Glasgow's Gasworks

[cell]

Nice one Excoriate, I wasn’t aware of that, it looks well worth a visit and I’ll have to add it to my list of summer jaunts. http://www.biggarmuseumtrust.co.uk/home/biggar-gasworks

I would agree with you, there is no way I'd live in a house on an ex-gas works site, there are way too many nasties which could be lurking there.

[cell]

Past present for the Provan works, difficult one this as there is a palisade fence around the site and you just have to brass neck it, stick the camera through the fence and hope no one spots you taking pictures of national infrastructure!
Past picture from J Hume

[Socceroo]

I would agree with you, there is no way I'd live in a house on an ex-gas works site, there are way too many nasties which could be lurking there.

Interesting thread. I have worked on a couple of Glasgow sites redeveloping where Gas Works have once stood. I have been involved in two housing developments where the Patrick Gas Works were located. On both occasions about 19 years apart, the sites were rigorously excavated out / decontaminated to a great depth. So I would hope that the risk of anything of concern still being in the ground is non existent.

Apart from the main Gas Works noted on this thread, there were like the Electricity Generation Plants, a number of smaller dedicated Gas Works developed for a relatively short period in history to locally serve Glasgow factories. I recall a couple of these which we came across the remnants of in Bridgeton area in the late 1980's. It would be interesting if anyone has any recollections or details of local / private Gas Works that were in Glasgow.

[cell]

That’s good to hear, still it wouldn't be my choice! The gas works at Partick was in operation for a relatively short time a long time ago, so I would imagine the problem would be less than at the Dawsholm and Dalmarnock sites where they had associated chemical works and which were both in operation for more than a hundred years right up to the 50's and 60's.

Most iron and steel works were gas producers by way of the by products from their coke ovens, some of the larger ones ie Dixons signed supply contracts with the Gas Dept and fed excess gas to the various gas works for blending.

I have some info on the industrial and smaller municipal enterprises which I'm trying to pull together into a reasonable post but at the moment it's very sketchy. I'd be interested to see any info that anyone has. I know Beardmore at Clydebank had gas engines which were used to generate electricity, so they probably had the ability to produce their own gas, the photo of their power station appears to show 4 vertical structures which could be gas producers.

[cell]

Still from the eighties film, Death Watch, showing part of the Provan plant, in the background are the Germiston and the Red Road high flats.

[cell]

Oh, this is from an Arrol's catalogue - isn't it lovely?

Came across this plan, showing the location and a description of the Temperley crane in book describing part of a new process at Dawsholm. If you can’t make it out, its location is shown by the large circle which is below and to the right of the three gas holders which are in a diagonal line.

“Existing plant consisted of two lines of railway, over one of which was a coke gantry carrying two travelling cranes and an Arrol’s Temperley transporter crane erected during the War (1stWW), which was used for stocking coke around its base. Fortunately it is of considerable height and commands an area 200ft in diameter. Continuous coke, leaving the retorts in a quenched condition and received in skips resting on bogies running on rails, could be easily handled by the Temperley crane but this would not be available when taking the coal from stock, nor would it be advisable to depend on one method for handling so much coke , delivered at short intervals, day and night. Handling by the Temperley was therefore regarded as an emergency measure. “

It's a strange beast and I don't know if I would be wanting to put all those bending loads on it's brick tower, unless it is just a brick skirt to protect a steel tower inside from the surounding coke stoke pile.

I’m not sure I fully understand how it was used but from this description and Ben’s, it seems to have been able to move coke around the stockpile at its base or receive freshly quenched coke in a skip and move it to the stockpile.

[BenCooper]

Yes, I couldn't quite work it out either - and the fact that they seem to have only made one is quite telling

I guess the advantage is that it can do almost the job of a travelling crane, but without having to have the structure of rails on the ground and more framework. It must have been fiddly to use double-ended, though.

[cell]

Defibduncan (great name) has some good pictures of the Tradeston gas works on his flicker account which is well worth a visit as he has some other great Glasgow stuff from the 60/70s.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64429304@N04/6241725147/

[Mori]

ET

What now for city's Provan gas towers?

FOR more than a century, the twin gasometers of the Provan Gas Works have dominated Glasgow's skyline




But Scottish Gas is now considering their future after the towers were decommissioned as part of a major redevelopment of the site.
The two blue towers can each hold 283,000 cubic metres of gas. They are each 280ft in diameter and among the largest of their kind in the UK.
Earlier this year, Scotland Gas Networks was given permission to develop the site at Blochairn Road.
Now the company has lodged a new application for permission to store up to 500 tonnes of gas in mobile tankers at the East End site.
A Scottish Gas spokeswoman said: "Scotland Gas Networks put in a planning application to develop the existing infrastructure at our Provan site.
"This application has been approved

[HollowHorn]

Temple Gasometers, August 2012:





Kelvindale Station, Anniesland Tower in background: