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the many uses of gas in norwich

A PLAN OF THE TWO GASWORKS IN 1875
The gas company was responsible It was, however, also near the the manager by 1863 and by the time of
for repairing, cleaning, lighting, and cathedral and the more populated parts his death, in 1875, Chandler Tadman’s
extinguishing the streetlights. They were of Norwich, so it was at greater risk of title had changed to ‘superintendent’.
fitted with Batswing burners and were causing a nuisance; it was an already In 1857, the British Gas Light
lit every night of the year, from an hour constrained site with limited potential Company decided to promote a bill in
after sunset to an hour before sunrise. for future expansion. Parliament titled ‘The British Gaslight
The coal supplied to the gasworks came The BGLC erected the new works Company, Limited. (Norwich) Act, 1858’.
from County Durham, shipped down the at a cost of £20,000, and gas was The successful bill received Royal
east coast by Collier and then transported first supplied from this site on 22d Assent on 12 of July, 1858. The act
up the River Wensum by Wherry. December 1851, although the works allowed for the existing Norwich Gas
The position for dealing with by- were not completed until 1853. Light Company to be dissolved and any
products from gas manufacture in While undertaking excavations acts of Parliament associated with the
the 1850s was disappointing for the during the construction of the St Martin company repealed.
company. The spent lime generated at Palace gasworks in 1851, interesting The gas undertaking then formally
from the purification of the gas had no fossils were uncovered in the gravel became part of the British Gas Light
value. The ammoniacal liquor was not beneath the site, including the skull of Company. To ensure transparency, the
saleable for chemical manufacture, but a dog and bones of many other animals, local authority was entitled to appoint its
was instead evaporated by heating in such as deer. own auditor of the company’s finances
pans at the gasworks, driving off the The ground conditions at St Martin to ensure they were not making too high
water and creating a vile stench at the at Palace were a challenge to the gas a profit from the residents of Norwich.
same time. The coal tar found local use company; the gravels not far below This required the BGLC to keep a
for the painting of stone walls (‘coarse ground level were saturated with separate set of accounts for the Norwich
painting’) and preserving timber. water, which meant excavation was gas undertaking, an approach which
very difficult. Removing the water was lasted until nationalisation.
Construction of the new gasworks futile as groundwater would rapidly re- The extensions carried out
at St Martin at Palace enter the excavation directly from the following this new act incurred such
Eventually, the existing works at River Wensum. an expenditure of funds that, by the
Bishop Bridge needed to be extended. In 1856, the St Martin at Palace year 1874, the authorised capital was
As they were located in a quarry, the gasworks was described as consisting of exhausted. Another bill then had to be
available space for enlargement was 120 retorts and one holder “equal in size promoted to empower the company to
minimal and could not be extended to the three at the old works”, to which enlarge its works and expend further
any further to the east. the Palace works were connected. capital at Norwich. This act received
The directors of the company had to The Tadman name had a long Royal Assent on 13 May 1875.
purchase land elsewhere. They found connection with the BGLC in Norwich.
an alternative site at World’s End Lane, William Tadman was a clerk in 1828 In the next instalment, Professor
at St Martin at Palace, which benefited and later became the engineer and, Thomas describes how Thomas Glover
from being low lying and close to water. later, manager. His son, Chandler, was reorganised the two gasworks.

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