Industry > Utilities - Gas and Gas Works

Gas Works

(1/7) > >>

Lutonman:
I found this on the BBC website today which may be of general interest to those who follow this thread.


Will the UK's gas holders be missed? - BBC News

Invicta Alec:
I kind of broke a tradition in our family by not following both my father and grandfather into working for the gas board. Three uncles and one great uncle were also employed. All but one worked on the distribution side in Medway. Dad got promoted to be foreman for the Sevenoaks area. Temporarily though my family were shipped to St.Pauls Cray while a house was built for us in Sevenoaks.


In the event we actually spent eighteen months in St.Pauls Cray. We lived in a very large house within the grounds of the holder station. The gas lit house was on its last legs and damp and we were to be its last residents. We largely lived on the upper floor. The house had three lawns, the largest of which had been fenced off at some point and manicured into a bowling green. There was also a tennis court and a club house forming the social club for this particular gas board region. My bedroom overlooked the bowling green and the left hand one of the three holders in the picture below. I'd say it was around seventy yards away.


We moved to a brand new but tiny house in Sevenoaks in 1963. Again the house was actually within the holder station. In the aerial photo below you can see a white car on the road on the right hand side. The house immediately to its left was ours. The holder was no more than thirty five yards away.


So I think I can claim that gasholders loomed large in my early years! Both holder stations no longer exist.


Following the discussion above about the holders being now replaced by a national grid system its odd to reflect back sixty years. In 1960 the Sevenoaks holder station was still an actual gasworks. Even though all its old ancillary buildings had been removed by the time we arrived, there were still stack after stack of new gas mains pipes stored there. The old rails from the nearby Bat & Ball station sidings were not lifted for some years. In the corner of the yard was a tiny office where just one gas board employee worked. I became friendly with one chap. We'd sit and chat about football in the evenings. Once every hour we'd walk over to the holders and he would take a reading or two off of some meter or other and then phone his findings through to head office in Croydon. As far as I could tell it was pretty much the largest part of his job. He did this all through the night and I'd see him cycle home the next morning.


Alec.

Lutonman:
Good to hear Stewie,


We once had a bomb scare at a site and I arrived to see Police cars inside the boundary of the site. The inspector asked what was needed and I said get those cars our first as if the holder goes up so would the cars and their occupants. He was very quick to get them out. Next the police dogs arrived and they expected to send the dogs up on their own. When I explained the construction of the water grips at each level and that in the darkness the dogs will fall through into the tank, that idea was give up as well.

Stewie:
I have to say that I have learnt something reading this thread and the associated Wiki links!  :)

Dave Smith:
For anyone complaining about the constant GtheP thread- not me- the "gas" subject has been very active for some time with lots of interesting articles. So enjoy. And thanks to all those who contributed.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page