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pagepage7Historic Gas Times%u2022 Issue 113 %u2022 December 2022 %u2022MogadorThe Mogador natural gas reception facility, which was located north of Reigate, can be seen in this photograph from 1969. The site was being constructed as part of the conversion programme to natural gas. The site had been connected via a 24-inch gas main to Croydon via Ascot and then extended to Cranleigh. The pipeline was first used for supplying manufactured gas from Croydon reforming plant.The two storage tanks on the extreme left of the picture were being used to hold stock of liquid natural gas to supply the customers at and around Cranleigh who had already been converted to natural gas. This was a temporary measure designed to maintain a supply of natural gas to these customers until the feeder main that linked Mogador with the National Grid was completed. The feeder main was delayed due to very difficult ground conditions in the Woking area which had been waterlogged and was full of shifting sand. The conversion programme has had to be slowed down because of delays in the completion of this main. To find out more about this fascinating sounding site we consulted with our SEGAS expert Brian Sturt. Mogador in the Surrey Hills was an early feed from the National Grid into the SEGAS Grid system. Initially the heaters to compensate for the Joule Thomson effect were a touch temperamental which required frequent visits to the adjacent hostelry. Mogador, an odd name, which according to Surrey history was derived from a 16th Century land owner %u2018Thomas Maggot%u2019 - a Hobbit if ever there was one.BSFRAUD IN DEPTFORDIn all the years I have been researching the gas industry in south east London I never expected to come across another gas company which I had never heard of - but - hey ho! Yesterday - while looking for something else - up popped a newspaper report of a Greenwich and Deptford Gas Company in 1818 - what!!!This company it turns out has been set up by famous engineer, Ralph Dodd - (although I have often noted that most of his schemes didn%u2019t work - %u2018bit dodgy%u2019 I%u2019ve often thought) Anyway it turns out he had been busy, %u201ca piece of ground was taken at Deptford, upon which docks, and other Works, were constructed%u201d (don%u2019t ask why he was building docks for a gas works, there is no doubt a good reason).As work continued %u2018a large quantity of iron pipes, furnished by a foundry in Staffordshire, were deposited upon the premises%u2019. Now these pipes were eventually removed by a Mr. Fesenmeyer who said he was owed money. Mr. Dodd said the money owed was nothing to do with him as he was %u2018merely the employed agent of the company%u2019.Enquiries began as to who the company consisted of. Two or three names of shareholders were discovered and they were approached. Some denied all knowledge of the company and others were angry. It appeared that they had all been owned money by Mr.Dodd who had given them shares in his new gas company as settlement of the debt............ Don%u2019t know what happened next but no more is heard of the Greenwich and Deptford Gas Co.Sorry -no pictures, but -wild guess -I think the site of this works was probably part of Frank Hills Deptford chemical works - some of what is now the APT site.Mary MillsAn aerial photograph of the construction of the SEGAS natural reception station at Mogador 1969.