Gasometers and Gasworks


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

Then opened a garage on the royalties? :sorry:

Cheers

Robt P.

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Not sure about that CT, the land left behind after the gas holders have gone is usually badly contaminated,that site at Basford is a classic example, I think the contaminants go deep in the ground and

Take a look what could have been, from Vienna  

This is from over 12 years ago, but it seems to answer some of your questions. I hadn't realised they'd all disappeared but now you mention it........ http://news.bbc.co.u...i/uk/264609.stm

When they dug up Trowell Road to put in the mysterious connecting pipe to Stanton, the Tarmac lorry was a Steam Sentinel.

They shoved the thing up Park Crescent everynight next to the hardware shop, then relit the boiler and got it going every morning, my mum went off early to work and I used to wander down there to watch their efforts at getting it going, lots of swearing, but it always managed to do the business, I'm sure they had a steam roller as well.

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Just a note, DON'T believe everything posted on Wikipedia, there are thousands of wrong inaccurate entries in it!

I believe it's about 60% accurate.

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John McAdam was born in Scotland in 1756, and grew up to working in English road construction efforts around the city of Bristol. After several decades of work, McAdam published two treatises on the need for an improved road system using layered rocks. In 1816, as the surveyor on Bristol Turnpike, McAdam tested out his process for creating roads, called macadamizing.

The original system used for macadam roads involved a triple layer of stone. The bottom two layers were comprised of hand-broken rocks laid to a depth of 8 in (20.3 cm) over a formation level called a subgrade. The top layer was much smaller rocks, made to be no more than 2 in (5 cm) thick. The entire road was then compacted and crushed together by use of an enormous roller. In addition, macadamized roads had a slightly convex shape, so that water would run off into drains.

There was no binding agent so dust was a problem with Macadamized roads.

Tarmac was developed by our Mr Hooley but there seems to be some disagreement as to the location of the original tar spillage which inspired him.

According to Tarmac plc it was outside Denby iron works in Derbyshire. Another source, which I can't reference at the moment, gives Eastcroft gasworks.

I will do some digging.

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  • 1 year later...

cheers plantfit for the info about the book, just bought one from amazon for a tenner, and i noticed that the other week radford red and felt quite sad about seeing the old gas cylinders disappear.

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Have they all gone from Notts?

Where were they?

When did they go?

Some still exist in the UK today, (because there is a preservation order on them perhaps?)

Are they protected?

Where are the nearest remaining examples to Notts?

Do you know?

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Well the obvious ones that spring to mind were, Ilkeston Road/ Triumph Road , and Those up the ring road near what was "The Shoulder of Mutton"

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I remember well the ones in Basford. Very imposing as you drove past them as they were quite close to the road. Used to have a very pungent smell as you approached them. I remember too, in the days of CB radio, basford was known as 'gastown'

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I thought the 2 at Basford near Eland pub were still there? mind you it's 10 years since I left, been back fair bit but never noticed, come to that not sure if the pub is still there! A great pic on latest page of " old roads into basford"y topic shows one on western blvd, I recall that, maybe there were 2 at that point?

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A great map, answers a few questions I had been unsure of, gasometers first, can remember the one between Nottingham Rd and Vernon Rd so rightly or wrongly those flats I mentioned must have been between that one and Nottm Rd where the word Tramway is? Also recall the one between Vernon Rd and Church St.

The one the other side of Church St. must have been in that triangular piece of land that is now "the rest garden"? but removed prior to Western Boulevard being built? and the last one I recall as being on the south side of that road where it slopes down from the bridge to Radford Rd . The building between the 2 gasometers and internal rail lines with their turntables must have gone for the road too.

The little original road at the side of the church is shown as cattle stalls, Fairfax St with Fairfax Terrace is shown along with houses on the opposite side which were demolished, the "P H" is the Shoulder of Mutton.

However a question is raised? whilst the tram lines on Nottingham Rd, Radford Rd etc are clearly seen there is no sign of them on Church Street Bridge etc? My mother who lived on Alpine Street 1920 to 1939 told me of hearing the early morning trams going past, there was the disaster on the "Swan Bends" when a tram hit the graveyard war, with I think several killed sometime 1914-1918, plus of course there was/is the "tram route" along Dark Lane, assume all 3 were Ripley Rattlers, but no sign of their track

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Could be that the map is wrong as the picture below clearly shows rails going up Church Street Bridge. The picture also shows the gasometers either side of Vernon Road and the sign 'Valley Road' on the wall opposite from the cameraman. Surely this means that Valley Road was in place way before Western Boulevard.

Picture1.jpg

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Could be that the map is wrong as the picture below clearly shows rails going up Church Street Bridge. The picture also shows the gasometers either side of Vernon Road and the sign 'Valley Road' on the wall opposite from the cameraman. Surely this means that Valley Road was in place way before Western Boulevard.

I think your right that the map isn't too accurate. Looking at some of the other larger-scale maps of that area on Old Maps, none of them ever show tram lines going into Basford..... as if it just didn't happen and nobody ever needed to go to Basford :)

As for the Valley Road sign, I wonder if maybe Fairfax Street had its name changed before the ringroad appeared. To add to the confusion, there is one of the old maps which shows it still called Fairfax Street after the ringroad existed.

Don't believe anything you ever see...

(And I'll second the fact that it's a great photo)

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Yes that's the 2 gasometers, and the five ways garage can just be seen, I see the rails going up Church St, always imagined both routes to be 2 way

.I think what the planners/builders did was keep the north side of Fairfax Street and rename it Valley Road, I say that as I recall the wall on Vernon Rd (still there?) curling round onto Valley Road, also the "Gas Meter Testing Station" exactly as it's shown, in the late 70's/1980ish it was owned by Les Newcombe who sold pallets from there, might even have lived in that building.

Had the picture shown more to the right you would have seen the 2 rows of houses at right angles to the road that were Fairfax Terrace, you can see those and part of the pallet place on following photo, also Les Newcombes roller! the garage to the right replaced a simple filling station in the garden of the house seen behind it, this was above where the "reet" is of fairfax street on the map, now a 2 hour wait to be served filling station plus shop is on the site! the trees seen between the houses were in the yard where the gasometer was

Think the gasometers photo 1930's judging by the car and the womens clothing

fairfax.jpg

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I would've said 1920s for the photo. Trams finished in Nottingham in 1936 so it obviously can't be after that, and the ringroad was being built by the early 30s.

And here's another I'd not come across before, and they seem quite specific about its date which might help some of the other queries

http://www.pictureth...004738&prevUrl=

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So what do they store gas in now-a-days ???

The North Sea? Russia?

re the latest photo, I lived for over 20 years behind where that tree is on the left, think the building on the right was the one on the map just below the "sp" judging by it's angle? On the left there appears to be top of a gasometer above nearest building? the low building to the left was the "clocking in room", about half a dozen wooden pendulum clock type machines could be seen through the windows, I still say as I said judging by the car etc that picture is 30's Valley Rd east of Nottingham looks newer than the north side bit Vernon Rd to there, Nat West Bank was built 1922 but The Futurist Cinema not till 1937

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Gas mostly piped in from various LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) stored in huge tanks at Avonmouth, Partington, Isle of Grain, South Hook & Dragon (Wales) sites, it's tankered in to the UK from the Far East & Australia, mostly handled in the UK by 'National Grid' plc. It's brought in as liquid, then 'gasified' at each storage plant & sent around the network under pressure, the gasification process operates at temperatures down to -150 deg c.

Visit : www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Gas/lngstorage & you'll find out all about the UK gas network.

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Gasometers and Gasworks

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