Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2023)
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries The vertical plant of the Gas Works was photographed on 5 April 1954. The collier Seaford can be seen in the foreground. |
In the early days Brighton, Hove and surrounding districts
received their gas supply from two separate companies; they were Brighton Gas
Light and Coke Company (formed in 1818) with works at Black Rock, and Brighton
& Hove General Gas Company (formed in 1825) with works on the west side of
St Andrew’s Old Church, Hove. By the 1860s it was obvious there could be no
further expansion on the latter site and so a new site was sought.
On 1 December 1865 Brighton & Hove General Gas Company notified interested parties that they proposed to
build a Gas Works on a seven-acre site on the foreshore at Aldrington, south of
the canal. Portslade formed the boundary on the west side, on the east side the
boundary was a small road running from north to south on the east side of the
harbour basin, on the south side the boundary was the high-water mark and on
the north side the boundary was formed partly by the South Wharf and partly by
the towing path plus the road already mentioned.
Mary Ingram, Revd Henry Manning
Ingram, Robert Bethune Ingram and Frederick Ellman (trustees of the will of the
late Hugh Ingram) were the landowners.
In February 1866 the Bill was
presented to Parliament and stirred up something of a hornet’s nest. Almost
everyone with land adjacent to the site objected on the grounds that the value
of their property would decline while two parties engaged in a lengthy legal
wrangle over who actually owned the land.
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| copyright © G. Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. |
The final decision on the case
was not pronounced until 25 May 1871. The Times printed long columns on
the two six-day trials that preceded the decision.
Colonel Carr Lloyd claimed the
proposed site as his own but the Ingram trustees hotly disputed it. Colonel
Lloyd was Lord of Lancing Manor, having succeeded to the title upon his aunt’s
death in 1858. His ancestors had purchased the lordship in 1777. Although the
limits of Lancing Manor ended some three or four miles from the disputed land,
the Colonel lodged the extraordinary claim that the disputed land was his by
accretion. In other words, because the River Adur flowed through his land and
had gradually built up a shingle bank on its south side, he argued that it must
be his too. (The disputed land covered more than the seven-acre proposed Gas
Works site, and was in fact some 60 acres opposite Portslade and Aldrington).
What was even more interesting
was that Colonel Lloyd’s attorney was none other than Robert Upperton. It was
the same Upperton who forty years previously had drawn up a deed of conveyance
for Hugh Fuller (Ingram’s predecessor as owner of the Aldrington Estate) and
had frequently declared, once upon oath, that the disputed land was undoubtedly
Mr Fuller’s. Mr Fuller had used the land since 1834, pasturing his sheep and
cattle there besides digging out soil and shingle. Even the learned judge was
moved to comment on Upperton’s strange inconsistency. Colonel Lloyd lost his
case.
Once the land dispute was settled, work could proceed on
constructing the Gas Works, which consisted of a retort house, coal stores,
engine and meter house, scrubber house, boiler house, purifying shed, offices,
stores and residuals shed. The whole works cost £72,000. The well-known Hove firm of J. Parsons & Sons was responsible for
the building of Portslade Gas Works – their premises were in Church
Road.
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries |
When the Gas Works was up and
running, the wages bill came to around £184 a week. An old Wages Book has been
preserved and it makes interesting reading. The amount earned depended on the
skill, experience and number of hours worked but it does seem that skilled men
earned a decent wage. By comparison, in 1881 unskilled workers living in the
vicinity of St Barnabas Church, Hove, were said to only earn 16/- or 18/- a
week.
Fireman £1-7-8d
Engine Driver £1-8s or £1-4-6d
Stoker £1-1-1d
Carpenter £1-10s
Bricklayer £2 or £1-8-2d
Engine Fitter £2-2-6d
Gas Fitter £1-5-11d
Blacksmith £1-5-11d
General Labourer about £1
It was unfortunate that in 1875 there was a strong
north-west wind blowing at the same time as there was a flood tide. The result
was the sea came over the beach and joined with the canal, flooding the Gas
Works to a depth of eighteen inches.
