Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Unilever's Power Stations

I’m afraid that this is rather long and probably very boring, but I spent six moths with almost free access to both power stations in 1975 as part of my degree in Electrical Engineering, I found the places fascinating (if only I’d taken some pictures). So, a bit of history (apologies to _ste_ for pinching two of his pictures)....

On 3rd March 1888 work started on building William Hesketh Lever’s soap factory and village on the marsh by Bromborough Pool, a year later the first soap was produced. The village was called Port Sunlight after Lever’s ‘Sunlight’ trademark.

Over the coming years both the works and the village expanded, ‘Lifebuoy’ soap was introduced in 1894, Sunlight docks were opened in 1895, ‘Lux’ soap flakes appeared in 1902 and ‘Vim’ scouring powder arrived in 1904. By 1911 the factory was producing 4,000 tons per week. By 1916 they had bought their neighbour, Price’s Patent Candle Company.

More and more electricity was being used in the manufacturing processes, so in 1918 Lever Brothers built a power station on the banks of the Mersey on what was to become Commercial Road.

The station was called Central Power Station and had three coal fired boilers and a 5 Megawatt generating set manufactured by Siemen’s Brothers. The boilers had ‘chain grates’, these were like slow moving conveyor belts which passed through the furnaces, coal was loaded on one end from a hopper, it moved into the furnace and as the coal burned, the ash was collected in hoppers under the boilers.

Expansion continued, in 1929 electricity was installed in the houses of Port Sunlight Village and, in 1931, Bromborough Dock was opened. To meet the increased demand, Central Power Station was expanded, with the addition of three more coal fired boilers and a 6.25 Megawatt generating set.

The station could now produce a total of 11.5 Megawatts of electrical power at 3.3kv.

By the 1950s Central Power Station was producing power for the various Lever’s factories around Port Sunlight and Bromborough, both of the Villages and for other companies operating in the Bromborough Pool area. It had a connection to the main MANWEB electricity supply so that in periods of high demand it imported power from MANWEB, and at times of low demand it exported power to MANWEB.

Many of the works supplied with electricity also used steam and there were more than 10 low pressure steam generating plants operating in the area. A new type of generating set was now available, this was known as a ‘Back Pressure Generator’, it took steam at high pressure, used it to turn the turbine then output the steam for re-use at a lower pressure.

A pilot scheme was installed in the hardening plant of the old margarine works, opposite Central Power Station, this consisted of a small 1.3 Megawatt back pressure generating set manufactured by British Thomson Houston. This took steam at 230 p.s.i. from the power station boilers and output steam at 50 p.s.i.

The pilot scheme was a success, and it was decided to build a new power station on what is now Thermal Road.


Merseyside Power Station in the 1970s

The new station was built with four oil fired boilers producing steam at 650 p.s.i. These supplied two primary generating sets, each producing 5 Megawatts at 11kv and reducing the steam pressure to 230 p.si. This lower pressure steam supplied two secondary generating sets, each producing 2.5Megawatts at 3.3kv, these reduced the steam pressure to 110 p.s.i. Oil was supplied to the station by a 4 inch diameter pipeline from the Shell pumping station at Ellesmere Port.

The pilot scheme in the hardening plant was retained, as were two of the newer boilers in Central Power Station, the remaining four boilers and the two generating sets were shut down but retained for standby purposes.

The station, named Merseyside Power Station, was commissioned in 1958 and was capable of producing 16.3Mw of electrical power, and steam at 230, 110 and 50 p.s.i.

There was one other boiler in the system, this was a low pressure (110 p.s.i.) boiler located at Bromborough dock, it was heated by burning the waste from all the Lever factories in the area.


Boiler Controls in Merseyside Power Station

In 1964 work started on expanding Merseyside Power Station, a new 1,500 p.s.i. boiler and two new generating sets were installed. These new generators were manufactured by AEI, the first produced 5.4 Megawatts at 11kv, this reduced the 1,500 p.s.i. steam to 650 p.s.i., and the second produced 8.1 Megawatts at 11kv and reduced the steam pressure to 110 p.s.i.


