The Tinsley Towers have stood for seventy one years on the edge of Sheffield. They watched the construction of the M1 motorway and the Meadowhall Retail Centre. Big and concrete, for many motorway travellers, they have signified where the real "Up North" of England begins. The power station of which they were a key feature has long been redundant and now the new owners - the power company "E-on" - have decided that they will be demolished this weekend in the very early hours of Sunday morning. Of course, nothing lasts forever but these sentinels, silent witnesses to a changing world had probably earned the right to remain with us a good while longer. Their functional, industrial ugliness has, with familiarity, become a kind of beauty. There has been a strong public lobby to preserve Sheffield's own "twin towers" but in the corridors of power, nobody has been listening. In memoriam, I took one or two snaps this morning...
I think they should keep them - they're a part of Sheffield's industrial heritage and should be seen as such.
ReplyDeleteI think they're beautiful, personally, and a welcome landmark on many a weary travellers journey
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame. They are part of the local heritage and history and they have their own particular beauty.
ReplyDeleteWere they shown in the movie "The Full Monty?" Its years and years since I have been to Sheffield.
ReplyDeleteFound your blog via Hadriana's blog.
Gill a former Cumbrian now living in Canada
Nooo...!
ReplyDeleteThey'll be straightening the crooked spire next.
How am I supposed to know when to leave the motorway now those trusty beacons have gone?
Grrr...
Have you a photo of them now they are gone YP? (PS. it's the kayaking feet woman. Showing my face to the world at last.)
ReplyDeleteI remember those towers well from living in Sheffield as a youngster, and also seeing them when I traveled to Meadowhall as a teen and an adult in my early twenties.
ReplyDeleteI was sad to learn that they have been demolished. They have been a landmark for so many.
Just another travesty in the ever changing landscape of the country.
still alive, just snowed under by 'wessies', shame about towers at least they took two goes to finally tumble!
ReplyDeleteAnyone wishing to follow the demise of the towers right through demolition could go to this other Sheffield blog:-
ReplyDeletehttp://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Or click from my blog list in the margin.
Whenever we played gigs in Sheffield, we always knew we had arrived as we passed those cooling towers on the motorway. Shame they have gone,as long as they are not replaced with badly designed public art !
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