In 1879 further land was acquired to the east and west of
the works and sea defences extended.
In the 1870s a 16-inch gas main was sufficient to carry
gas from the works to the gasholder station but in 1880 a 24-inch main was
added.
In 1925 a new 24-inch main was laid along the same line as
the previous two. It was not carried right up to the Hove gasholder station but
instead was connected to the 20-inch main that carried gas from the Hove
holders to Black Rock.
In 1882 the two local gas companies amalgamated and in the
same year construction work on number two section at Portslade was completed.
This included a purifier house constructed of brickwork and eight water-lute
purifiers were provided. The exhausters in the engine house were of the
two-blade rotary type of 100,000 cubic feet per hour capacity.
It is interesting to note that
the small Cornish boilers were still in operation in 1935.
In 1885 the manufacture of gas at
Black Rock ceased and everything was transferred to the Portslade site. This
included one of the exhausters and engines, which were installed in number one
engine house and lasted until 1934 when an electric generating set was
installed.
In 1886 the three original
gasholders at Black Rock were demolished leaving holders 4, 5 and 6 extant.
This meant the Black Rock site had a total storage capacity of just over
800,000 cubic feet, less than half of that which was available at the Hove
holder station.
A new number seven holder was
designed for Black Rock; Charles Herbert Rutter who joined the Company in 1886
and was still in his teens, assisted with the drawings.
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries The second wharf was photographed on 5 September 1889. It is quite unusual for the canal to be still enough for reflections. |
Because the capacity of the Gas
Works had increased there was a need for more wharf space. Originally, a single
timber wharf had been sufficient but in 1889 a second one was added. The new
wharf was constructed of concrete on a timber pitch-pine frame of piles.
Progress was slow because work could only take place for a two-hour period at
low tide.
By 1890 the Gas Works needed to be extended again and a
new number three section was built on the west side on land then consisting of
shingle. In 1895 number three section was completed; in the same year two
Humphreys & Glasgow’s water gas sets were erected west of number three
retort house, the Company being one of the first half-dozen in England to install
a plant of this description with each having a nominal capacity of 750,000
cubic feet of gas per day.
A new gantry was built at the
west end of number two retort, which necessitated the demolition of the old
white cottage that had been used as the foreman’s residence from 1871 to 1889.
The Gas Works were by then so
large that it warranted a resident engineer and consequently Beach House was
built at the east end of the Company’s property. Harry Pullen was the first
occupant, followed by J.B. Paddon and then C.H. Rutter and the property stood
right on parish boundaries. In 1906 when an east wing was added the boundary
passed right through the bedroom and so the Chief Engineer was able to joke
that he and his wife slept in different parishes.
During this time the Gas Works produced items for the war
effort such as the Stokes trench mortar and benzol, which was used for the
manufacture of high explosives.
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| A notice that appeared in Brighton Graphic newspaper on the 18 May 1916 |
So many men went off to serve in
the armed forces that the Gas Works became seriously short of labour. It was
stated that between 90% and 100% of employees of military age joined up. The
Company was obliged to employ 150 women and boys plus a few willing pensioners.
Although the work was tough and physical the women expected no favours and were
hard workers. One duty involved pushing a bogey cart full of coal from the
dockside to the works.
When Fred Lucas, the Gas Works
ferryman, got married his bride’s occupation was described on the marriage
certificate as ‘gas labourer’ and she was proud of it too.
Fred Hill (of Hill’s Radio)
remembered the sight of these women trudging home from work up Church Road,
Portslade, clad in bulky overalls and their skin was an unhealthy shade of
yellow caused by sulphur fumes.
Later on, the management of the
Gas Works appealed to the Government to allot them some prisoners of war for
labouring purposes. Although local workers opposed such a scheme a party of
German prisoners duly arrived in town and lodged at Brooker Hall, now Hove Museum,
which excited some wry comments from local people. There were fears of possible
sabotage and so the authorities announced that no German would be allowed
anywhere near the gas-making plant. The German prisoners were marched under
armed guard daily to the Gas Works where they began to clear a vast
accumulation of clinker.
