The two Bolton power stations supplied electric power to the town of Bolton and the wider area between 1894 and 1979. The first power station was located in Bolton town centre but by 1910 was too small to meet the growing demand for electricity. A large coal-fired power station was commissioned in 1914 situated at Back o’ th’ Bank about 1 mile north of the town centre. The electricity generating station was redeveloped several times until it was closed in 1979 and was subsequently demolished and the site redeveloped.
History
The Corporation of Bolton obtained legal powers under the Bolton Electric Lighting Order (confirmed by the Electric Lighting Orders Confirmation (No.1) Act 1891) to generate and supply electricity throughout the town. Bolton was first supplied with electricity on 31 October 1894 from an electricity works commissioned by the Bolton Corporation. The power station (53°34’40"N 2°26’20"W) was located on Spa Road immediately east of the Spa Fields gas works and extended south to Gas Street. The station supplied current for lighting and power to industrial, commercial and domestic premises in the town, including the electric tram system which opened in 1900. In 1897 the plant had a generating capacity of 1050 kW and the maximum load was 380 kW. A total of 341.888 MWh of electricity was sold which provided an income to the corporation of £6,693-17-5d.
The municipal ownership of gas, water, electricity, markets and tramways in Bolton generated a relief of 11d. in £1 (£1=240d.) on the rates or local taxes. However, in 1901 it was suggested that Bolton Corporation were making large profits by charging high prices. In 1901 it cost 0.96d. to produce 1 kWh of electricity in Bolton but consumers were charged 3.41 d./kWh, making a profit of 2.45d./kWh. This was compared, unfavourably, to Norwich where the electric company (not a municipal authority) produced electricity for 2.4d./kWh and sold for 3.9d./kWh a profit of 1.5d./kWh. Despite these claims the use of electricity increased.
Electrical power was supplied to the town's textile mills, which had previously used individually generated steam power to drive their machinery. Falcon Mill in Bolton was built between 1904–8 and was the first cotton mill in Lancashire to be powered by electricity.
In 1899 the Bolton Corporation Electric Fittings Department sacked two workers for refusing to work overtime at the basic rate. The Electrical Trades Union escalated the dispute and within a week the Department had reinstated the workers. More widely this resulted in new employment conditions: normal weekly hours were reduced from 52 to 50 at 9d. per hour with defined rates for overtime.
Back o’ th’ Bank power station
By the late-1900s the power station at Spa Road was increasingly unable to meet the growing demand for electricity. In 1912 the Electricity Committee of the Bolton Corporation proposed the construction of a new larger power station at Back o’ th’ Bank (53°35'34.9"N 2°25'27.6"W), about 1 mile (1.5 km) north of the town centre. The selected site was west of the River Tonge and east of the Astley Bridge branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, and directly across the river from the Denvale cotton mills. The advantages of the site were that the river provided water for condensing steam at the plant and the railway enabled coal fuel to be delivered directly to the station.
The local government board sanctioned the development in 1913. Building work on the new station started in February 1914 and the first 4,000 kW turbo-alternator was commissioned on 3 September 1914. Further plant, including a second 4,000 kW machine, was installed in 1917–18. After the First World War the plant at original generating station at Spa Road was decommissioned, but the site was retained as a transformer substation, for converting AC to DC, and for the distribution of electricity. The frontage of the former generating station in Spa Road is extant (2020).
Operations
To cater for increased demand, new buildings were constructed at Back o' th' Bank for additional plant. Between 1921 and 1923 further steam raising plant was installed consisting of eighteen boilers each capable of supplying 34,000 lb/hr (4.3 kg/s) of steam at a pressure of 225 psi (15.5 bar). The total capacity of steam raising plant was 408,000 lb/hr (51.4 kg/s).