I've come back to gas supplies for two reasons. First because of a mistake I made when I said that the reason why our gasworks closed in April 1954 was because of the arrival of North Sea Gas, I hadn't read my research carefully enough! The closure was then but the reason initially was because the gas industry was concentrating production in the largest and most efficient plants and our gas came in from the national trunk mains supplied by these. The changeover to North Sea Gas happened between 1967 and 1977 and whilst I can remember the advertising campaign, I can't remember the exact year.
Secondly, as I said at the time it had been a bit of a gallop and I feel I short changed you so I shall put that right. At the start of public gas supplies it was seen only as an aid to better lighting and the first use was in gas lighting but it was soon realised that there was an opportunity for a whole new industry, the invention and manufacturing of appliances to use the gas for heating by gas fires and cooking on what soon became the standard method, the gas stove in the kitchen. Even the old coal burning 'copper' in the wash house in the yard was swapped for a gas fired boiler. I remember Ernie Roberts once telling me that his mother rented her first gas stove from the Council for five shillings a year. Like the old coal burning kitchen range it was made of cast iron and had to be black-leaded to keep it looking presentable.
This low rent was of course the council encouraging more use of gas and to that end they built a showroom at the gasworks where you could view all the appliances available and order them, you could also pay your gas bill there. Emma Clark told me that when she was at school she was taught domestic economy and the cooking lessons were done at the gas showrooms using their gas stoves once a week.
The first refrigerator that Vera and I bought at Hey Farm was gas fired and worked perfectly well apart from the fact that the cooling effect of the refrigeration element wasn't strong enough to support the built in freezer that became standard on the electric ones. I remember that a draught could extinguish the small pilot light in the base that powered it and you had to keep an eye on it.
Much later of course we got gas central heating which is almost the standard method of heating the house today. At the same time, with the advent of the regional gas boards, we got the gas showroom in Church Street and that was where you paid your monthly gas bill before we got the benefit (?) of computerised systems. One last obscure gas-related fact for you. I recently found out that the WW2 air raid siren was mounted on the roof of the gas showroom at the gasworks!
This building at the old gasworks was the show room.
I like it..... Do you remember the jokes about prawns blocking the pipes?
