Let there be gas before moonrise
Last updated 05:13, Friday, 31 October 2008
As early as 1837 the Paisley Advertiser wrote of the “great improvements in domestic economy” where gas had been substituted for coal in houses for heating, lighting and cooking.
This, said the newspaper, “will produce a greater change in the arrangements of domestic life than any discovery perhaps that has been made for 100 years past”.
While that newspaper was just beginning to realise the benefits of gas, Carlisle had been aware of it for some time.
Following a meeting held in Carlisle in 1817 it was “agreed to sign a requisition to the Mayor” to request the adoption of a gas supply in April 1818.
Private enterprise would raise the necessary capital but to guarantee this, the municipal authorities would have to agree to the costs of putting up street lights and provide the money for the gas to illuminate them.
The ironfounders, Messrs Porter, were willing to take a third of the shares in the gas company if they got the contract to supply the cast-iron lampposts.
In May 1818 the Carlisle Patriot said the scheme had advanced sufficiently for Mr Creighton from Glasgow to be invited to estimate the costs involved.
The newspaper was able to report the following March that John Grafton of Edinburgh had been appointed the engineer and the “works will be erected immediately”.
Progress was such that in September the Patriot reported that one evening “Messrs Porter exhibited a few lamps lighted with gas”.
By October the newspaper reported that a number of gas lights had been erected and that “Scotch Street, English and Castle Streets will be lighted by cast-iron pillars placed near the curb stones”.
The Carlisle Journal announced at the end of January 1820: “The gas works are in such a state of forwardness that the company will be enabled, next week, to light the shops and houses of those persons in this city who have contracted for gas.”
It was the bookseller, Charles Thurnam, writing in his 1821 Guide to Carlisle, who explained: “The Carlisle Gas and Coke Company was established by act of Parliament in 1819 and consists of 110 shareholders at £25 each.”
He continued: “Their works are situated at the south end of the town, and besides the street lamps, many shops and private houses are lighted with the gas they manufacture.”
Describing the gas works on Collier Lane, Mannix and Whellan stated in their 1847 Directory: “The works contained 33 retorts and three gasometers capable to holding 30,000 cubic feet of gas.”
Only a year after completion of the works, Thurnam said in 1821: “This institution bears every prospect of becoming profitable and travellers are agreed in saying that the purity of the gas, and the method of lighting the city, is superior to every other town in the kingdom.”
But the city was only willing to light the gas lamps when they thought necessary. One disgruntled reader wrote to The Citizen in 1823: “It is disgraceful keeping the town in darkness on those nights when the moon does not rise till 8pm when the sun sets after 4.”
Another wrote in 1830: “Those visiting Carlisle cannot but have observed the partial and niggardly manner in which that city is lighted, the gas lamps restricted to the principal streets while the lanes and alleys are permitted to remain in darkness.”
An incident in January 1826 was caused by the congealing of tar in the pipes at the gas works during severe frost, which impeded the flow of gas.
“A great number of men were necessarily sent for,” stated the Journal, “and immediately set to work with straw and torches to heat the pipes to liquidate the tar.”
With the blockage cleared it was found gas was escaping and, “in making good the imperfect joint the light was brought too near and two men, who were at work, had their faces for a moment enveloped in flame”.
While they were slightly singed “neither lost any rest that night”, reported the newspaper “and they were at work as usual early the following morning without a single blister or the least appearance of scoring of any kind”.
It was with some surprise that the citizens were informed of the Corporation decision to take over the gas supply in 1846. In compensation the 160 shareholders were paid £43 per share but complications arose when not all would sell.
As the site of the gas works was required for the Citadel Station, work began immediately on what Mannix and Whellan described as “the new gas works which are now being erected in Borough Mill Field to be completed in 1847 and the estimated cost is £10,000”.
With generous compensation of £7,000 for the old works, the city could afford to increase the capacity, the 1847 Directory stating: “Sixty retorts are intended, with capabilities of extending them to 90, and two gasometers each capable of holding 50,000 cubic feet of gas”.
The new gas works was not completed until 1849 and under the Gas Act of 1850 total responsibility passed to the Corporation. This resulted in a reduction in the cost of gas and the Carlisle Express stated in 1857 that “shopkeepers can afford to place flaming lights in their windows and nearly the whole of the cottage property that has since been built is provided with gas”. Ending the report, the Express said: “The gas works possess all the modern improvements for the manufacture of this indispensable element – certainly one of the most useful and important which the civilisation of the 19th century has produced.”