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| copyright © J.Middleton Hove Museum once housed German prisoners of war. |
At 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918
the hooter at the Gas Works went off to signal the end of the Great War.
Youngster Charles Ward heard the commotion from his sick bed at his home in Southwick
where he was recovering from Spanish flu. He wrote ‘I stood up on my bed to see
what it was all about but was so weak I just fell back on my bed.’
Ernest Charles Moore was employed at the Gas Works for 26
years, starting at the age of thirteen in November 1915. He was following in
the footsteps of his father who worked there too. One of the children used to
take his dinner over to him on the ferry boat. The food was on a plate tied up
in a red-spotted cloth called a Tommy handkerchief – Tommy being the nickname
for food.
The Moores lived at 2 East
Street, Portslade and because there were ten children but only three bedrooms,
the children slept three to a bed.
When Ernest Charles Moore started
work in 1915 he earned 10/- a week for a 12-hour day. He was given a shovel so
huge that the handle stood at chest level. A regular chore with this shovel was
to turn over the bog ore (oxide) in order to give it a good airing. It was the
oxide that was mostly responsible for the notorious Portslade Pong.
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| copyright © G. Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. The Gas Works in the early 1900s |
In those days town gas was far
more toxic than North Sea gas is today, and sometimes a worker would become
overcome from the fumes. When this happened he would be taken outside and laid
out in the fresh air. When he revived he was given milk to drink to absorb the
poison. He returned to work when he was able because if he went home, his wages
were docked.
It is possible that some workers
suffered personality changes after years of toxic exposure. There were
certainly some volatile men who were prone to violence, which could be set off
by any excuse or none. On one occasion a man recovering from being overcome
with fumes, suddenly got up and began to punch an unfortunate horse that
happened to be standing nearby until he was pulled off.
Coal was unloaded from colliers
into carts that were pushed along the tram road by waggoners to where the track
divided into separate routes to the two retorts. On arrival, a special catch
was knocked up and the coal dropped onto a grating. The men shovelling the coal
down through that grating were known as ‘Knockers Down’. If a colleague were
thought to be slacking, his mates would sing out ‘Waggons up, my hearties’.
Another old-time chore was known
as ‘head stoking’ and meant the coal was shot into the furnace by a deft thrust
of the shoulders. The worker filled a scoop, called a fiddle-stick, with coal,
placed it on his shoulder, approached the furnace at a run and with a quick
flick of the fiddle-stick shot the coal into the flames. When this task was
mechanised, the hydraulic wheel was nicknamed ‘Iron Man’.
The steam hooter at the Gas Works
went off at 6 a.m., 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and at 5 p.m. (in winter) and 5.30 p.m. (in
summer). Local people used to set their clocks by it and of course it was especially
useful for those households without clock or watch. After the Great War the
hooter would also sound at 11 a.m. on Armistice Day so that people would know
when to observe the two minutes’ silence.
The layout of the Gas Works was
as follows: at the east end there was the carpenter’s shop, then came the
offices and administrative part, followed by the old blacksmith’s shop.
Opposite there was a piece of waste ground, which was turned into a recreation
ground. Number one engine house was next to the field and by the middle road
there stood three retorts. Then came the water plant followed by a screen
nicknamed the Dolly Gray after a famous song of the Great War entitled Goodbye,
Dolly Gray; the screen was where ashes and waste were sieved out. After that
there was the new blacksmith’s shop and the fitter’s shop.
By 1926 the Company had made
additional purchases of land and thus the whole site spread over some 40
acres.
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries This was one of the horses belonging to the Gas Works. His name was Bobby and he was photographed in 1888. He was obviously a great favourite because the day before he was put down on 30 August 1891, a photographer was summoned to take a head and shoulders portrait of Bobby to include in the Company’s archive. |
Horses were used to pull the
tip-carts and there also some powerful shire horses. The Company owned some of
the horses in use there and they were very well cared for and often won
competitions because of their overall excellent appearance and glossy coats.
