Gas Holders G Newman Bros Coffin Works G Butterley Gangroad Sonia Rolt G David St John Thomas Gas Holders – the End of an Era

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY 172 SPRING NEWS 2015 THE BULLETIN OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY FREE TO MEMBERS OF AIA Gas holders G Newman Bros coffin works G Butterley gangroad Sonia Rolt G David St John Thomas Gas holders – the end of an era At the end of this winter, the last two gas holders serious explosion risk and so should be housed in in mainland Britain’s gas network will be buildings (when, in fact doing so increased both decommissioned, leaving just a handful in use on the risk and the consequences of an explosion). INDUSTRIAL Scottish islands and at steel works. Until now, Around 1814, Samuel Clegg, who had helped gas holders have been an essential part of the gas William Murdoch build the earliest gasworks for ARCHAEOLOGY industry, since its inception in the early Boulton and Watt, before setting on up his own nineteenth century, and in September 2014 the and then becoming Engineer for London’s Gas NEWS 172 Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers held a Light and Coke Company, demonstrated to a Spring 2015 conference to mark this historic moment. Two committee of the Royal Society that the hazards AIA members who attended that event reflect on posed by unenclosed gas holders were small, by Honorary President the passing of these very visible symbols of puncturing one and setting light to the escaping Prof Marilyn Palmer 63 Sycamore Drive, Groby, Leicester LE6 0EW Britain’s industrial past. jet of gas. Within five years, Clegg and others Chairman were designing cylindrical gas holders with Keith Falconer Ian West and Robert Carr capacities of around 600m 3 (20,000ft 3), located in 32 Fromefield, Frome, Somerset BA11 2HE the open. Vice-Chairman Dr Michael Nevell Part 1 Early gas holders had a one-piece enclosed Secretary vessel (known as a lift or bell) floating in a water David de Haan The development of the gas tank. The tanks were mostly, either located above AIA Liaison Office, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX holder ground and made of iron, or below-ground, lined Treasurer The gas holder had its origins in the small water- with brick and sealed on the outside with puddle John Jones sealed laboratory vessels used by 18th century clay. An external cast iron framework consisting Hines Farm, Earl Stonham, Suffolk IP14 5HQ chemists, such as Joseph Priestley and Antoine of columns and rollers, wires or other IA Review Editors Dr Mike Nevell and Dr Ian West Lavoisier, to collect the gases they were studying. mechanisms maintained the lift in position as it IA News Editor The vessels were calibrated to measure the rose and fell (Figure 2). By 1840, telescopic gas Chris Barney volume of the gas and were thus known as holders with multiple lifts had been developed, The Barn, Back Lane, Birdingbury CV23 8EN Affiliated Societies Officer gasometers, a name that has been erroneously enabling much greater storage capacity for the Lynne Walker attached to gas holders to this day. From the same size of tank. The key to this invention was Conference Secretary outset, it was recognised that a gasworks needed the annular water-filled trough at the bottom of John McGuinness some form of storage to accommodate variations each lift, known as a cup, with which the grip of 29 Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PB Endangered Sites Officer between rates of gas production and the next lift engaged to form a gas-tight seal. In Amber Patrick consumption. The first gas holders were small the 1880s the spiral guided holder was Flat 2, 14 Lypiatt Terrace, Cheltenham GL50 2SX rectangular containers, suspended in tanks of developed, which did away with the need for the Librarian and Archivist 3 John Powell water (Figure 1), with a typical capacity of 60m expensive external guide frames (Figure 3). As gas Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX (2,000ft 3); the final design for the world’s first demands grew, so did the size of gas holders, Publicity Officer large commercial gasworks, built at Salford Twist with some reaching capacities of 227,000m 3 (8 Roy Murphy 3 3 Wellington Road, Ombersley, Worcestershire WR9 0DZ Mill in 1805, had eight of these. Initially, there million ft ), and steel replaced wrought and cast Recording Awards Officer was a widespread belief that gas holders posed a iron in their construction, but the basic design of Shane Kelleher Sales Officer Roger Ford Barn Cottage, Bridge Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire WV15 6AF Council Members David Alderton (Heritage Alliance) Bill Barksfield (overseas trips) Dr Robert Carr (BA Awards) Dr Paul Collins (Conservation Award & Partnerships) Tony Crosby Steve Dewhirst (Conservation Award) Bruce Hedge (Membership development) Shane Kelleher Michael Messenger (Website manager) Ian Miller Stephen Miles (Conference bookings) Dr Tegwen Roberts Paul Saulter (E FAITH) Mark Sissons (Restoration Grants) Mark Watson (TICCIH GB National Representative) Dr Ian West (Health & Safety) Honorary Vice-Presidents Prof Angus Buchanan Sir Neil Cossons Prof John Hume Liaison Officer David de Haan and Anne Sutherland (assistant), AIA Liaison Office, The Ironbridge Institute, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX. Tel: 01740 656280. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.industrial-archaeology.org COVER PICTURE Re-erecting the guide frame of gas holder number 8 at St Pancras, London, September 2014 Photo: Katriina Etholén Fig. 1 – Clegg 1812 gas holder 2—INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS —172 Fig. 2 – Gas holder at Biggar, South Lanarkshire Fig. 3 – Spiral gas holder Photo: Ian West Photo: Ian West these water-sealed holders remained unchanged. filled during the day, when demand was low, and gas from the national transmission system to the In the twentieth century, a small number of emptied at night. As electricity took an increasing local networks, which were often designed to waterless gas holders of various designs were amount of the lighting market in the twentieth cycle in pressure throughout the day, filling at built in Britain (Figure 4) and many more were century, domestic cooking and heating became night when demand was low and emptying used in Europe and North America; these were more important, so the peak demand periods during the day. The gas storage this provided, tall cylindrical structures, usually with tar-sealed were in the mornings and evenings, with another known as linepack, at pressures up to 94bar pistons inside, which rose and fell as they filled spike at Sunday lunchtime; gas holders were then (1360psi), had minimal operating costs and soon and emptied. filled overnight and emptied throughout the day. eclipsed what was available from gas holders, so Their role did not change greatly with the arrival the use of holders became confined to the winter of natural gas in the 1960s and 70s, but instead months when diurnal storage requirements were The changing need for gas of smoothing the demand on the gas production highest. The gas industry has long wanted to holders plant, they enabled the high pressure national dispense with gas holders, partly because of the From the birth of the gas industry gas holders transmission system to operate at an efficient rising cost of maintaining these structures, some have fulfilled the same essential function – steady flow rate. However, the closure of the of which are approaching 150 years old, and balancing the diurnal variation in gas gasworks did mean most gas holders were now partly because they are much more expensive to consumption, so that production and distribution located on un-manned sites and so had to be operate than linepack. Gas holders also systems could be sized economically and did not operated remotely from regional control centres frequently occupy valuable inner-city sites and have to meet the peaks in demand. Throughout or designed to be fully automatic. several, especially smaller, gas holders have been the nineteenth century, when gas was used With natural gas came an expansion of the demolished over the past 30 years and the sites predominantly for lighting, holders would be regional high pressure pipelines, which carried sold for redevelopment. However, despite a high- profile announcement by Transco, then the operator of the British gas network, about 15 years ago, that all remaining gas holders were about to be demolished, this did not happen, because the storage they provided was still needed. However, in the past two years, changes to both the pattern of gas supplies into Britain and the organisation of the industry have released more linepack capacity from the national transmission system. As a result, with a couple of exceptions, all the holders in the British mainland gas network, believed to number around 200 in total, are now empty and awaiting decisions on their demolition. Danger, discomfort and heroism One of the objectives of the IGEM conference was to share stories of working with gas holders. There was a remarkable reminiscence from Fig. 4 ‘Great Gas Holder’ someone who, probably as an apprentice, was several times sent aloft to clear the ice forming in INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS —172 —3 Fig. 6 – Saltisford gasworks, Warwick Photo: Ian West Fig. 5 – MAN gas holder Battersea Photo: Katriina Etholénn Fig. 7 – Gas holders in Dresden – 1920s on left, 1908 on right Photo: Ian West the cups. Protective clothing was provided but workmen on the top of the holder would try to heightened, as an internet search will this was scarcely adequate when high up on the throw them off or put them out with sand bags. demonstrate, and local activists, conservationists side of a holder in the north of England. This had Larger bombs often went straight through the top and amateur photographers are proclaiming their to be done during especially cold weather to of the holder and were generally rendered importance as historic landscape features.

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