One of the new Generators

The extension was commissioned in 1966, the hardening plant generator remained in service, but the two working boilers at Central Power Station were reduced to stand by status, and the three older boilers were put into dry storage. The Unilever network now had a total capacity of almost 30 Megawatts and provided steam at 1500, 230, 110 and 50 p.s.i. For security, a second connection to the MANWEB network was established at the Sunlight South Substation.


Control Room at Merseyside Power Station

In 1974, a further extension to Merseyside Power Station was started, this was almost a duplicate of the 1966 expansion, with one additional high pressure boiler and two additional back pressure generating sets. At the same time the switch gear at Central Power station was replaced and the control rooms at both power stations were refurbished, the biggest changes being at Central were the old wooden control desks were replaced with new steel desks.


The smart new control desks today

During the next few years, the older three boilers at Central Power Station were removed and one of the boiler wings was demolished.

With changes in industrial processes, the requirements for steam changed and in January 1997, Unilever announced that Merseyside Power Station would close, with power distribution being handed over to MANWEB, at the end of 1998. Following closure, Merseyside Power Station was demolished, the control room block at Central Power Station was retained until new arrangements could be made for the connection to the MANWEB network, but the remaining boiler block, turbine room and cooling tower were demolished.


Central Power Station Today, only the derelict 11kv switchroom with the control room above remains


Merseyside Power Station Today

Nice one mate! history,info,and pixs.

That`s good stuff mate.

wow very interesting thanks for sharing


thanks robbo

Thanks for an excellent write-up.

Thankyou very much upton, really apreiciate your time and effort put into this exellent write up

Great work

Nice one, good history there mate.
I was permanently onsite when it was demolished, doing hydraulic repairs to the machines. The demo company where called Keltbrae (think spelt right!) and their sign is still outside thoes gates!!
Remember the guys saying it was a 12 month contract..... 3 yrs later they were still onsite!
First prob was asbestos, told there was none and it was full of the stuff!
Second was the oil storage tanks buried below ground had ruptured, contaminating the ground. If you look at the site now, 10 yrs later and not much grows there!!!
Last was the kestrels nesting in one of the support columns, had enviromental onsite 24/7 and couldnt go near the area until the chicks had flown the nest!!!!
Tonnes of stuff came out of there, machinery and equipment!
Always thought about that sign on the gates looking good in my study......... Robbo, the cordless grinder mate!!!!

exellent info thanks. really apreiciate

brilliant, I use to ride past it all the time as a kid. i remember the day they blew the chineys down as I could see then from my bedroom window.

Old central powerstation in bromborough

Is this the site you mean, now called Old Hall Industrial Estate? This view shows buried tanks; interestingly, they don't show up in birds eye view, but you can see how nothing is growing there.
I think this is the power station I watched them build, by walking through the woods from Eastham Ferry. If I'm roght, I don't think this one had anything to do with Lever's.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=53.331193~-2.967939&style=a&lvl=15&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=29166110&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

I don't know why that isn't a clickable link, but copy & paste into your browser works.

I love those gates, I've often wondered what was behind all that, it looks pretty bleak and deserted.

those tanks are gone now. its completly flat and full of water.

No, that was Bromborough Power Station, owned by the CEGB, which was demolished in 1986.

The diagram of the steam distribution system below shows the locations of the various installations of the Unilever Network.



(A bigger version of this is available by clicking here)

So, that had a very short life. It must have been in the very late 40's or early 50's that it was built.
Thanks for the interesting diagram.

Cheers, Chris.

Hi all
i actually served my time as an Instrument/electrical engineer at MPS from 1987-1991 great times thanks for the pics brings back lots of great memories

I got a bit confused, just coming fresh to this topic today. Apart from old age, the names 'Central P S' and 'Merseyside P S' threw me, as the excellent photos didn't seem to be anything to do with the CEGB's 'Bromborough P S' on the river side. Now it makes sense!
The CEGB power station was being built about 1950. Tom Armstrong was the chief engineer, from Merz & MacLellan, the consultants on the job, and he was in the Rotary Club. They had a scheme in those days to help us lads to get a good start in life and I got into my apprenticeship in 1951 at the English Electric Co., Gillmoss, Liverpool, through his introduction. It was all started by a visit to the Youth Employment Office, opposite Bebington Station and a tour of the power station. I was hooked! It was easy to get a job in those days!