Other horses were hired from local owners such as Mr Field, Mr Trigwell and Mr
Penfold and were stabled in East Street and George Street in Portslade. These
horses soon came to know their work routine and when the hooter sounded in late
afternoon, they would start heading off for their home stables of their own
accord, which meant going back around Aldrington Basin.
The rise in gas production can be gauged from the
following figures:
1880 – 400 million cubic
feet a year
1885 – 756 million cubic
feet a year
1890 – Over 900 million
cubic feet a year
1914 – 1,500 million cubic
feet a year
1892 – 3,877,000 gallons
1945 – 4,253,000 gallons
At first Shoreham & District
Water Company supplied the water.
As a comparison of expenditure –
in the quarter ending December 1892 the water bill came to £105-17-10d while in
the quarter ending December 1945 the water bill was £221-10-3d.
Innovation and Growth
Innovation and Growth
In 1927 an important innovation was made by the
introduction of waste heat recovery. Within two years all carbonising plant and
water gas sets were thus equipped with the result that 50% of the steam for the
works was derived from waste heat at a low cost.
In around 1928 it was decided to
build a new holder at Black Rock in the existing disused number 4 gasholder at
a cost of £7,000.
In 1930 arrangements were
completed to take over Worthing Gas Light and Coke Company and the new title
became Brighton, Hove and Worthing Gas Company.
Additional plant was installed at
the Gas Works and a 24-inch diameter trunk main was built from Portslade to
Worthing Gasholders.
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries This photograph was taken on 12 August 1931 and shows the ground being excavated for number three retort house. |
In September 1940 four bombs were dropped on the Gas
Works. The coal stores were wrecked but the retorts were not hit and production
was able to continue. The only casualty was a horse killed in the wreckage.
Coal lorry drivers at the site, like Eric Masters, had nowhere to shelter and
so they dived under their lorries as the bombs fell.
Coal deliveries had been switched
to the railways because of shipping losses.
On 12 November 1940 eight
incendiary bombs were dropped on the Gas Works and the Western Lawns, Hove, and
electric cables were cut. It was probably on this raid that one of the gas
workers was hit in the head by shrapnel but he survived.
After the war new work was
undertaken at the Gas Works. In January 1948 a specification for the proposed
installation of continuously working vertical retorts was sent to Mr R. Prince,
general manager of the Company. The document for the Woodhall-Duckham Vertical
Retort and Oven ran to an astonishing 86 pages.
Difficulties were envisaged
because of a serious shortage of silica refractories and the threatened
restriction on the allocation of steel to the gas industry.
A letter from Mr Prince to the
firm dated 20 July 1950 requested that pre-cast piles of 14-inch square dimension
should be driven to depths of 30 feet, 45 feet and 60 feet respectively with a
two-and-half inch hammer; after ten days the piles should be re-driven for a
further 6 to 12 feet. Ordinary Portland cement was to be used for the piles.
In 1954 a new retort was in the
process of being built and in 1965 a high-pressure reforming plant was added.
Improvements were being carried
out almost to the end. At its peak some 65 million cubic feet of gas was
produced a day but by 1971 the amount had fallen to 10 million cubic feet a
day.
In 1967 high-pressure mains for
the purpose of transporting North Sea gas were laid across the Downs and it was
expected that Sussex would be linked to the national Grid by 1969.
Gas production ceased at the
Portslade works on 22 May 1971 and 400 men were made redundant.
It is interesting to note an
educational school visit, an account of which appeared in Hove County School
for Girls Magazine 1961-1962.
‘First we went to the retort house, where the coal-gas is
produced in huge fireclay retorts. At this stage in the manufacture, the coal
gas contains numerous impurities such as tar, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide and
these have to be removed in various ways. The tar is run off into wells, which
are also in the retort house, and we were shown these next. Then we were taken
to the ‘scrubbers’ where the ammonia is removed. After this we went into the
large building, which houses the purifiers. Here hydrogen sulphide is removed
by passing the gas over ferric oxide. The hydrogen sulphide reacts with the
ferric oxide to form ferric sulphide. The hydrogen sulphise has to be removed
from the gas because it is extremely poisonous. Lastly, we were shown the
laboratory where numerous tests are carried out at various stages of the
manufacture of coal-gas to ensure that the right constituents of the gas are
present.’
