Mid 20th century powers station, 'Tilbury Power Station' (EHER 15093)

Mid twentieth century power station; Tilbury Power Station is a 1,050MW coal-fired power station located on the River Thames in Essex. The coal is delivered by ship and the process in cooled by recirculating water from the river. Assessment of borehole logs and a walkover survey was undertaken in 2008. An archaeological evaluation comprising of 52 trenches was undertaken in 2019. This found extensive truncation and land raising throughout the site of the former power Station, with few finds and a lot of contamination. The trenches in the northern part of the site identified a series of peat horizons in undisturbed alluvial deposits. The peat deposits were dated to the Iron Age.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. Located on north bank of Thames Estuary and forms part of Thames corridor industrial landscape. Two power stations A and B, each with full compliment of ancillary buildings. Tilbury A is similar in layout to many mid twentieth century power stations with boilers and related plant located in long rectangular building; attached to one side is the parallel Turbine Hall. Site laid out to face Thames, with offices and control rooms in range around quadrangle attached to south end of much larger boiler house. Coal and oil was delivered by ships to a reinforced concrete jetty built parallel to shore. Tilbury B dwarfs the earlier station. When built Tilbury B was cited as a prototype of the forthcoming generation of 2000MW power stations. Architecturally similar to other power stations of the period. Overall layout similar to Tilbury A with taller Boiler House orientated N/S to west of adjoining Turbine Hall and with Offices and Control Rooms at south end. <1> <2> Tilbury A first planned by County of London Electricity Supply Co in 1947 and completed for CEGB in 1958. Tilbury B completed 1969. The boilers in A and B were built to burn coal but were soon adapted to burn heavy oil. <3> Photo reference <4> Site Assessment: Important site layout of 1950's/60's and identified during the monument protection programme as being of potential national importance. <3> An archaeological evaluation and monitoring was carried out in May 2008 as part of a planning condition, no archaeological features were revealed and more archaeological work may be carried out. <5> 2008. Archaeological survey. Archaeological survey was undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in 2008. The work comprised the recording and archaeological description of sediments contained within seven boreholes and 39 test pits, and was undertaken in February and March 2008. The footprint of the main operational area was the focus of the survey. The review of historic borehole logs comprised the archaeological interpretation of sixty borehole logs. Nine of these (which were drilled in 2002 prior to the enhancement works to the jetty), were included within the overall geoarchaeological assessment of the area. A walkover survey of the riverside was also undertaken during the archaeological watching brief. One element of archaeological interest was identified. On the basis of the geoarchaeological interpretation and walkover survey, the archaeology of the area surveyed can be summarised as follows: The sedimentary sequence recorded from the test pits and boreholes contains four major units, Chalk bedrock (Unit 1), Pleistocene fluvial gravels (Unit 2), Peat and alluvial layers (Unit 3) and made ground (Unit 4). Unit 2 has the potential to contain derived artefacts from the Palaeolithic period. Unit 3 has the potential to contain derived or in situ artefacts from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Roman period. Mitigation work is recommended to record the sedimentary sequence of the site. One built heritage element of twentieth century date was recorded in the walkover survey. This was a Second World War pill box. <6> 2019. Excavation. An archaeological evaluation comprising of 52 trenches was undertaken in 2019. This found extensive truncation and land raising throughout the site of the former power Station, with few finds and a lot of contamination. The trenches in the northern part of the site identified a series of peat horizons in undisturbed alluvial deposits. The peat deposits were dated to the Iron Age. <7> Additional reference <8>