An application to build Fiddlers Ferry power station was proposed in 1962. It was built by the Cleveland Bridge Company between 1964 and 1971, and came into full operation in 1973. There are eight cooling towers arranged in two groups of four located to the north and south of the main building. There is a single chimney located to the east of the main building. One of the station's cooling towers collapsed in high winds on 13 January 1984 and was rebuilt. 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. Later the coal was imported.