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Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter
The Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter was an industrial facility near Ashington, Northumberland, on the coast of North East England, 0.65 mi (1.05 km) south of the village of Lynemouth. The smelter was owned by the Canadian aluminium company Alcan, which is part of Rio Tinto. The smelter was opened in 1974 at a cost, which exceeded its budgeted estimate of £54 million, of $156 million. The plant ceased production in March 2012, and demolition of the facility was completed in March 2018.
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43 m
Lynemouth Colliery
Lynemouth Colliery was a coal mine in Lynemouth, Northumberland, England. It was in operation between 1927 and 1994. According to Historic England, "it was one of Britain's largest collieries until it was closed due to an underground fire". The colliery was demolished in 2005.
Its number 1 pit was the downcast, and its number 2 was the upcast.
In 1960, the mine employed 1,734 people (1,390 above ground, 344 below).
1.2 km
Lynemouth power station
Lynemouth Power Station is a biomass power plant which provides electricity for the UK National Grid. Until March 2012, it was the main source of electricity for the nearby Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter. It is located on the coast of Northumberland, north east of the town of Ashington in north east England. The station has stood as a landmark on the Northumberland coast since it opened in 1972, and had been privately owned by aluminium company Rio Tinto Alcan throughout its operation until December 2013, when RWE npower took over. In January 2016 it was acquired by the Czech company Energetický a průmyslový holding.
The station was one of the most recently built coal-fired power stations in the United Kingdom, but with a generating capacity of only 420 megawatts (MW), was one of the smallest.
In 2011, it was announced that the power station may be converted to burn biomass only, in a bid to avoid government legislation. In January 2016 the station was purchased by Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH). The station converted to biomass in 2018, ending its use of coal. Two separate wind farm plants currently have permission to be built near the station, one for a 13 turbine wind farm near the smelter and another three turbine wind farm to the north of the station. In 2009, Alcan announced that they hope to fit the station with carbon capture and storage technology.
1.8 km
Lynemouth
Lynemouth is a village in Northumberland, England, 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Ashington, close to the village of Ellington to the north west. It was built close to coal mines, including Lynemouth Colliery.
Lynemouth and the surrounding industrial area featured in the 1985 docudrama Seacoal about the seacoalers who made a living from collecting waste coal from the beach. A series of photographs in the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award–winning book In Flagrante (1988) by Chris Killip shows the work and life of the seacoalers; more were published in 2011 in the book Seacoal.
To the south of the village is the former Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter, now closed, and Lynemouth Power Station.
2.0 km
Ellington Colliery
Ellington Colliery (also known as The Big E), was a coal mine situated to the south of the village of Ellington in Northumberland, England. The colliery was the last deep coal mine in the north east of England (also known as the Great Northern Coalfield). At one time, the deepest part of the mine was 800 metres (2,600 ft) and it extended 15 miles (24 km) under the North Sea. During the 1980s, the pit (along with Lynemouth Colliery) was known as the biggest undersea mine in the world and produced 69% of the mined coal in Northumberland.
Ellington had several faces for mining and was known for winning coal from under the North Sea, before flooding caused the early closure of the mine.