demolished at the turn of the millennium, the five cooling towers continue to dominate the skyline of the local area. The site was earmarked for a large residential development, but the application was rejected and in 2011 permission was granted for a new power station to be built on the site. Willington 'A' station began to generate electric power in December 1957. Its four 104,000 kW boiler/turbine generator units were commissioned by 1959. The first of the two 200,000 kW units in the later and more advanced 'B' station started to produce power in June 1962 and the second unit was commissioned in March 1963. Willington A and B were among the CEGB’s twenty steam power stations with the highest thermal efficiency. In 1963–4 the thermal efficiency of the A station was 31.46 per cent, then 31.39 per cent in 1964–5, and 31.28 per cent in 1965–6. In 1963–4 the thermal efficiency of the B station was 32.47 per cent, then 31.69 per cent in 1964–5, and 31.59 per cent in 1965–6. The annual electricity output of Willington A & B were: The 'A' and 'B' Stations were unique among power plants in the United Kingdom. They consisted of a central boiler area with the boilers arranged in a square formation, flanked on two sides by identical turbine houses, each enclosing two turbine generating sets. The main reason for adopting this unusual plan was to reduce the capital cost of the station by the use of a special temporary lifting rig for site handling of the 160 ton generator stator. In a conventional turbine house design of the overhead crane, its runway beams, the vertical support columns and their foundations are all designed to handle the heaviest lift which is invariably the generator stator. At Willington a large saving of the costs was achieved by installing overhead cranes and support structures rated at 50 tons lifting capacity, intended to handle only the second heaviest item of plant. The use of this special rig for the stator lifting necessitated a loading bay, with access for road transporters, alongside each generator foundation block and the best way to provide this facility was to arrange the turbine generators in pairs, steam ends together. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’ stations were also notable in the United Kingdom for the ‘part closure’ of their boiler plant instead of the more conventional scheme where all the boilers