[4] The civil works were built by Taylor Woodrow Construction, the cooling towers by Yorkshire Hennibique, the chimney by Tileman and the steelwork for the main buildings by the Cleveland Bridge Company between 1964 and 1971, and came into full operation in 1973.

[4] When it was built, the station mainly burned coal mined in the South Yorkshire Coalfield and transported across the Pennines on the Manchester–Sheffield–Wath electric railway.

Between 2001 and 2011 the station was featured in the opening and closing titles and was in some background scenes of the BBC comedy series Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

[10] The station was supplied with coal via a freight-only rail line between Warrington and Widnes, running along the banks of the River Mersey.

[12] On 18 November 2015, Amber Rudd, the then Minister in charge of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, proposed that the UK's remaining coal-fired power stations will be shut by 2025 with their use restricted by 2023.

In December 2020, Cheshire Constabulary issued a press release stating that the site was "unsafe for intruders" and that it was still connected to the National Grid, leaving many of the cables electrically live.

[22] In June 2021, a man was arrested for going equipped to steal and theft, after police officers found him in the power station grounds with tools and a large quantity of cable.

[26] In response to this decision, The Twentieth Century Society expressed their concern that the demolition of this and other power stations from this generation meant that England is "at risk of losing an entire building typology that provides important landmarks and monuments to C20 industry.

"[27] On 3 December 2023, despite heavy fog partially obscuring the safety zones, the first phase of the site's demolition commenced with the four northernmost cooling towers.

Local resident Grace Taylor was given the opportunity to press the detonation button after winning a raffle organised in conjunction with Peel NRE, and the four cooling towers fell in a controlled explosion at 09:35am which could be heard up to 15 miles (24 km) away, including at the Trafford Centre in Urmston, Greater Manchester.

The demolition process will eventually include the remaining four cooling towers, boiler house, chimney stack and administration buildings, as well as clearance of the former coal stockyard and machinery.