THE Magnet bowling alley, built in the 1960s behind Darlington library, is now no more, pulled down in the name of progress.
John Hill has been watching it come down and has been searching his archives for pictures of it. He knew he had taken some, but when he found them, the bowling alley turned out to be on the periphery of something far more interesting: the day in 1979 when the three enormous cooling towers which dominated Darlington’s skyline were pulled down.
The three cooling towers of Darlington on January 28, 1979. John Hill took the picture by standing where the Wilko's multi-storey car park is now with the Magnet bowl on the right
The brick towers were built in 1940 along with the electricity station beside them. At least one man was killed in their construction, and on John’s pictures you can see the remains of the camouflage pattern that was put on them to prevent German bombers seeing them – and indeed, even though the notorious turncoat broadcaster Lord Haw Haw promised to come and get them, they survived the war intact.
They were almost as notorious as Lord Haw Haw because they pumped out steam which mingled with the smoke from the steam engines on the East Coast Main Line to create an “artificial drizzle” which fell almost continuously on houses stretching from Haughton Road to Bank Top station. It made it impossible for housewives to hang their white bedsheets in their backyards to dry.
Going: the first of the three towers comes down on January 28, 1979
The station stopped generating in 1976 and the towers were demolished on January 28, 1979, with John on hand to record their passing – with the Magnet bowling alley in the corner.
Going: the second of the three towers comes down on January 28, 1979
The disappearance of the towers put an end to the filthy drizzle and solved another problem – people reported that their colour television reception improved enormously.
Only one tower left, and, below
The aftermath of the detonations on the cooling towers. Pictures: John Hill
READ MORE: DARLINGTON'S LOST BOWLING ALLEY
READ EVEN MORE: FINDING LOVE AT THE MAGNET BOWL
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