In today’s Urbandoned video, we are showcasing
yet another abandoned UK power station, Ferrybridge C in Yorkshire, that we infiltrated through
the night in Spring 2020. The staggering 60s dating facility finalised
decommissioning in 2016 and had since been left vacant. Back when we visited, the turbine hall was
being worked on, but a true gem of a control room was still in excellent condition. It was up to us to survive the dark, endless
environment and evade patrolling officers to reach the morning’s sunrise and see the
room for ourselves. Alex: Greetings students and welcome to my
lesson. I am teacher Alex and we are today learning
about the Urbandoned magazine. I’ve got a host with me today - sir Alistair. Welcome. Alistair: Thank you. Alex: Thank you for joining us today. Alistair: So, what are we here to talk about
today for this class? Alex: Today we are here to talk about the
new edition of the Urbandoned magazine: Issue #2 as well as the bundle which included Issue
#1 and Issue #2 for a lower price. Alistair: Get a load of these. Issue #1 was our young brainchild. We worked hard on this at the start of the
year before releasing it to you guys and it sold very well. Issue #2 on the other hand is the second coming. Alex: We worked equally as hard with twice
the brainpower. Alistair: Yes. We’ve had a bit more experience this time
and this is what we came out with. Alex: It features our power station exploration
of Ferrybridge Power Station which you may know from the title of this video. Alistair: Yeah. If you enjoy this video and want to read more,
there is eight pages dedicated to the power station and our intense mission to get inside. Alex: That’s eight. Alistair: We think it’s definitely worth
the read, especially after we spent so long on them. Alex: We spent a long time. Alistair: We did. Millions of years of research ended up with
these two pieces of paper. Alex: They say it takes ten thousand hours
to put into something to become a professional. Alistair: We did double. 30,000 hours. Alex: That is double, guys. Alistair: And that’s why we’re the teachers
and you’re the students. How exactly had we managed to reach the heart
of the formidable property in the middle of the night and leave totally undetected after
daybreak? To tell the story, we have to go back to 6
hours prior at the beginning of our adventure. After a challenging and relentless entry,
dodging cameras and guards whilst tackling fences galore, we were gazing over an industrial
paradise. We had recently succeeded at Eggborough Power
Station nearby and Ferrybridge was the next target. However, we had heard it was tougher than
the former structure in terms of entering, exploring and leaving. Alistair: From our perspective and the pictures
that we’ve taken, this is some of the most breathtaking industrial abandonment you can
see. Pitch black and there’s just these looming
shadows of the huge concrete structures that tower around everywhere. From every angle, you can see this place. That’s why it’s so iconic. Once we had ensured that nobody was following
us after an hour or so shivering on the roof, we began making our way down from the highest
point in the boiler house. Alistair: Water damage next to all this electricity. X: Just be careful in the turbine hall, because
you don’t know who’s walking around or who could come in. Stay in the corners and stay hidden. Alistair: This place is a maze. Alistair: It must have took an age to put
all these pipes through here and work out where everything is going. Korben: It must have taken f***ing years. Just saying, they probably had a work force
of X amount of people, so man hours - you’re looking at a couple thousand. Alistair: I wouldn’t have liked to look
at the blueprints, though. Alistair: They’re doing asbestos removal
in this bit. All these sheets and there is a ton of equipment
for construction, as well. It doesn’t really carry the same power station
aesthetic as other parts do. Jesus - if you didn’t this was the fire
escape from all these signs, you must be blind. Alistair: 29th February… and it’s the
1st March today. Clearly, workers were operating in the building
during the day enlisted to complete the unimaginable task of dismantling certain machinery across
the power plant. After closure, it took five years to bring
Ferrybridge to the ground and demolition was occurring for the majority of that time. Alistair: Holy sh**! This is the turbine hall. Jesus christ… I think, in terms of abandonment, this is
one of the biggest rooms I’ve ever been in. Alistair: Although, the turbines aren’t
in the best shape because they are being demolished, to see the inner workings of them is pretty
interesting, as well. If you think about it, it’s an even rarer
experience than seeing them in their usual state. You can see how large they are really and
how deep they go into the surface that they’re on. It’s fascinating. Ferrybridge C Station was the third to be
built in the area constructed between 1962 and 1968 by the CEGB. In this very room, the complex’s powerful
four 500MW Parson’s turbines were situated, being the first in the world to install machines
