament passed the Electricity Act in 1882 but its terminology discouraged, rather than encouraged, private companies from entering this new business. It took a second Act of Parliament in 1888 to spark off real interest locally. Plymouth Electric Lighting Order 1894 Thus, in 1889 the Devon and Cornwall Electricity Supply Company was formed by a consortium of local businessmen but they had difficulty negotiating with the three local authorities of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport. Plymouth was the first Borough to give way, following pressure from local shop owners, and because of their own desire to electrify their tramway network. The Corporation therefore applied to the Board of Trade and were granted the Plymouth Electric Lighting Order 1894, which authorised the preparation of a scheme for supplying the Borough with electric power. Dr John Ambrose Fleming FRS (1849-1945) was invited to advise the Corporation on the type and size of an electricity system to power both lighting and tramways. He proposed a power station at Prince Rock, a tramway from there to link up with the existing horse tramway at the Theatre Royal, and public street lighting in the main shopping area and on the Hoe. Devonport Electric Lighting Order 1896 Over at Devonport, pressure was mounting to move to electrical power as well. Two private companies were trying to obtain Provisional Orders from the Board of Trade in 1895, which, it would seem, Devonport Corporation were intending to veto. Then they suddenly realised that in this particular case, the Board of Trade had powers to dispense with the local authority veto, which would mean that one of these companies -- if not both -- would succeed in getting their Order. Seeing this as a threat to their profitable gas supply business, the Corporation decided to apply for a Provisional Order itself. The Devonport Electric Lighting order was duly approved in 1896 and an Electric Lighting Committee was set up in August the following year. Like Plymouth, Devonport also sought the advice of an expert, Professor Alexander Blackie William Kennedy (1847-1928), who had planned the system and works in the City of Westminster. Following his advice, they adopted a "direct current" system that made it incompatible with Plymouth's network. In the meantime, on November 9th 1895, Plymouth had set up an Electrical Lighting Committee to consider Mr Fleming's recommendations. On April 27th 1896 they appointed Mr J H Ryder as the Borough Electrical Engineer and a Mr E G Okell as his assistant. It was presumably no coincidence that Mr Rider had previously served at Bolton in Lancashire, one of the Towns visited by the Committee.
Prince Rock Power Station,
Plymouth, with Prince Rock Power Station Work started on constructing a power station at Prince Rock in 1897, with the foundation stone being laid by the Mayor, Alderman J T Bond, on April 21st 1898. Cables were quickly erected in Ebrington Street and Old Town Street to supply the new tram service. The Plymouth Corporation Electricity Works was opened by the Mayor of Plymouth, Alderman John Pethick, on the morning of September 22nd 1899. He also inaugurated the new electric tramway route into the Centre. After the officials and guests had toured the Works, they boarded the five waiting tramcars to make the journey into the Guildhall for a celebratory luncheon. The Mayor, together with Alderman C H Radford, chairman of the Electric Lighting Committee, and Mr Rider joined the motorman, Mr W A Smith, on the platform of tram number 1 to lead the procession. The plant consisted of two Ferranti steam engines connected to Ferranti alternators each with a capacity of 200 kilowatts (kW) at 2,000 volts (V) and 50 hertz (Hz). These, through rectifiers, supplied the power for the street lighting. In addition, there were a Bellis and a Morcomb steam engine that were connected by the same shaft to a Ferranti 100 kW alternator and a Westinghouse 525 volt direct current generator to supply the traction power. This arrangement was apparently devised by Mr Rider and allowed the machine to be used for generating either AC power for lighting or DC power for traction. The total capacity of the Works was 800 kilowatts but at the time there were only 133 private consumers. This new form of power was so successful, and making a profit for the Corporation, that within months plans were in hand for expansion. Devonport Corporation Power Station Devonport was having problems trying to find a site for its power station. Each suggestion was opposed by either the Admiralty or Lord St Levan, who between them owned all the land in the Borough. Luckily, East Stonehouse Urban District