Gasometers and Gasworks

[firbeck 859]

I've just been driving around North Essex on business and noted several small towns, ie here at Braintree, Thaxted, Dunmow where evidence of the old Gas Works still survive, particularly here in Braintree where we have the works building, truncated chimney and gasometer.

When I was a kid, I remember the gasworks on Triumph Road, it used to frighten me when the old man took me down there. I remember coal trains in the sidings and the stink of gas when you went past. Every so often the gasometers got a coat of primer and gleaming fresh grey paintwork, I'm amazed they are still there.

It couldn't have supplied the whole city with gas could it, I think there was another near where the tram depot is situated now and wasn't Eastgate a gas works.

It must have been a mucky, smokey business heating up coal to produce gas and coke for an entire city, I can't really remember the Radford gasworks blighting the landscape that much on our forays into town.

It was something we took for granted that contributed to all that smog. I recall the changeover to North Sea Gas when me mothers cooker was converted, what a nightmare, and they built that temporary plant at Ambergate that converted Natural Gas into coal gas until the conversion took over, how that worked was beyond me.

A great puzzle was the laying of the pipe from Radford Gas Works to Stanton Ironworks in the mid 50's. It runs all the way along Trowell Road, caused great disruption at the time and can still be traced by the concrete inspection covers, can anyone remember that.

My guess is that the gas from the huge smelly coke works at Stanton was tapped off and fed back into the public system, that was a huge plant, it had a rectangular cooling tower adjacent to the sports field that belched steam at the appropriate moment, when the wind came from the west you could smell the place in Wollaton. I used to play hockey for Stanton and trying to concentrate on your game with that enormous coking plant chucking out fumes and smoke was a nightmare.

Has anyone got any knowledge of any of this.

[plantfit 7,580]

Ayup firbeck,

The Radford road gasometers are still there and fully operational, the land that was owned by the gas works around the gasometers is contaminated that much that it is unusable for anything, shame it can't be cleaned up because it's a prime site, The gas plant you speak of at Ambergate is still there and I believe the gas H/Q for the Nottingham and Derby area

Did you know that when the Nottingham gas company first started that most of the directors were sent to jail for fiddling saying that the Nottingham corporation owed the gas company so much money for the gas to supply the gas lighting when the corporation did'nt own half the lights they were being charged for, the only director not to be jailed was one Councilor Ball, yes Albert Balls father of WW1 air ace fame

Rog

[rob237 89]

One of the largest gasworks was at Basford, opposite and just city-side of. the Shoulder of Mutton...

Or was that the Radford gasworks to which you refer?

Cheers

Robt P.

[firbeck 859]

Gasworks sites can be cleaned up, some of them, it takes a lot of doing though.

The site at Thaxted has houses on it now, but I knew the developer who did it, and the words greased palms come to mind. That had to be dug out to a depth of 6m and replaced with ballast, the houses were supposed to be piled, hmmmmm, no comment, lets just say I wouldn't buy one.

Great Dunmow gasworks site is a lost cause, I designed an old peoples centre to go on it for the local authority. Our site investigations caused so much fear and loathing that it was built elsewhere, the best they've managed to do is turn it into a car park for the Co-op.

At least Braintree have kept the old buildings on the site, I presume that no-one is prepared to decontaminate it.

I can't imagine the amount of contamination at Triumph Road, any of it, is that why they're happy to stick students down there.

[plantfit 7,580]

Ayup Rob,

Yes thats the one I think they now call it Radford road depot

Rog

[mick2me 3,033]

The gasometers @Pr*de Park D*rby are still there?

Are there not preservation orders on these things?

[Ashley 288]

The gasometers @Pr*de Park D*rby are still there?

I thought Pride Park was a gasometer! plenty of hot air coming out of it. Re cleaning Gas Works Sites, Radford Road was cleaned up, took a year or so and cost something like 5 billion £££s or some stupid price,

[Frank 13]

They are now building a retail come commercial property estate on Basford Gas Works.

I'll grab some photo's and post them. Steel structures are up at the moment.

My step dad used to work at Basford on the coking run between Nottm and Northampton. He had to deliver 2 lorry loads a day.

Once, he forgot to drop the tipper back down and drove off. It ripped the lorry to bits and damaged the smelter!!

Got a bit of a b*********g by all accounts.

In winter, he often got called out to walk around the gasometer joints through the night with portable heaters to stop the water freezing.

In between the sections are water traps that act as seals to stop the gas escaping. If these freeze during low temps then the seal is broken and large escapes can occur as the gasometers rise and fall under pressure.

[Beefsteak 305]

Just spoke to my mum , and at the 10th time of trying she can only remember the two

[mick2me 3,033]

I thought Pride Park was a gasometer! plenty of hot air coming out of it.

I think the Gasometers are a better design than that abortion next door

[Ashley 288]

Just spoke to my mum , and at the 10th time of trying she can only remember the two

The only 2 what? originally the Basford Gasworks covered a lot more land going to that section of nottingham rd now between valley rd and vernon rd, there were alot more gasometers too with 2 in the plot of land that was used for wood storage and later a diy centre later still a Toyota dealership, also in there was a block of workers flats, am told similar to Victoria Court? next to old Vic Baths, called Albert Court? (question marks there as unsure of court/place/tower type of names) There were also gasometers on land that was Fox's VW Centre car storage (before that Churchills Car Scrap Yard and long ago 5 ways garage) . Another 2 gasometers stood where the only reminder of the gas works remains, the distribution centre, corner of Radford Road and Western Boulevard

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Wasn't there a gas works near the bottom of London Road??

