These Massive Power Station Chimneys Cooling Towers Were Really Central In Understanding My Existence

these massive power station chimneys cooling towers were really central in understanding my existence in the world as a child as they were the biggest thing i had ever seen. when i had to imagine something 'big' i would shut my eyes and think of these. i admit i still do, sometimes.

it's probably thanks to those at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in the Trent Valley (or 'megawatt valley') which you could see from Charnwood Forest, where i used to walk with my mum from her home in Leicester, when i was small. the towers were quite far away yet still so visible and vast, like storybook giants.

more recently when i was maybe 18 and just out of school i was getting a train from Loughborough to Nottingham to see a gig that my friend Maia was putting on. i had to change at East Midlands Parkway. i got off the train, and it pulled away to reveal these massive towers just over the fence. i realised they were those same ones at Ratcliffe. life seemed quite directionless, as it does when you've just finished school, but the towers were still there and still massive and i was nearly touching them.

i just sat on the platform and stared at them for about twenty minutes while i waited for my train. i wish i could remember what music i was listening to, makes me want to keep a music diary. i took a photo on my phone that i wish i could post alongside this one but idk where it is :-/

apparently Ratcliffe was the last remaining operational coal-fired power station in the UK, and it was closed in 2024. i hope those towers stay standing.

Michael Kenna, Silent World