Gas Lamps in Thornbury
One use for the gas seems to have been for public street lamps. In the records of the Thornbury Gas Company there is a note that the payments for the period up to 20th February 1857 include pipe fitting and masonry for public lamps. The lamps were supplied by Stothert and Pitt the engineers in St Philips, Bristol. These public lamps quickly made some income for the new company. By December 1857 the income section of the ledger shows that £20.00 in rent for the public lamps was received - less £1.10 due to Mr King for collecting rate. The gas consumed was 351,200 cubic feet.
How many public lamps there were at the
beginning is not clear; we believe there were 23. 
The first detailed list of the lamps that we
have found so far was dated 1920. Even that has only 25 lamps and one
extra on Sundays; nor were they to be lit every night as "five nights in
each month viz;- two days before full moon and two days after" there was
apparently enough natural light anyway.
The lamps were; in the High Street at Mr Chambers, Mr Thompsons, G.B. Symes, Ted Ponting, F Williams, the Register Office and The Plain (2); in Castle Street at Dr Williams, Chantry, Kington Corner, Vicarage Wall, The Church; in Gloucester Road at F K Howell, Grammar School, Mr Pitcher's. Others were the Weighbridge (The Plain), Porter Stores (The Barrel), Lodging house, Bath Road, A Riddifords (Horseshoe Lane), Murray's (Gillingstool Hill), Cullimore's Entrance and Sawmill Lane.
The photograph on the right shows the gas lamp outside G. B. Symes towards the top of the High Street. The photograph was taken about 1906.
Some of the wealthier families in Thornbury were also having their own lamps installed. We are not sure when they began to appear in people's houses but by 30th June 1858 "house services" are referred to. There is also a note in the accounts book that by December 1860 there was a lamp at Mrs Churchell's gate. Mrs Churchell lived at The Parks which adjoined the Castle grounds. This lamp was supplied by Hall and Pedder for 9s 6d. Thornbury Museum has the heading from an early gas bill dated January 1871 sent to Henry Howard at Thornbury Castle.
The Churches seemed to benefit too. The parish records of St Mary's Church say that gas was the first used there on Christmas Eve 1856.
The level of the supply of gas caused complaints in Thornbury. We have found an early example of this in the records of the United Reformed Church. The minutes of the November 1886 meeting refer to the "bad lighting of the premises" because of "the provision made years ago for lighting." The upper schoolroom was said to be useless in winter because of this problem and the pastor was asked to make a formal complaint to Thornbury Gas Company.
In Gloucester Records Office there is a letter to Thornbury District Council from the Thornbury Gas Light & Coke Co Ltd dated August 1st 1901. It arranges to supply gas from "1st day of August 1901 to the 31st day of May 1902" - excepting of course the five nights a month that are too light to need gas light - for £115. This document makes clear the type of gas lamp the company provided; "the ordinary batswing, consuming five feet of gas per hour at ten tenths pressure." "Batswing" burners were introduced about 1816 and became the typical gas burners of the mid nineteenth century. They had a slit opening which produced a broad flat flame providing a comparatively dim yellowish light of 27 candlepower.
This page was last updated: 03/04/2008