Power & electricity
TL Jones from Wrexham shares some memories about how the town got its heat and power in the 60s - and he starts with a ghost story which he had originally submitted to the
Weird Wales! mini site. Use the form below to add your memories about this period in Wrexham's history...
For my encounter with a ghost in Wrexham I shall have to go back about 60 years. It took place at the Wrexham Electricity Works which was in Willow Road, on the site that Matalan now occupies. When I started my apprentice training it was in the power station and I was told "when you are on nights, watch out for Peter Walker's ghost". This, I took, with a pinch of salt and thought it was said to scare me. Until one night I saw on the crane rail what appeared to be an old man standing there looking down on me. After a while he seemed to evaporate. That, they assured me, was Peter Walker still keeping in touch with what used to be his brewery which was converted into Wrexham Power Station. As a matter of interest, Wrexham also had its own incinerator during that time. It collected all the rubbish from the shops and fired an old Lancashire boiler which heated Wrexham Baths' water situated in Tuttle Street. The water for the baths came from a spring which rose in Brook Street and was piped along the brook wall. Wrexham Town Council knew how to do it in those days.
your comments
Glyn Bellis, Rhos
I worked with you and your father, I also nearly met Peter Walker's ghost when I was cleaning the brook at about midnight.
Mon Aug 4 10:11:43 2008
T L Jones Wrexham
The Power station when I joined it as an apprentice consisted of five piston type steam driven D C generators ( three Willans and two Bellis and Morecam )and three rotary convertors, which ran full time taking power from the old North Wales Power Company. The steam supply was from Babcock and Wilcox hand fed chain grate boilers using slack coal from the local pits, the steam pressure was 150 lbs per square inch. The electrical supply was all D C in those days. I well remember the Mains Dept had a simple way of detecting faults in cables under the town's pavements. After a shower of rain they would walk the pavements where the cables were and any dry spots would indicate a cable heating up and a possible fault developing. A very crude but effective method. A far cry from today's technical methods.
Thu Oct 21 21:18:45 2004
T L Jones, Wrexham
The power station and electricity works occupied the site of the Peter Walker Brewery. The power station was housed in the main brewery building and the outer buildings were occupied by the following departments. (1) The electrical repair dept which dealt with household equipment and street lighting. (2) The mains dept which dealt with repairs to mains overhead and underground cable repairs, (3)There was a lovely big house at the entrance which I assumed the brewery owner lived in this was used by the Chief Electrical Eng as an office. The old Joy Center was across the road. In the yard of this complex was a sunken tank into which the spring water flowed and when this tank started to overflow into the brook it was our apprentice's job to start a pump and pump it into an overhead tank which was raised to such a height that the bath's attendants opened a valve and it topped or filled the baths by gravity. I was told that Wrexham could have become a spar town due to this water and springs. How true this was I don't know but I have often wondered what has happened to this natural lovely water, evidently turned down into the river, what a waste of a natural supply. Our forefathers certainly knew how to make use of nature's freebies. I used to say the old power station would have made a wonderful museum. It's a pity councils are so short sighted.
Fri Oct 1 20:53:27 2004
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