The gasworks

Buildings at the gasworks in Eastgate were dismantled in January 1960 followed
by the gasometer which can be seen in the background.

The gasworks existed in Bourne for more than a century, providing light and heat for much of the town until electricity started to compete because of its cleaner operation and safer installation.

The first commercial gasworks was built by the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company in Great Peter Street in 1812 laying wooden pipes to illuminate Westminster Bridge with gas lights on New Year's Eve in 1813. Other gasworks for towns and cities followed, the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company being formed in 1840 with premises on a site at the top end of Eastgate. There were five trustees of the company, one of them being the vicar, the Rev Joseph Dodsworth, and £10 shares were issued to those who wanted a financial stake in the venture. The gasworks were erected at a cost of £2,000 and the enterprise prospered, the first project being the installation of gas lighting in the church in October 1841 followed by the erection of lamp standards to light the streets.

The first street to be lit by gas had been Pall Mall in London in 1807 and by 1823 numerous towns and cities throughout Britain had followed suit. Costing up to 75% less than lighting produced by oil lamps or candles helped to accelerate its development and deployment. By 1859, gas lighting was to be found all over Britain and 1,000 gasworks had sprung up to meet the demand for the new fuel. The brighter lighting which gas provided allowed people to read more easily and for longer, so helping to stimulate literacy and learning and speeding up the second Industrial Revolution.

In 1868, it was necessary to enlarge the gasworks to meet the demand for additional supplies and the premises had by then become known as Gas House Yard. Further extensions to installations were carried out in 1878 when new and much larger mains were laid as far as the Market Place where a junction was formed with the old mains, thereby affording consumers a more adequate supply of gas. By this time, coal gas was being used for heating and lighting in homes, shops and business premises, as well as for street lighting and there were 56 public incandescent gas lamps at various points around the town. Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire reported in 1885: "The town consists principally of four streets diverting from the Market Place, all remarkably clean and lighted with gas." In February 1898, the parish council, which was responsible for maintaining the street lighting at that time, asked the gas company to ensure that the lamps were lit on every dark evening and that they were left on all night on Saturdays and Sundays.

There was also a campaign by the company to persuade housewives use gas for cooking and demonstrations were held in the town to show them how. The Stamford Mercury  reported on Friday 5th April 1889:

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, demonstrative lectures on cookery were given in the Corn Exchange by Mrs Thwaites, medallist of the Liverpool School of Cookery. Gas stoves supplied by the Gas Company were used for cooking and different kinds of stoves were exhibited in the hall. A large number of ladies and several gentlemen attended the lectures. In the afternoon, high class cookery was exemplified and every day cookery in the evening. All who attended received valuable hints on practical cookery. The various articles made found a ready sale at the close of the lectures. From 11 to 1 each day, dishes were cooked free of charge in the gas stoves for anyone who liked to send them. Several ladies availed themselves of the privilege and great satisfaction was expressed with the result.

The gasworks flourished and in the summer of 1894, a new gasometer was erected, the third to be built on the site and the largest so far. The structure was telescopic and designed on the Gadd and Mason's patent principle, without guide framing. It had a capacity of 40,000 cubic feet, whereas the old gas holder held only 22,000 cubic feet and the one before that 5,000 cubic feet.

Further extensions were carried out in 1895-97 but on 31st March 1914, the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company Ltd ceased trading and went into liquidation prior to being sold to Bourne Urban District Council although the business was not handed over until the following year. The council paid almost £14,000 on 11th February 1915, being the purchase price of £12,500, stock and fittings £900 and interest to date £585. Prior to the liquidation, a dividend of 8% was declared and a return of £25 per share was paid to shareholders. The manager was retained in his post at a salary of £2 a week with £1 per quarter extra for meter reading and a house, coal and gas supplied free of charge. His wife was also to receive two shillings a week to attend to customers at the gas showrooms in Eastgate and to keep the premises clean.

Explosions were not unknown, similar to that which occurred on the evening of Friday 21st October 1898 at Mr Thomas Carlton's drapery shop in North Street. There had been a small leakage of gas which seeped into a drain through a grating at the roadside and a match thrown down by a passerby caused an explosion. Damage was not extensive and the leak was located and repaired.

By 1927, gas consumption in the Bourne area had increased to such an extent that the council purchased more land for £450 to add to the number of purifiers needed in the production process. In 1934 the service was extended to Dyke when the urban council laid a mains pipe to the village from Bourne and the streets were lighted with gas lamps for the first time, the switching on taking place on Saturday 1st September. Until then, twelve oil lamp standards had been used to light the streets but these appliances were replaced by gas burners and the number reduced to nine because their increased brilliance required fewer of them. The old system of lighting and extinguishing the lamps by hand was also abolished in favour of an automatic clock system that switched them on at night and off in the morning.

This prosperity continued for another twenty years but re-organisation within the gas supply industry brought about their closure in 1957. The buildings in Gas House Yard were demolished in January 1960 and the following April, new workshops for the construction of the BRM racing cars were built on the site by the company run by the motor racing pioneer Raymond Mays although the huge gasholder, or gasometer as it was known, remained in use on the opposite side of the road. By 1965, Bourne's supply was being piped in from North Killingholme on Humberside and there were 1,400 consumers in the town at that time with the demand rising steadily.

Responsibility for gas distribution subsequently passed from the council to the East Midlands Gas Board and then to British Gas in 1973. The popularity of gas as a domestic fuel remains undiminished, being much cheaper than electricity, but today the gasometer has gone from Bourne and our supply no longer comes from coal but from the North Sea and is brought into the town through a complicated pipeline network from the east coast.