of this capability. Now, little remained of these beasts, besides
a closer look at their interior layouts. Alistair: This is definitely the most intact
turbine, at least this side, the other side has pretty much been taken away. Just colossal - it goes the entire span of
the width of this room. Even the bits that are ripped apart on this
one are still interesting. You can see the layout on the floor where
the turbine actually was and they’ve took the main blue parts off it. After fixing initial problems with the new
units, the sets became the standard model for most power stations owned by the CEGB
in the following ten years. You can see all the inner workings here. There’s a motor. Old plaque - ‘important: to operate turning
gear: start up high press, oil pump and motor driven, supply to turning gear… gear to
be shut off when turbine is running.’ Interesting. Alistair: Look at that spiral staircase. That is some intricate architecture at a power
station to say the least. Never seen anything like that before. Alistair: This is one of the smaller control
panels. I think there is one of these for each turbine
of the four. You can see them going all the way down the
hall to the other side. Alistair: ‘Potential explosive atmosphere.’ That’s just what we wanted. Alistair: All these wheels. Pretty sure there’s even more in this little
room. Yeah. It’s to do with the water spray - I can
see a sign. Just gargantuan, though. The power and importance of these four generators
in genuinely ridiculous. Alistair: Look at the scale of those guys,
over there. Hopefully, that indicates how big this room
is. Alistair: More construction equipment. I think we’ll leave that for later, because
there’s no lights in there, so we are going to have to wait for daylight to go inside. Whilst the control room waited our arrival,
we planned to head up to the gantry cranes to get an entirely refreshing perspective
of the generating hall. Alistair: That bit down there looks used. Can see tyre tracks that look quite fresh. This is what I’m interested in, though. This should take me onto the tracks for the
crane and give a great overview of the hall itself, and I mean, it already is. Jesus christ… Looking over the gigantic space, it was surreal
to feel as if we had it all to ourselves. Naturally, the more time you spend in a place
that’s nervy, the more comfortable you get, and we were starting to relax, which is a
huge negative in a property as protected as this. Alistair: This turbine is the most stripped. Barely anything or literally nothing of it
remains. Just the hole where it once was. They do look used though - those skips on
the crane. Possibly, they’d use them to take the material
that they’ve demolished and place it down there and that digger would move it outside. Korben: I reckon this crane is used, if I’m
honest with you. Alistair: Yeah. Part of the crane is probably used. I don’t think the full thing does anymore. It looks all dusty. Alistair: Imagine if the turbines were still
here. This place would literally be perfect. As the environmental laws changed regarding
coal power stations, and a fresh Large Combustion Plants Directive was presented, Ferrybridge
adapted over time, adding Flu Gas Desulphurisation to Uni 3 and 4, allowing those turbines to
meet the requirements of the notice. On the 28th March 2014, Unit 1 and 2 were
closed to lower the excessive damage being released into the air from the structure. A major fire in 2014 that supposedly caused
‘irreparable damage,’ additionally, meant that abiding to the environmental guidance
would leave Ferrybridge a failing operation, predicted to lose £100 million over the following
five years. Therefore, the iconic plant produced it’s
last electricity on the 23rd March 2016 before being decomissioned. These stunning images reflect how the station
appeared only months after closure, with the incredible turbines intact. If you would like to see more images of the
station from this bygone era, we’ll leave a link to the Power Stations of the UK website,
boasting a load from the UK. Meanwhile, things had taken a turn for the
worse for us. Whilst taking these cinematics atop one of
the various gantry cranes, a flash of colour from below saw one of our group suddenly sprint
directly into the boiler house. We assumed this could only mean one thing,
and low and behold, seconds afterwards, three policemen walked into the hall proceeding
to walk back and forth along it, shining torches around the room and up at the cranes. Luckily, we had darted into a cabin and were
safely hiding. Hours passed with torchlight scanning through
the dirty glass into our cabin, whilst we were frozen in position. Only when we had watched the patrolling men
exit the building, we eventually hesitantly made our way down to find the others. It had been a real wake up call. Alistair: So, as you saw then, we had our
first security patrol of the night and we had to hide up in one of the crane cabins. We ended up splitting up from the rest of
the guys, as well. We’re headed to try and find them now, but
it’s such a large place. It’s going to take quite a while to find
them. That woke us up, because we were chilling,