Council had obtained its own Provisional Order in 1898 and agreed to transfer this to Devonport along with the site of a former flour mill in Newport Street, alongside Stonehouse Creek. The site cost £15,000. I am sure the people of Devonport objected to their power station being built in Stonehouse but it turned out to have its advantage. On June 1st 1899 Devonport appointed Mr Charles Furness as its Borough Electrical Engineer and the following February he submitted his detailed plans for the generating works and the supply of electricity to both the Devonport and District Tramway Company and the Stonehouse and Devonport end of the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport tram system. Even the site in Newport Street was not without its problems and it took some time to clear it. As a result it was not until February 21st 1901 that the Mayor of Devonport, Mr H J H Graves, laid a memorial stone, construction and installation work being already under way. Supplies to the Devon & District tramway were started on June 26th 1901 and that to the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Company on November 18th 1901. The engine and boiler-room measured 110 feet by 45 feet 6 inches and had a chimney that was 170 feet high. On the quay outside was a coal store for 1,200 tons. There were five boilers in the boiler-house ranging from 250 to 700 indicated horse-power. there was a compiund steam pump aplus an elecrically-driven pump for feeding the boilers. In the engine room were four high-speed compound engiens coupled direct to multipolar dynamos. These were capable of 1,900 nominal horse-power lighting 45,000 lamps of 8-candle power each. The plant consisted of a Browett-Lindley steam engine driving an ECC 150 kilowatt 525 direct current generator. Known as the "Number 1 Set", this supplied power solely for traction. This was quickly reinforced by the installation of two Ferranti steam engines, each driving an ECC 350 kilowatt generator but it was not until a third generator capable of providing an additional 500 kW that Devonport were able to consider supplying street lighting and, even less, domestic lighting. Mr G H Smith, chairman of the Electricity Committee, formally opened the Devonport Corporation Electricity Works on Monday April 28th 1902. The cost of the enterrpise was £78,756. At the luncheon held after the ceremony, the Mayor of Devonport, Mr Edgar M Leest, was asked to christen the Number 1 generating set and he duly obliged by naming it "Alice" after the Lady Mayoress. That evening Fore Street, between the Royal Dockyard Gate and the Technical College, was illuminated with 16 arc lamps. But Devonport still owned a very successful gas works and saw little to be gained from encouraging the use of electric power, other than for the tramways. Furthermore, there was much disquiet in Stonehouse because despite passing their Provisional Order over to Devonport, that Corporation had still failed to provide any lighting by the summer of 1902. And the residents had to suffer the black smoke emanating from the Works' chimney! Closure of the Devonport Corporation Power Station Capacity at Prince Rock was slowly increased by adding new plant and by the time of the amalgamation of the Three Towns in 1914 it had reached 3,150 kilowatts. The works was then supplying 1,753 private customers. The Works in Stonehouse at that time had a capacity of 2,800 kilowatts. It is interesting to note that the amalgamation of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport that was largely brought about by the needs of the armed forces failed when it came to generation of power because the two power stations could not be linked together and had to be run separately. Devonport's works ceased to generate power in March 1929 but remained in use as a sub-station for converting AC power from Prince Rock into DC lighting. It was to be 1937 before all local consumers had been converted to AC, by which time the majority of tramway routes had been changed over to motor bus operation. Electricity showroom A major sales campaign was mounted in 1931 with the opening of the first electricity showroom at No. 1 Drake Circus. Electric cookers and other items were made available for hire, rather than purchase, and cookery demonstrations were held. Residents were even offered a "Hire Purchase Wiring Scheme". At Milehouse, opposite Home Park, two demonstration houses were built that had only electricity for power, easily identifiable by their lack of a chimney. To maintain the high profile, the Hoe, the new Tinside Lido and Devonport Park were festooned with electric light bulbs and tram number 22 was especially decorated as well.