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| copyright © G. Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. Colliers moored by the Gas Works c1900 |
Colliers carried coal from the
north east of England to the wharfs of Portslade Gas Works. No doubt the
Company directors thought it was a signal honour to have such vessels named
after them; one vessel was called F. E. Webb and another was John
Miles. Later on, there was the J.B. Paddon. Then the practice was
dropped and vessels were given place names such as the Hove, Steyning,
Seaford, Pulborough and Petworth.
The old colliers were relatively small and carried an
average of 800 tons of coal. But the old way of unloading a vessel was
surprisingly quick and it was reckoned the workers could shift 100 tons of coal
an hour. But it was a labour intensive exercise. The method was to have eight
men in each hold and then sixteen ‘tippers’ loaded the coal into carts that
were pushed to the retort houses. There was no mechanical grab to help until
the 1930s when the first mechanical aid was called a donkey crane. Steam cranes
could lift 25 tons an hour.
There were two regular pilots who eased the colliers
through the canal to their berth; they were Pilot Grant and Pilot Upperton
On 18 March 1906 the Portslade,
a Stephenson Clarke owned vessel, was involved in an accident during a time of
thick fog when she ran down the SS Swale of London, some seven miles off
Beachy Head. The Portslade could not have been badly damaged because she
continued in service for some years.
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| copyright
© Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove A 1900 photograph of the SS Portslade in an unknown Port |
On 22 February 1917 the SS John Miles left Jarrow on Tyne with her holds packed with coal but she never made it to Portslade and sank around 11 miles south-east of Hartlepool. At first it was thought the vessel had struck a mine but it later transpired that German submarine U-21 had sent a torpedo into her port side, causing the ship to sink within two minutes. Nine crewmen drowned while five survivors were left struggling in the water until rescued by a British minesweeper. One of the survivors died on board the minesweeper. He was Second Engineer Robert Slater Wilkinson, aged 54, and he was buried in Portslade Cemetery. Another Portslade victim of the tragedy was Steward Emmanuel Tester, aged 61, who lived in Trafalgar Road. It is interesting to note that in August 2007 the ship’s bell was discovered and brought to the surface by members of a sub-aqua club.
Before 1933 the collier Seaford
used to bring coal into the works but her maximum cargo was still only 850
tons. I933 it was stated that the Gas Works needed 160,000 tons of coal a year
to keep going.
When the lock at Southwick was
enlarged, it meant that a new vessel, half as large again, could be
commissioned. On 7 August 1933 the Pullborough was launched at the
Burntisland shipbuilding yards on the banks of the Forth; Miss Gladys Jones,
daughter of one of the Company’s directors, officiated at the launching. The Pulborough
could transport 1,400 tons of coal in one voyage. It was not possible to
unload during the period of one tide but all the same the cost of unloading per
tom was greatly reduced. The Pulborough was especially built for
Stephenson Clarke to carry coal from the Tyne ports to Portslade Gas Works and
she was the largest vessel to frequent Shoreham Harbour.
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries These colliers brought coal from the north east to Portslade. The Pulborough was launched in 1933 while the Petworth’s first trip to the Gas Works took place on 30 August 1934. |
On 22 September 1935 the Pulborough
came to the rescue of the yacht Plinlimmon whose steering gear broke
in Cuckmere Bay. A.P. Herbert. Novelist and M.P. was aboard the yacht, plus his
two daughters, a friend and two crewmen. On 26 November 1935 a presentation was
made at Portslade Gas Works to the crew of the Pulborough when £109 was
divided amongst them, being the salvage money plus some more donated by the
Company. In addition there gold watches were given to the crew of the Pulborough’s
lifeboat
In September 1934 Captain William
Gilbert Ginty took command of the Pulborough. He was born in 1875 at Rio
de Janeiro where his father was the first manager of the Gas Works built there
by Sir Gilbert Ginty, Captain Ginty’s grandfather. Captain Ginty first became
associated with Portslade Gas Works in 1918 when he joined the Seaford, having
had the nerve-wracking experience of being torpedoed twice during the Great
War. In 1924 he was promoted to Master. His time in the Pulborough was
short-lived because he was obliged to retire in September 1936 because of ill
health and he died on 3 October 1936.
