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A Powerful Past
This is Barry Wales. He visited our showroom on a very wet August morning, to look at lighting for his son. His son had noticed – whilst on our website – that we had items from Fawley Power Station. It turns out Barry (who lives very local to Stroud) worked at Fawley for 10 years from 1973 to 1983.
In Control
We are very envious of the fact that throughout his time at Fawley, as Assistant Unit Operator, Barry’s specific place of work was the iconic Control Room. This mid-century brutalist building set to the side of the power station was really something to behold. Despite its no-nonsense and essential function, it was actually quite beautiful – like a flying saucer that had landed by the beach with news from outer space! Barry’s role alongside his colleagues was, as he so modestly put it “to operate the power station” and as a Royal Naval Reserve he took on additional responsibilities and used to liaise regularly with the Naval base on the other side of the inlet.
All stacked up
Most notably, Barry recounted how in 1977 for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, he was asked to go to the top of “the stack” – that’s the giant chimney to you and I – to send a message to the Queen aboard the Britannia. He travelled up the stack in silence, all 650feet of it, passing through the centre which, he informed us contained 4 interior chimneys as well as a central lift shaft, popping out at the top minutes later. From there, armed with a signal lantern that he had borrowed from the neighbouring naval base, he sent the morse code message “Loyal Greetings” before quietly descending once again to carry on his work day. A few weeks later GEBC (as it was known then, the Central Electricity Generating Board) received a telegram from the Queen thanking them for their greeting; and so a tradition started of messaging from the stack on momentous occasions.
These included sending messages of hope to armed forces heading to the Falklands as well as welcoming them back home, not to mention watching out over the events of the raising of the Marie Rose from the bed of the Solent.
Rollerball
We could have talked to Barry for hours – he told us all about their secret night shift wonders along the tunnels beneath the power station, saying tantilisingly “There were tunnels under the tunnels you know?!”. He recounted how the actor James Caan, during the filming of the 1975 Rollerball film, would join Barry down where the “screens” were… from what I could gather these were mesh filters to stop fish, dragged in from the sea for cooling purposes, ending up in the cooling system itself; and apparently Caan was absolutely fascinated with the number and variety of fish that ended up there and would visit the screens with Barry at every opportunity.
Barry also talked very fondly about the community at Fawley – how it was like a family. In fact some of the workers who helped build the power station were then retained to work at the power station once it was operational. They enjoyed all sorts of recreation facilities on site and would often have matches with colleagues in the Snooker Hall there; and they all raved about the canteen, located in the building built in the shape of a yacht which sat just below the flying saucer control room. CEGB even had their own boat that staff would take on fishing trips together.
Bittersweet
I think it was a bittersweet visit for Barry – he was sad that his part of his past had literally been destroyed but seemed pleased we had managed to salvage some of it at least, and that we had taken as many lights as we could. Barry still goes back to the area when he can and meets up with the Ex Fawley Members Group.
It really goes to show the memories and feelings that some of these old and well-used items can evoke. We feel really proud to be giving them a new lease of life where they can continue to make new memories and hold even more stories, hopefully as interesting and varied as Barry’s.
You can tread a bit more about the Fawley salvage job and find further links on the power station in our other blog
Meanwhile a big Thank You to Barry Wales and for his permission to take a photo and write a little bit about him.
After 3 very long days and nights setting up, we finally flung open the doors of our East London pop-up showroom on Friday 4th May. It looks pretty good even if we say so ourselves. Thanks to all those who have found the time
A Powerful Past
This is Barry Wales. He visited our showroom on a very wet August morning, to look at lighting for his son. His son had noticed – whilst on our website – that we had items from Fawley Power Station. It turns out Barry (who lives very local to Stroud) worked at Fawley for 10 years from 1973 to 1983.
In Control
We are very envious of the fact that throughout his time at Fawley, as Assistant Unit Operator, Barry’s specific place of work was the iconic Control Room. This mid-century brutalist building set to the side of the power station was really something to behold. Despite its no-nonsense and essential function, it was actually quite beautiful – like a flying saucer that had landed by the beach with news from outer space! Barry’s role alongside his colleagues was, as he so modestly put it “to operate the power station” and as a Royal Naval Reserve he took on additional responsibilities and used to liaise regularly with the Naval base on the other side of the inlet.
All stacked up
Most notably, Barry recounted how in 1977 for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, he was asked to go to the top of “the stack” – that’s the giant chimney to you and I – to send a message to the Queen aboard the Britannia. He travelled up the stack in silence, all 650feet of it, passing through the centre which, he informed us contained 4 interior chimneys as well as a central lift shaft, popping out at the top minutes later. From there, armed with a signal lantern that he had borrowed from the neighbouring naval base, he sent the morse code message “Loyal Greetings” before quietly descending once again to carry on his work day. A few weeks later GEBC (as it was known then, the Central Electricity Generating Board) received a telegram from the Queen thanking them for their greeting; and so a tradition started of messaging from the stack on momentous occasions.
These included sending messages of hope to armed forces heading to the Falklands as well as welcoming them back home, not to mention watching out over the events of the raising of the Marie Rose from the bed of the Solent.
Rollerball
We could have talked to Barry for hours – he told us all about their secret night shift wonders along the tunnels beneath the power station, saying tantilisingly “There were tunnels under the tunnels you know?!”. He recounted how the actor James Caan, during the filming of the 1975 Rollerball film, would join Barry down where the “screens” were… from what I could gather these were mesh filters to stop fish, dragged in from the sea for cooling purposes, ending up in the cooling system itself; and apparently Caan was absolutely fascinated with the number and variety of fish that ended up there and would visit the screens with Barry at every opportunity.
Barry also talked very fondly about the community at Fawley – how it was like a family. In fact some of the workers who helped build the power station were then retained to work at the power station once it was operational. They enjoyed all sorts of recreation facilities on site and would often have matches with colleagues in the Snooker Hall there; and they all raved about the canteen, located in the building built in the shape of a yacht which sat just below the flying saucer control room. CEGB even had their own boat that staff would take on fishing trips together.
Bittersweet
I think it was a bittersweet visit for Barry – he was sad that his part of his past had literally been destroyed but seemed pleased we had managed to salvage some of it at least, and that we had taken as many lights as we could. Barry still goes back to the area when he can and meets up with the Ex Fawley Members Group.
It really goes to show the memories and feelings that some of these old and well-used items can evoke. We feel really proud to be giving them a new lease of life where they can continue to make new memories and hold even more stories, hopefully as interesting and varied as Barry’s.
You can tread a bit more about the Fawley salvage job and find further links on the power station in our other blog
Meanwhile a big Thank You to Barry Wales and for his permission to take a photo and write a little bit about him.
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