The illumination of Smeaton's
Tower As a result of seeing the benefits, the domestic demand for electricity began to increase fast and soon it was necessary to install a Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company Ltd 15,000 kilowatt turbo-alternator to replace all the original plant at Prince Rock. This brought the total capacity of that power station up to 34,850 kilowatts. The new plant was formally handed over to the Corporation by Sir Felix Pole, chairman of Associated Elelectrical Industries Ltd, and was set in motion by Sir Andrew Duncan, chairman of the Central Electricity Generating Board on Tuesday May 10th 1932, in the presence of the Mayor of Plymouth, Alderman G P Dymond. After a tour of the Power Station, Sir Archibald Page, of the CEGB, switched on the main control. Comparative staistics Some interesting statistics were published in May 1932. There were only 187 consumers in 1901 and only 1,753 in 1914. This jumped to 21,831 by 1929 and 36,870 at the start of 1932. During the same period the capacity of the generating plant had risen from 800kw to 34,850kw and the number of units of electricty sold from 432,532 in 1901 to 25,112,584 in 1932. Electricty reaches Hooe Although electric street lighting had reached Radford on November 6th 1931, it was not until the following April that cables were laid in Hooe itself. The electric street lights within Hooe were put into operation on Monday August 15th 1932. Enter the Central Electricity Generating Board In July 1934 Mr H Midgley was appointed as City Engineer, replacing Mr Okell, who was about to retire. The following year the power station was joined to the National Grid and thus was placed under the direct control of the Central Electricity Generating Board. Over in Europe the war clouds were gathering. When it became obvious that air raids were likely, Mr Midgley started to make plans for maintaining power supplies during these raids. Although there lots of minor incidents throughout the Blitz, the only major interruption occurred following the complete destruction of the main switchgear at Prince Rock on January 13th 1941, which disconnected not only its own generators but also the link to the National Grid. Luckily, the Royal Dockyard was able to come to the City's rescue. It had its own generating station, built in 1906, and its capacity was something like 19,850 kilowatts by the outbreak of the War. It originally operated on a direct current basis, as used on the warships, but in 1926 had been converted to alternating current. It was hurriedly connected to the National Grid and was supplying Plymouth's vital services within three days of the damage at Prince Rock. This was not lost on the people of Plymouth, who had to make do without gas for six weeks after a similar occurrence at the Gas Works at Coxside. During the Second World War the smaller alternators were removed and replaced by two 20,000 kilowatt turbo-alternators and four 100,000lb per hour boilers, for which the building was extended. By 1945 the output had risen to 66,400 kilowatts. Prince Rock 'B' Power Station Plymouth's last electric tram ran on September 29th 1945 but still the demand for electricity for domestic purposes was larger than the supply. Early in 1946 the Central Electricity Generating Board took the decision to erect a new power station at Plymouth to house two (later amended to three) 30 megawatt turbo-alternators. It was to be built alongside the existing station and to be ready by 1951. The project was to be supervised by Mr H Midgley, the City Electrical Engineer, and Messrs Mouchel & Partners Ltd were appointed as Consulting Engineers, with Mr J H Somerset, FRIBA, as Consulting Architect. Contracts had been placed for for the three turbo-alternators and associated boilers, a turbine house crane, circulating water pumps, main foundations and structural steelwork, when, on April 1st 1948, the electricity industry was nationalised and the whole undertaking was transferred to the British Electricity Authority. The consumer side of the business, i.e. the domestic supply and sale of equipment, was transferred to the South Western Electricity Board (SWEB). Clearance work started in 1948, with work on the foundations starting the following year. Erection of the steelworks commenced in November 1949, with the roof and walls following in April 1950. Boiler erection started in May 1950 and the turbo-alternators were installed in November 1950. Of the three units installed, the first was brought into use in December 1951, the second in mid-1952and the third in 1953. Its capacity was further enlarged in the 1960s, coincidental with the closure of the Royal Dockyard power plant in March 1961. Closure of the Plymouth power stations Just a decade later the Plymouth 'A' Station was found to be uneconomic so in 1974 it was closed down. It was demolished soon afterwards. The newer Plymouth 'B' was put into reserve in 1981, after which Plymouth was fed solely by the national grid system. That one was demolished in 1992. The old Devonport Power Station in Newport Street, Stonehouse, which had lost its notorious chimney in 1930, was pulled down in 1990. The memorial stone has been preserved.
'Ebb' and 'Flo', the chimneys at
Prince Rock
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