For nearly six decades Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station's cooling towers have been a landmark on the horizon. As the station undergoes decommissioning, the towers took on a new temporary role as the setting for a musical performance, which showcased a collaborative project between the Universities of Nottingham and Sheffield.
Nottingham local and bass clarinet specialist Dr Sarah Watts, Director of Performance at the University of Sheffield, has spent her career performing at venues all over the world. For her latest project she has teamed up with composer Elizabeth Kelly, Professor of Music Composition at the University of Nottingham, to record music in a unique setting much closer to home.
The cooling towers have been part of the Nottinghamshire skyline since the power station was commissioned in the late 1960s. Following the end of coal fired electricity generation in September 2024, musicians Dr Watts and Professor Kelly were inspired to collaborate on two musical pieces to document and celebrate the unique acoustics of the cooling towers, with permission from Uniper, the power station's owners, and support from the operational team at Ratcliffe.
The filming of the project was funded by a University of Nottingham Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) grant. The project bid 'Amplifying and Preserving the Music of Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station' was developed by co-leads Professor Kelly and Dr Watts and forms part of their university work. The grant aims to strengthen engagement between arts and humanities researchers (music researchers in this case) with industry and the public to accelerate the translation of research outputs (in this case the musical compositions and performances) into societal impacts.
After their first site visit in March 2025, Dr Watts was inspired to compose her piece It's All I've Known, following her conversation with a Ratcliffe team member about the future.
Dr Sarah Watts said: "I wanted to create music that documented the building, the acoustics, the history and the story of the cooling towers. I think people document places like this through photographs, interviews, film footage, but I took this as a chance to document the acoustics because they are very unique and once these have gone there is no way of getting that back."
Professor Kelly composed her piece Cooling Cathedral to explore the exceptional resonance of the industrial space. In the work, Dr Watts plays percussive sounds on her bass clarinet which echo across the space, and a melody which blends together into harmonies as the music unfolds.
My piece was inspired by the incredible acoustic in the cooling towers. The extraordinary resonance of the space reminded me of a cathedral."
The musical compositions are dedicated to the workers of Ratcliffe power station, past and present, their families, and the surrounding communities who have lived with the eight cooling towers on the skyline.
Sean Atton, Site Manager at Uniper's Ratcliffe power station, said: "Having these pieces of music recorded in the cooling towers, whilst they are still standing, is just fantastic. It's another unique way of remembering these structures."
The music videos for It's all I've known, Cooling Cathedral and 'making of' interviews are now available on the University of Nottingham's YouTube channel as a record of the cooling tower acoustics, and a celebration of the role Ratcliffe power station, and its employees have played in keeping the lights on over the years.