Two vessels belonging to
Portslade Gas Works were lost during the Second World War, one after the other.
On 18 July 1940 the Pulborough was sunk off Dover and on 19 July 1940
German warplanes sank the Portslade, despite the fact she was part of
convoy CW8. All the crew of the Portslade were rescued including Bert
Ford who was so upset over the loss of his treasured gold watch and his special
eiderdown that he gave up the sea for good and earned his living at the Gas
Works instead.
Meanwhile, the Seaford continued
to bring coal into the harbour and she was still sailing in the 1950s.
Ferry Boats
See the Ferry Boats, Portslade page for more information.
Ferry Boats
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries Workers squeeze onto the ferry boat to take them across the Aldrington Canal to Portslade Gas Works, c1930. |
See the Ferry Boats, Portslade page for more information.
Fire Brigade
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| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove This early 1900s photograph of a horse drawn and steam driven pump fire engine used by Portslade Gas Works Fire Brigade, a similar engine would have been used by Portslade Fire Brigade in Church Road. |
The Gas Works boasted its own Fire Brigade, which consisted of 21 men in the 1920s. Many of the members were related to each other, which is not surprising when you consider how many men from the same families worked there. For example, Doug Mepham and Herbert Mepham were Fire Brigade members in the 1920s while by 1937 Stan Mepham had joined his relatives. Their early uniform consisted of the usual trousers and a jacket with a row of buttons ascending the chest on either side. But their ordinary headgear was a curious hat resembling and old-time Russian sailor’s hat; the brass helmets were reserved for fire-fighting duties.
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| copyright © Doug
Mepham’s family The Gas Works Fire Brigade was photographed in the 1920s. Herbert Mepham is seated in the front row, third from left and Doug Mepham stands in the back row, second from right. |
In 1935 Portslade Gas Works Fire Brigade won 1st prize for the Motor Pump Wet Drill, 1st prize in the National Hose-cart Drill, 2nd prize in the Motor-pump Turn-out Drill and 2nd prize in the Escape Drill. This was out of 43 entries from twelve brigades. The Portslade men won another three prizes in 1937.
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| copyright © Doug
Mepham’s family The Gas Works Fire Brigade was photographed in 1937 with the Mepham family well represented. Herbert Mepham is behind the wheel, Doug Mepham stands behind the left-hand shield and Stan Mepham stands at the far left. |
Chief Officer Packer was in
charge for at least ten years.
Although the nature of the work was hard and to be honest
smelly, there was a great sense of camaraderie about the Gas Works, no doubt
helped along by the generations of families who worked there. This feeling
spilled over into their leisure hours and one of the earliest and well-attended
social groups was the Gas Works Cycle Club. By the 1930s the Gas Works could
field their own team of players in football, golf and bowls to which tennis was
added in 1935.
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries This marvellous photograph shows members of the Gas Works Cycle Club when cycling was all the rage. |
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries copyright © D.Sharp The similarity of these two lapel badges raises a fascinating question - did both cycle clubs use the Stag's Head in Portslade Old Village as their social headquarters? Both these Edwardian badges were manufactured by Vaughtons of Birmingham |
In 1910 the Gas Works Football Team was warned with regard to their future conduct after the referee complained that ‘all the Gas Works team were guilty of passing nasty remarks whenever (the referee) gave a decision with which they did not agree’.
There were also concert parties
that proved very popular. In 1913 a humorous sketch entitled Wary Willie’s
Revenge was produced.
Fred Lucas, ferryman, enjoyed
taking part in concert parties. He was of stately girth and once made a
memorable impression dressed as a Hawaiian maiden and clad in a voluminous
grass skirt.
