This is the dramatic moment four huge cooling towers at the historic Rugeley Power Station were demolished in just five seconds. The 400ft high towers collapsed in a cloud of dust following a controlled explosion at 11.15am on Sunday (6/6). The demolition was pushed back 15 minutes to avoid disrupting the D-day commemoration event at the nearby National Memorial Arboretum. Owners Engie livestreamed the event on YouTube to prevent hundreds of onlookers flocking to the site. The coal-fired power station dominated the South Staffordshire skyline since the 1950s providing electricity to millions of homes.

The imposing landmark represented one of the region’s last links to its proud coal-mining heritage. The four remaining towers made up Rugeley B which joined Rugeley A on the sprawling site when it was completed in 1970. The first of five towers to be built at Rugeley A became the world’s first large dry cooling towers. The closure of nearby Lea Hill colliery in 1991 required coal to be transported by train to the furnaces. This led to the power station’s downfall with Rugeley A beginning to be decommissioned in 1994.

It was demolished in 1996 having burned 40million tonnes of coal in its lifetime. Both sites were initially operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board before being privatised and handed over to National Power. At its peak capacity of 600 megawatts in 1983, the power station employed 850 people and Rugeley B powered half a million homes. When Rugeley B was closed in 2016, 150 workers lost their jobs after plans to switch to biomass burning were abandoned. Current owner Engie has planning permission to turn the site into a sustainable mixed-use development of 2,300 low carbon homes.