Does anyone remember the old Formby Power Station?? if so which road was it on?

I thought Formby Power Station just provided power for the railway. When they changed to taking power off the grid it closed down and for years the building was a factory making polystyrene
Phil

Would the polystyrene factory have been Ross Insulation by any chance? If so, that would be Mike Ross's place, the lucky git that married that glorious looking Kitty Ridgeway. Are they still together does anyone know?

Rosslite Rio in cracked ice, they used to make it in huge rolls, Slinns used to sell it and my dad had the awful stuff on every ceiling. I remember going to the old power house to pick some up

I used to work in Slinns on a Saturday and remember selling that stuff.

Someone on here posted a link to an Urban Exploration site recently, and while I was trawling through some of the places that these guys "visit" I found THIS.
It looks like it was a pretty interesting place in its day, shame it has been left to decay and allowed to be taken over by the local yobs.

C.

Originally Posted by Wilky

Would the polystyrene factory have been Ross Insulation by any chance? If so, that would be Mike Ross's place, the lucky git that married that glorious looking Kitty Ridgeway. Are they still together does anyone know?

Yes, I am the "Lucky Git" who married Kitty. We moved to Rochdale in 1965. We had four kids and six grandkids but sadly
Kitty passed away 5th September 2009 aged 64. My kids gave me a surprise 70th last month and located Tony Jackson in Birmingham who I hadn't seen for 45 years!
I've only just discovered this site and have enjoyed going down memory lane. My E.mail is mike.ross1940@btinternet.com if anybody has any other news from the good old days..Mike Ross

A few pictures from our archive can be viewed HERE

And a bit more information below.

The large, somewhat gaunt building stands alongside the railway on the Liverpool, or south side of Formby very much apart, alone, almost aloof, in a wide expanse of open country.It was built in 1904 to contain the electricity generating
plant supplying the Liverpool-Southport electric railway. It also provided the electric power for the small village, as Formby was at that time.

Thus the name, "Power House" - still used to this day, although by the nineteen thirties the power for the railway had been transferred to installations elsewhere and the national grid system had taken over all general electricity supplies.

For some years it stood empty, except for its use as a government ministry storage place during the 1939-45 war.

It remained the property of the railway company (later the nationalised British Railways Board).
It is an enormous building. Its impressive size is only fully realised when close to it, or from inside. It is entirely brick-built (walls three-feet thick) in two equal divisions adjoining lengthwise. The windows are wide, high and arch-topped. An
outside "cat-walk" with a cast-iron handrail runs at eaves level the full length on both sides. The reach of roof-span over each division is a striking feature. The height at each apex is 63 feet and being in flat countryside, the building is visible from considerable distances.

With its solid stature and twin roof-ridges, its patterned brickwork and tall, almost church-like windows it must, in its early days, have seemed almost majestic.

About eighty yards away there is a small, compact brick building. It stands beside the little River Alt that skirts the factory grounds. This housed the pumping equipment taking water from the stream and forcing it through great ducts and pipes to a storage point for the power station boilers. The
ducting and pipes are gone and the building has long been a goods store, though it is still referred to as "the pump house".

No approach road existed originally, other than a track, not much more than a footpath, that ran alongside the railway, starting from near to the station. Access otherwise was from the railway in the form of a small "halt" platform (the remains
of which can still be seen) and shunting sidings for rail trucks supplying coal and other materials from the main line into the premises.

From Gerald Edwards book "The Power House" about 1983.

In answer to the original question it was on Hoggs Hill Lane my late Grandmother lived in Hoggs Hill Lane.

I worked at Ross Warmafoam for a few months on maintenance in 1973, got laid off around the time the 5hre3 day week came in.

Originally Posted by DixieRoy

I worked at Ross Warmafoam for a few months on maintenance in 1973, got laid off around the time the 5hre3 day week came in.

Hi just found this,i worked there between 1967 to 1971 are there many of use still around?