The Gas Supply in Thornbury
The level of the supply of gas caused complaints in Thornbury for many years. We have found an early example of this in the records of what was then the Congregational Church but is now known as 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.
In the 1920's old industries like coal were declining. British technology had not kept up with the times and production methods could not produce good quality materials at a reasonable price. In 1921 sales of coal were so poor that the employers cut the wages of miners.
The difficulties of the coal industry had its effect on gas production and this became evident in Thornbury as it did elsewhere. The Gazette of July 2nd 1921 makes a brief mention of what was happening in Thornbury in a report on the proceedings of a District Council meeting. Mr Riddiford wanted to know if the Gas Company could be compelled to make gas. The Clerk said that this was not possible and the Company could close down if it wanted to. It further added "Mr Bruton mentioned that 200 tons of coal had been useless for the making of gas. They had already bought £40 worth, which had produced about £5 worth of gas. They could not expect the Gas Company to go on like that."
The Gas Company must have ceased production altogether for a time. The Gazette of 30th July 1921 reported that the supply of gas had been resumed.
The Gazette of 24th December 1921 published the correspondence between the Clerk of the Council and the Secretary of the Gas Company to show that the resumption of gas supplies had not been the end of the problems. The clerk wrote; "Dear Sir, Complaints were made to the District Council of the quality of the gas supplied in the Street Lamps and of the state of the Street Lamps which, it was reported, had not been cleaned for nearly two months." Samuel Fudge the Secretary of the Thornbury Gas Light and Coke Co replied to this, agreeing to have the lamps cleaned immediately but denying that the quality was poor.
Mr Wicks wrote back to the effect that there were a very large number of complaints and that he had had some experience of the problems himself; "the gas is of such poor quality and supplied at such a low pressure that on two or three occasions during the last three days when I have had illness in the house I have found it impossible even to light a gas ring." Other people had similar instances of the same problem; "On Sunday last a certain gentleman informed me that having got partly through the cooking of a joint the gas entirely disappeared."
The same article in the Gazette of December 24th 1921 showed that the Gas Company had finally acknowledged the source of the problem. "Through the Works lying idle for a considerable time, it has caused trouble at the Works and in the Services. The directors wish to point put that they have now obtained the services of an expert on gas making and distribution and he is now working at the works and they are hoping that all these troubles will soon be overcome."
Sadly it is possible that the remedy caused problems too. Almost three years later in June 1924, the Gazette reported that the Highway Surveyor (Mr W W Phillips) was alleging that the Thornbury Gas Company was responsible for problems with the road surfaces. He claimed that "some of the streets only recently re-surfaced had been broken up and the material not replaced satisfactorily." Presumably the Gas Company had been laying new pipes or repairing old ones just after the roads had been resurfaced. It seems that nothing changes.
On 15th January 1938 a report of a Parish Council meeting in the Gazette showed that the problems were continuing. Mr G R Millard felt it was time to write a very strongly worded letter the gas company about the gas supply- ruined Sunday dinners were again cited as a big problem. It was suggested that the local M.P. the District Councillors and local gas companies should all be informed of the problem. The solution suggested was possibly retrograde. It was to contact firms that supplied cylinder gas and ask them to canvass the people of Thornbury recommending their product.
Mr Thompson could not see the point of notifying so many people when the problem was that the gas holder was not large enough but despite this objection the motion was accepted.
This page was last updated: 19/04/2010