[Scriv 168]

Got sent by the agency (Mayday on Bridlesmith Gate) to work at Basford gasworks yard one day; at the time (early 80's) it was a depot for British Gas.

Apparently the fork-lift drivers had got fed up with complaining about the railway lines (long disused) in the yard, but the management wouldn't do owt about them, so the drivers refused to cross them on the forklifts. Management tried to be crafty and sent me in; I was politely informed of the situation by the shop steward, and me being a good boy, spent the whole shift drinking tea in the cabin. No scab labour here! :smile:

[katyjay 5,090]

Hi Firbeck, I saw the thread title and before I even clicked on it, I thought of the gasometers on Triumph Rd and how they made me nervous, and it was your sentiments exactly. I worked in the Raleigh offices on there, across the road and down a bit from the gas works. Everyday I walked past them either twice or 4 times and I always scuttled along, thinking they were going to 'blow'. Daft really, especially as the darn things are still there after 40 yrs since I last went down there.

[Frank 13]

Everyday I walked past them either twice or 4 times and I always scuttled along, thinking they were going to 'blow'. Daft really, especially as the darn things are still there after 40 yrs since I last went down there.

I worked on a job years ago in Sheffield and across the site were a couple of Gasometers.

I remember a scaffold up part of the outside and a guy welding something on the side of it. Suddenly, a hugh flame erupted out of the side - panicking like billyo - we scuttled down the scaffold as quick as owt, thinking it was going to 'blow', only to be re-assured by the site gaffer that it was in no danger of blowing as it was only the escaping gas burning.

For it to blow it , apparently , it only needed the flame to go inside, but the pressure of the gas coming out prevented this.

Glad to say, I've never put it or seen it put to the test.

[plantfit 7,580]

Ayup John,

I think the gas works near the bottom of London road was the Eastcroft works and I think that was one of the original gas works to be built in Nottingham, there is a small book available called The Nottingham Gas Undertaking, a very interesting read from an historical and social point of view

Rog

[firbeck 859]

So we had Radford (Triumph Road), Basford, Eastcroft, sorry not Eastgate as I called it earlier, was that it, just 3 sites supplying the whole City up until the mid 60's.

Presumably in the late 19th early 20th centuries, they must have been flat out producing gas for lighting as well as cooking and heating, though the latter was no doubt 99.99% coal fires.

Can anyone remember gas lights in the streets. I have a vague memory of gaslights surviving around Bramcote and possibly along Trowell Road until the mid 50's.

Of course, many railway stations retained gas lighting until the end, I wonder why.

In the mid 60's as youths with nowhere to go on dark winter evenings, we used to cycle over to Ilkeston Station. The station master was a nice bloke and when it started to get dark, we would walk down the platforms pulling those dangling rings and switch on the gaslights for him, we were then allowed to sit in the waiting room in front of a roaring fire, nipping out on to the platform when a train came through. If we were really lucky, we had the bonus of a particular signalman who let us into the box, gaslit as well, and read his porno mags, as well as, memorably, pulling the levers for the Thames Clyde Express.

Happy days.

Incidentally, I still haven't got to the bottom of the gas pipe to Stanton Ironworks, but I've found a really good website about that place, try www.stantonironworks.co.uk.

[plantfit 7,580]

Ayup firbeck,

You mentioned gas lights, I think I've posted it before but here we go again, I remember them gas street lights in the 60s down Albert street Bulwell just off Highbury vale down the side of the now co op but then picture house, the lights would come on automatically, first you could hear the gas hissing out of the mantle then an automatic electric igniter would light the gas, what we would do for a bit of a hoot was to shin up the lamp post and blow out the light, easily done, then set light to some news paper and let it float up the lamp post where on reaching the lantern it would ignite the gas that had accumulated in the glass lantern with a small explosion usually shattering the glass, great fun as a kid but painful on the earholes when we got caught.

Rog

[mr rob t 11]

I think that there are still gaslights in certain parts of the Park behind the castle, or at least the original pillars.

[bamber 128]

a, maybe, little known fact is that the waste tar from the Eastcroft gasworks was mixed with stone chippings to surface London Road. The world's first tarmac road.

[Ashley 288]

I heard on radio nottingham that a barrell of hot tar fell from a cart when being taken to docks to coat wooden boats in some Scottish shipbuilding town and the resulting mess when dry gave a Mr Macadam the idea?

[firbeck 859]

I drove up to our local B&Q yesterday which involves passing the old Braintree Gasworks which are situated behind old industrial buildings, there you go, you live here for 30 years but never get round to investigate things on your doorstep, so I decided to take a look.

The whole place has been taken over by BMW motorbikes and what a fabulous conversion they have done. The chimney, while truncated has been restored and floodlit, the original buildings have been re roofed and renovated. It's obvious that one side of the main retort building had been demolished to remove the equipment, but it has been restored with green steel cladding with full height Victorian style arched windows, the inside is galleried, well done BMW, you've done a brilliant job, I was well impressed. Interesting, not noticeable from any public road, are the two, small gasometeters, still in use but painted an awfull cream colour, I had no idea that they were still there.

I shall have to see now what survives at Halsted, our nearest small market town.

[bamber 128]

Edgar Purnell Hooley was the county surveyor for Nottinghamshire. He patented Tarmac after seeing a spillage of waste tar outside the Eascroft gasworks.

Wiki entry

[Ashley 288]

must get the path retarhooled then

[Ashley 288]

must get the path retarhooled then

Tarmac was pioneered around 1820 by John Louden MacAdam,

Hernry Cassell patented Pitch Macadam in 1834

Hooley patented a Tarmac process in 1901

Wiki entry