I don't understand why the Lever's site would be left to get derelict. Surely the gear in there would have some secondhand value in the trade. But too late now!
Thanks for fabulous work in these Industrial Archaeology topics!
Bri

I also worked on maintenance at Merseyside Power Station for UML for a few years, up to the end at 1998. When I was there we had 3 servicable boilers, although 1 was never used.
When I was there, we had:-
Boiler 3 - HFO (Heavy Fuel Oil) still there, but scrap
Boiler 4 - HFO still there, but scrap
Boiler 5 - HFO Never used
Boiler 6 - HFO Standby
Boiler 7 - Coal In daily normal use
T2 Turbine - Unservicable
T3 turbine - servicable and in daily use
Engine generator - regularly used

Boilers 5 and 6 had 4 burners each, at 8 gallons/minute per burner

Boiler 7 ran on small grade coal, and was thrown in on 2 rotary feeder from the front on a chain grate.

Boilers 1,2,3,4 had been 650psi on HFO
Boilers 5,6,7 were rated at 100Tons/hour of steam at 1500psi
T2 had been 10Mw, 11kv (1500psi in, 650psi out)
T3 was rated at 14Mw, 11Kv (1500spi in, extract at 230psi, exhaust at 110psi) Gland steam was passed into the 20psi main that was used for tank-farm and domestic heating.

There had formerly been P1, P2, P3 turbines (650psi in, 230 psi out) and S1 and S2 turbines (230psi in, 110 psi out). These had been removed before my time there.

There were 2 small turbines driving boiler feed-pumps, but these were not used.

The engine generator was a Mirrlees Blackstone KV-major V18, driving a 10Mw alternator on 11Kv. It was started on gas oil, but run on S20 HFO (2% sulphur). It had 2 turbochargers and a waste-heat boiler. The waste-heat boiler used to produce about 7-8 Tons/hour of 110psi, and demineralised water for the main boilers was passed through the jacket to act as a pre-heater, saving about 7-8 tons/hour steam. So the action of putting the engine generator on removed about 15Tons/hour of load from the main boilers.

Boilers 5 and 7 were fitted with Bailey DCS controls, and boiler 6 had pneumatic Bailey Miniline500 controllers.

Merseyside power station had Turbine generators on 11Kv, and had formerly had generators also on 3.3Kv. The electric feedpumps were still on 3.3Kv until the end.

Central Power Station had (before my time) condensing turbine generators on 230psi, and later a back-pressure set(230psi in, 50psi out). All generators in CPS were at 6.6Kv, as was the link into MANWEB.

Merseyside power station did not have a "direct link" with MANWEB, but the 11Kv system had a link with MANWEB at Compound Mill Substation, on the Lever Brothers site. Formerly the link was at Sunlight South substation, also on Lever Brothers site.

The 6.6Kv and 11Kv networks had an internecting transformers which were the large transformers just inside Merseyside Power Station main gates. Because of the way that the systems had developed, some customers substations were on 6.6Kv, others on 11Kv.

The 2 links into MANWEB were into their 2 33Kv feeders that ran between CEGB Bromborough, and Rock Ferry substation.

As for Hosemans comments, we knew the place was full of Asbestos. Boilers 1-5 and all of their pipework were asbestos lagged, it was sprayed onto the beams in the boiler 1-4/ areas. It was under the floors like snow, various panels were made of it - it was everywhere. There was a lot of mercury we had recovered from instrumentation, but no doubt there was more elsewhere. There were Igema gauges still in the old boiler house with its own fluids.

I very much enjoyed my time working for UML, and the people I worked with. After closure we all were treated to a day at Leicester races, and 2 nights in a very nice hotel, and return coach travel. UML was one of the best employers I have ever worked for.

There is a preserved steam loco - no.7386 - called Birkenhead - which used to shunt the coal required for the older power station.

For those interested - it is a RSH (Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn) 0-4-0ST and is owned by the GWRPG - Great Western Preservation Group - though NOT a GWR loco....

I guess some of the posters on this thread will remember my friend Roy Marks who was a manager here and treated me to a tour of the power station along with many anecdotes.

diggingdeeper,Only spotted & read this thread today,I was interested as Roy Marks was my cousin,it was nice to see your mention of him

The CEA Bromborough Power Station - was once also much bigger that that shown on the plan - with it's coal fuel all coming in by rail.

