Drax, North Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°43′55″N 0°58′48″W / 53.732°N 0.980°W / 53.732; -0.980

Drax
Drax Power Station
Drax Drax shown within North Yorkshire
Population	382  (Census 2001)[1]
OS grid reference	SE667284
Parish	Drax
District	Selby
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SELBY
Postcode district	YO8
Dialling code	01757
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
European Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
UK Parliament	Selby
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Drax is a village and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, about 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Selby.

History

Drax has a Church of England parish church, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. In the reign of King Henry I (1100-1135) William Paganel founded a priory of Augustinian Canons at Drax. In 1868 it was reported that traces of the priory could still be found ^[2] but field work in the 1980s and 1990s has failed to find any physical remains of it.^[3]

In 1667 Charles Read (1604-1669) founded Drax Grammar (Now called The Read School) as a grammar school. Read was born at Darlton, Notts. and became a wealthy shipper in Kingston upon Hull. Two years later, Read's will endowed the school at Drax and founded further grammar schools at Tuxford in Notts. and Corby Glen in Lincolnshire.^[4] The school at Drax is now called Read School^[5] and is an independent boarding school.

Read also funded the building of six almshouses in Drax for elderly people, stipulating that they should be for three men and three women.^[6]

Drax had two railway stations: both are now closed. Drax Hales was on the North Eastern Railway Selby to Goole Line: British Railways closed it in 1964. Drax Abbey was on the Hull and Barnsley Railway: the London and North Eastern Railway closed it in 1932. In 1974 British Rail reopened about 5 km of the H&BR from Gowdall Junction and a short length of the NER through Drax as a freight-only branch line to supply coal to Drax power station.

Drax today

The former Central Electricity Generating Board commissioned Drax power station in two phases in 1974 and 1986. It is the largest power station in the United Kingdom, producing around 8% of Britain's electricity, and is the second-largest coal-fired plant in Europe. It has a potential consumption of 36,000 tonnes of coal a day and produces 1.5 million tonnes of ash a year. It is both the United Kingdom's largest producer of carbon emissions, and one of the UK's most carbon dioxide-efficient power stations.

Drax has a Community Primary School. The village has a public house, the Huntsmans Arms. Drax had a village shop and sub-post office. The shop was closed and converted into a private home, then converted back into a village shop, and closed down again in January 2007.

References