In the 1930s and 1940s the Gasco
Rhythm Makers were a familiar sight at many local functions. The group
consisted of piano, drums and at least seven accordionists.
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| copyright © Doug
Mepham’s family The Gasco Rhythm Makers making music in the 1940s. At the back Fred Lucas, senior, ferryman, can just be seen seated at the piano. He also enjoyed playing the piano at nearby pubs such as the Clarence and the Windmill. |
Then there was the annual Sports
Day, inspection and competition held on the Gas Works recreation ground. The
event was instituted in 1904 and provided a great day out for all the family,
who were ferried over the canal free of charge, courtesy of the Company.
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| copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries The Gas Works 12th Annual Sports was photographed on 1 September 1923. The main Gas Works building dominates the background. |
The Fire Brigade was always in
evidence on such occasions.
Beadle
– In 1939 Frank Beadle was electrical foreman at the Gas Works when
he married Portslade-born Gladys. Young Gladys left school at the age
of fourteen, and worked in a couple of shops before landing a job in
the place where she had always wanted to work – Flynn’s Cleaners
in Fishersgate. The couple moved into a bungalow in Southwick, and
their son was born in 1940. However, Frank went off to do war service
with the Army, and it was not until 1947 that the family was
completed by the arrival of a daughter. On 4 June 2020 Gladys Beadle
celebrated her 100th
birthday. (Argus
4/6/20)
Burtenshaw – Mr Burtenshaw
was foreman of the Gas Works for more than 30 years.
Candy – Albert George
Candy was employed at the Gas Works from 1881 until he retired in 1927. He had
three sons working there too and in the 1930s the third generation of the
family started work.
Dawson – By the time the
Gas Works closed down in 1971 Bill Dawson had worked in the industry for 48
years. At Portslade he was a gas engineering assistant and he helped build the
new works in 1952.
Greed – Fred Greed was
employed at the Gas Works for 26 years but when he was aged 46 he was involved
in an accident and died. An inquest was held on 6 August 1938. Fred Greed was
working as a winch driver and he lived at Brighton. Albert Herbert Streeter, of
Southwick, was the charge-hand directing a party engaged in pile-driving into
the beach with a driving winch of which Greed was in charge. James William
Stringer of Crown Road, Portslade, was one of the workers at the time and in
his opinion Greed had become caught in the slack of the wire and was then drawn
onto the drum. Death was caused by a fracture of the neck. Miss Shaw, His
Majesty’s Inspector of Factories, attended the inquest and stated she was
satisfied the machinery had been properly fenced in. A verdict of accidental
death was passed. George Samuel Greed of 93 St Andrews’ Road, Portslade,
identified his brother’s body.
Harmes – Andrew Harmes was
employed at the Gas Works from the 1890s until he retired in 1934. He had three
sons at the works too and in 1935 a member of the third generation joined.
Mepham – In around 1900
George Henry Mepham was foreman engineer at the Gas Works. He and his wife
lived in Franklin Road, Portslade with their family of three boys and three
girls. His son Doug Mepham was a Portslade Gassie for 51 years. The other two
sons also followed in the family tradition; Jack went to Watford Gas Works
while Archie worked in the Hove yard where the gasometers were next door to St
Andrew’s Old Church. George Henry’s brother, Bert Mepham, also worked at the
Portslade site and was Chief Officer of the Gas Works Fire Brigade.
Doug Mepham was educated at St Andrew’s School, Portslade and when he finished his schooldays, his headmaster wrote on his testimonial ‘Of his personal character I cannot speak too highly’.
By the 1920s the Mepham family
lived in Beach Bungalows, built in 1921 and situated right on the beach, west
of the exclusive Seaside Villas. The location was somewhat draughty when a gale
blew and even a little scary when there were bad storms. As the bungalows were
technically within the parish of Aldrington, when Doug Mepham decided to get
married in 1925 the Banns had to be read in St Leonard’s Church, Aldrington.