Used to stink of sulphur tho' - spent many a wet afternoon - choking on the fumes on the Rock Ferry HS playing fileds...

Was that Roy Marks with wife named Pat and lived in Egerton Park.

Great story and kudos to the OP for taking time to write that very informative item! While I am job searching I came across this story for info on my CV (not written one for 25 years lol!)...got the info and read down the comments from you peeps and saw the name Roy Marks, what a nice gent he was! Had many conversations with him at CPS and MPS...
So I registered and here I am! Transferred from LBL to UML about '74 and took redundancy in '89 after Stork moved down south and we lost the demand for steam...The last job I had was Fitters mate (most rewarding job to date I may add!) Anyway, I could go on but I would just like to post a pic of me in my Turbine driver roll...Cheers. Gaz

Hi Gaz
Do you remember a fitter called Ted Noonan ?
Think he was prob there during your time !!

Hi Spinner! can't remember his face but sure I recognize the name!
My boss was Stan Mc(Donald) what a gent! Derek Hodson,
fitters:Pat Hadfield,Kenny Forster,Eddie Green, John ? shop steward, Jim ? storeman and many more but memory goes dim,
it's been 26 years now but definitely, Happy days for me!

Working for what I still call MANWEB the Electricity network in the area being discussed above, has obviously been adopted. The older local substations all have relics from another ownership such as log books etc etc . Would this be the network fed by the Stations discussed above ?

A very belated reply - Yes, it was the same Pat and Roy. I spent many an hour getting thrashed at darts by Roy, even when he was down to one eye.

Hi Gaz,
I too worked at around the same time as you (sorry your posting name doesn't help me).I was in the instrument dept at the time working with Eric, Keith and an apprentice Paul. Jim McNally was the storeman, Tom Snellgrove and John ? I remember catching up with John at the start of the decommissioning sometime just before the demolition.
I left in 1985 to work in Shetland for BP but I had 17 years working for UML as apprentice and mech/Inst tech with many happy memories just like yourself.

Hi Digging deeper...I have just re-read this thread and noticed the comments on Roy Marks. I also knew him well during my time there and reinforce the comments of what a gent he was...a most likeable gent.

Not sure if this is the right thread to post this in, but as mention has been made to the CEGB power station at Bromborough earlier on in this thread, and in the absence of any other regarding it, perhaps here is as good as anywhere?

I am in possession of a booklet, dated January 1948, which describes the works completed thus far (at that date), and what was in progress.

Entitled 'Birkenhead Power Station, Bromborough, Cheshire', it's interesting to note that the Power station was originally considered for construction between Cammell Lairds and Rock Ferry Pier "occupying over 100 acres adjoining the "sloyne.", which I wasn't aware of previously.

To save me describing the booklet in full, I have scanned it and made a PDF from the results, which I attach here. I'm sharing it in the hope that it may hold some local interest to WIkiWirral peeps.

The PDF has had to be compressed for upload to keep the file size down, and this has unfortunately led to a slight loss of resolution, but it's still quite readable for all that.

Hope it uploads OK.

I also thought I would share an aerial photo of the CEGB station as built, which I'm guessing was taken very shortly after opening, considering the very 'clean' appearance of the railway sidings which handled the coal, and the coal stocks themselves seem quite low.

Power Road is off to the right, Eastham locks and the Eastham Ferry Hotel can just be made out to the top, and the coaling wharf (complete with collier) is seen to the left - this is the only remaining artefact of any size left standing today, and was mentioned some time back on Wiki - here: Coaling Wharf

I've attached a similar view from today, and a blow-up of the original aerial which shows what appears to be a signal box/control cabin on the right-hand side, just north of Power Rd. Is this the control box for the limit of the Levers system, where it meets the CEGB system? I don't remember it, and have not seen any photos of it before. There appears to be a brand-new bridge in front of it too - seemingly going to nowhere.

Whatever, I hope it's of interest.

Excellent, thanks for that.

Hi billy_anorak59 and many thanks for the pdf and photos of the CEGB PS. This is of great interest to me as my career was due to the power station's existence, as mentioned in my previous post of May 2009 (319351).
Great find!
Bri

You're more than welcome Bri - pleased it was of interest.
Billy