Trade

Gas Works

Town gas

Town gas, or coal gas, became a key urban innovation in the 19th century. Produced by heating coal without air, it created a flammable gas used primarily for lighting. Its expansion followed early work by inventors like William Murdoch, spreading rapidly across industrial cities in Britain and Europe. Gasworks and pipeline networks were built to supply homes, streets, and factories, transforming nightlife and productivity. By mid-century, town gas was also used for cooking and heating. Despite benefits, it caused pollution and health risks. Later in the century, electricity emerged as a competitor, beginning the gradual decline of town gas.

Hey Green Corn Mill

The earliest production of coal gas in Marsden was probably at the Hey Green Corn Mill. It was built in 1710 as a fulling mill in response to a petition from 42 local weavers who all agreed to send their cloth to it. We do not know when the actual date when gas production began at Hey Green but we know, from an 1873 newspaper announcement advertising its sale, that a gasworks was present at that time.

Two cast-iron gateposts at Bankside, on Reddisher Road (built c1895), are said to have been condensors or retorts salvaged from the Hey Green gasworks

Marsden Gas Works

Marsden Gaslight Company was established in 1855 and, by December 1856, the Gas Works had been built and was providing gas lighting for seven of the local mills, Marsden Foundry, several private houses and the New National School which was 'neatly fitted with elaborate brass burners which much add to the beauty of this noble structure'. In 1893, an advert for the post of gas works manager stated that 'The production is about eleven million feet of gas per annum'

The gas company was sold to the Marsden Local Board in 1886. Gas was still mainly used for lighting at the turn of the century. Photographs of Peel Street c1900 show gas street lamps and many of the houses built at this time by the mill owners and the Co-operative Society had gas lighting. By the 1930s gas was replacing coal as fuel for cooking and some newer houses were lit by electricity.

In 1951, with coal in short supply, 233 people queued one day for coke from the gas works. Michael Shaw recalls that in the 1950s he 'used to fetch a sack of coke and would watch the long “troughs” being filled with coal to be raised up by a chain operated block and pulley system to be fed into the retorts. It was all done by hand - no machinery. The coal was then “roasted” to produce the gas and the coke was a by-product'.

In the early 1970s town gas in the UK was replaced by North Sea gas leading to the closing of the Gas Works. The gas holder was demolished in 1980.