Stella Power Stations - Cultural Use

Cultural Use

Photographs taken c.1980 (above) and 2006 (below), after complete clearance of the stations

The power stations were a strong local landmark. Their chimneys could be seen along a roughly 13.8 km (8.6 mi) long section of the Tyne valley; from Bensham near Gateshead down to Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland: almost no other building was present to obstruct the view.

When still in operation, the power stations appeared in films and television programs shot in the Newcastle area. They appeared in Payroll, a movie made in 1961, starring Michael Craig. One of two security van operators lives in Stella park, a housing estate above the power station. It is prominently in the background whenever the van operator's home is shown. In 1985, the Stella power stations are seen briefly in a shot in Seacoal, a movie made by Amber Films. They appear during a scene where the two protagonists, Ray and Betty, are travelling from Sunderland to Newcastle. (Lynemouth power station, a North East power station still in operation, is more prominent in the film.) In Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, a British sitcom broadcast between 1973 and 1974, the stations themselves did not appear in the series, but in the end credits their ash boat, Bessie Surtees, could be seen passing Spiller's Wharf near Byker. In 1981, it was featured in Swing Bridge Videos' Check it Out, a short film about youth unemployment in the west end of Newcastle. In the mid-1990s, the decommissioned stations were photographed by north eastern artist John Kippin as part of his work The Secret Intelligence of the Silent. This piece was exhibited at the Laing Art Gallery in 2012 as part of the exhibition Futureland Now.