almost relaxing, just having a chat and then we remembered how serious this one was. Now, we’re back focused again and on edge. Theo: In here? Alistair: Yeah. Right. This way. Alistair: After all that of us leaving the
turbine hall, apparently these guys have gone back into it. We went to where they were hiding and they
went to where we were. We decided that, rather than camping out the
nearing sunrise next to the prized room, we would ascend the boiler house again and look
more closely at it, before returning to the turbine hall when the time came. Alistair: Seems to be where all the pipes
are meeting. It’s a weird selection of construction lights,
though, it gives the area some really nice lighting. Here’s the boiler, as well, just around
the corner. After our close encounter, the constant noises
caused by wind and broken rafters lifted the hairs on our necks. Our capture had been narrowly avoided and
there was no way we would offer the same chance again. Alistair: These pipes are crazy! Wherever you look, there seems to be a pipe. Alistair: Jesus… As the morning light barely broke on the horizon,
we were sat up on the roof reflecting on our expedition and feeling excited for what was
to come soon. 6 hours in one of the UK’s largest power
stations was quite a special sentiment to say, particularly now long after the building’s
demise. As the light increased, we made our way down
from the towering roof and towards the small room that had motivated our entire trip. All that was left to do was calmly wait for
the maximum amount of daylight to have found it’s way into the centre of operations,
before we opened the double doors for the first time. Alistair: Jesus christ! Wow… this is ridiculous! It had been well worth the mission. Ferrybridge’s control room was unbelievable,
a futuristic hub that resembled the cockpit of a spaceship. Designed in the 1960s and hardly altered over
the years, you can see the similarities with Eggborough, particularly where each unit wraps
around it’s own corner whilst the engineering controls were in the middle of the spacious
room. Alistair: This ceiling is amazing. The two rooms are definitely incomparable. However, there was something in the air at
Ferrybridge, as we marvelled at the bright and vast panels, a glow of orange light casted
through the double doors into the room indicating that the sun had finally risen. Alistair: That’s quite a cool design. You’ve got each unit, each turbine has its
own panel and they go all around the room in a circle and it’s matched by the cool,
artistic ceiling. Alistair: They’re satisfying, aren’t they? Theo: Yeah, they’re really satisfying. Alistair: It’s just the click. Theo: Should I click the ‘emergency trip
operator?’ Alistair: Yeah, go for it. Theo: Oh yeah, that’s nice. Oh sh**! Oh my… Alistair: Is that one really good? Theo: It’s not really, no. These are the best ones. Alistair: Yeah. Imagine how it would look all lit up. All of the coloured lights would be on. It seems uncommon these days that a building
prides itself on it’s architecturally fascinating assets, but Ferrybridge and Eggborough Power
Stations liked to stray away from modernisation and maintain their retro command centres. It’s ever so unfortunate that the structures
couldn’t save their rooms in a museum fashion when they were flattened. Alistair: This is a switchroom, I think, but
I mean, I’d take this control panel on any other day if we weren’t here. So many little boxes, I wonder what these
are for. Looks like they have miniature circuit boards
in them. Alistair: For such a modern room, it really
is still interesting. The design of the ceiling and the floor tiles
makes it so unique compared to the really boring modern day control rooms you’d see
with computers and small, pointless switches. This one is so impressive. Alistair: Moving into some offices behind
the control room. Wow! This is a good view - it shows all the demolition
that’s going on. All these are parts from the turbines. There used to be six and now there is only
three, because they’ve been demolished. Theo: It’s so nice in the day. Alistair: Yeah, it’s much nicer now, isn’t
it? Oh well. It was due time for us to make our leave,
grateful to see the impressive turbine hall in the day as we departed. Theo: That would be so nice to shoot this
now. Alistair: Yeah, I know. Between 2019 and 2022, Ferrybridge has been
removed from it’s permanent staple on the Yorkshire landscape in tremendous blasts viewed
across the globe. Knowing that the two derelict stations in
the region have now vanished, we feel truly privileged to have seen both internally and
been able to document them on our channel at a later date. Hopefully, we showcased them to the stature
they deserve as integral pieces of history in British industry. Here are some of our photographs from Ferrybridge
Power Station. If you like the look of them, check out our
Instagram page in the description, where we share images from our explores months before
they are seen on YouTube. Thanks for watching! Happy New Year! Remember to grab a copy of Issue #2 of our
magazine if you are interested as they are selling out fast. See you next time!
