A YouTuber has taken a closer look at the former Stockport power station, which was demolished in the early 1980s.

Martin Zero, an urban explorer and industrial historian, charted some of the power station's surviving tunnels with his team. Those tunnels are all that remains of the site to date.

Stockport Power Station - also known as Millgate - was based on the site of what is now the Portwood Retail Park. It supplied electricity to the area between 1899 and 1976.

A remarkable side-by-side shows the extent of the former site, as it stands now and as it stood in 1946. Orient yourself via the two circles near the bottom left; the site of the gasometers.

A side by side showing the site of the former power station in the modern day versus in 1946 (Images via Martin Zero / Google Earth)

From its construction in 1899 until its demolition around 80 years later, it dominated the Stockport skyline, and can be seen in many pictures from the period.

Even in the famous picture of Joy Division taken outside Strawberry Studios, the factory is visible.

In a dedicated video, Martin and the team explore the tunnels beneath the former power station.

When the station was in operation, these tunnels would have been flowing with high pressure water, which would have fed both the boilers and the site's cooling system.

Martin described the tunnels as "like something from a nightmare".

"As you can imagine, this place caused us some worry", he said. "Not the nicest place to get in."

Of particular challenge was the surviving penstock - a valve which would once have been used to control the flow of water through the tunnels.

The explorers had to pass under it - but decades of rust and the prospect of a broken mechanism made doing so quite frightening!

"You've got this Russian Roulette where each one of you has got to go through without the penstock falling down on you", Martin explained.

"You might think I'm exaggerating, but that penstock is so unnerving."

Martin Zero uploads regular videos covering industrial history in Greater Manchester and beyond. You can find the Stockport power station video, and others like it, on the Martin Zero channel.

Please note that Martin and the team undertook this exploration under supervision and with proper equipment. Do not try this yourself!

A massive thanks to Martin Zero and his team for their work in researching this building, and for granting permission to use stills from the video.

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