Wat-er way to revamp historic hydro station

MANY people wonder about the apparently derelict sandstone building on the corner of Castle Drive and the Old Dee Bridge between Chester and Handbridge.

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Plans are being developed to return this long neglected part of our heritage to have a useful place in the future of Chester.

Cheshire Heritage and Sustainability Enterprises, or CHASE for short, is the not-for-profit organisation developing the plans and views are now being sought in a survey and at meetings.

In 1913, the building was a newly-constructed state of the art hydroelectric station, the first of its kind in England to provide electricity from both tidal and headwater.

At one point, the station provided 40 per cent of Chester's electricity requirement until it ceased operation in 1951.