Doug was a man of some energy because as well as working at the Gas Works and being a member of its Fire Brigade, he also immersed himself in the work of St John’s Ambulance Brigade; he founded the Portslade Division of which he became Superintendent in 1946. In addition he ran the Unity Yacht Club. Doug eventually became Mechanical Superintendent of the Gas Works. During the Second World War he applied regularly to join the Royal Navy but he was in a reserved occupation and could not be spared. Doug Mepham retired in 1968, having started work at the age of fourteen.
Moore – Ernest Charles
Moore started at the Gas Works at the age of thirteen in November 1915. It is
his detailed memories that provide a vital part of the text concerning the old
days in this article. When Moore began his career the manager was Mr Rutter and
he remembered succeeding managers Mr Smallbone and Mr Corfield. Moore worked
there for 26 years during which time the 36-inch gas main was adopted and the
round retort was altered to a ‘D’ retort. Moore was called up in 1940 but as he
was already 39 he was not sent on active service.
Paddon – Joseph Birch
Paddon became general manager of the Gas Company in 1860. In 1861 he lived in
an elegant flint-faced house on the Gas Works site in Church Road, Hove, next
door to St Andrew’s Old Church. Indeed, it was such an imposing building that
visitors were inclined to mistake it for the vicarage. It shows how esteemed
engineers were in Victorian times. It is greatly to be regretted the house was
not thought eligible to become a listed building and instead was demolished in
June 2002 – the site now being occupied by Tesco’s.
 |
| copyright © J.Middleton The elegant Gas House was demolished in April 1999. The cherry tree on the right and others in the front garden displayed beautiful pink blossom in the spring. |
In 1881 Paddon was still living in the Gas House with his wife Julia, two sons and four servants; a parlour-maid, a house-maid, a cook and a needlewoman. By 1891 Paddon had moved to Beach House at Portslade Gas Works while Joseph Cash occupied the Gas House; Cash worked for the Company as a civil engineer and designed an extension to Beach House in 1906.
 |
| copyright © G. Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. Beach House to the left of the Gas Works. |
Paddon was a native of Ilfracombe, Devon. On one occasion Paddon was asked about the risk of fire at number one purifier house on the Portslade site, which was constructed entirely of wood. He responded that the risk was negligible but that in any case the building could be burned down and rebuilt many times with the money saved from not constructing a more permanent building. Paddon also stated he thought more highly of the Mansard roof on the retort house than of anything else at the works. It was built to withstand a load of 60lbs per square foot of external surface on account of its exposed position.
Paddon died in 1910. On 21 November 1936 a memorial plaque to J.B. Paddon 1826-1910, featuring his head in relief, was unveiled at the works set in the wall of the engine house near the works Fire Station.
J.B. Paddon’s son John Faulkner
Paddon became assistant engineer but died in 1902. His younger brother A.M.
Paddon was chairman of the Company in the 1930s.
Peters
– Initially Frederick Peters earned his living as a market
gardener, following in the footsteps of his father Harry Peters who
lived in Alma Cottage in Portslade Old Village. Later on, Frederick
Peters became foreman of the paint shop at the Gas Works, By that
time he was living at 29 Elm Road, Portslade, with his wife, three
sons and a daughter. To everyone’s surprise another son, Cecil,
arrived in 1915 when his mother was aged 45, and his father ten years
older. Young Cecil had no recollections of his brother, another
Frederick Peters, who was killed in action in 1918. This death must
have been a great loss to the family. Matters were not helped when
Frederick Peters, senior, was laid off work because of an injury. He
became very depressed and committed suicide. He waited until his wife
was having a night out at the pictures before he gassed himself.
Unfortunately, it was eleven-year old Cecil who discovered the body.
When the inquest was held at Portslade Fire Station, the coroner
ordered that five shillings should be given to young Cecil for coping
so well and doing all the right things at the scene of the tragedy.
Pullen – The funeral of
Henry Pullen took place in August 1913. He lived in Franklin Road, Portslade
and was Superintendent of the Gas Works for many years.
Pumfrey – When the Gas
Works closed in 1971, Ernie Pumfrey had been employed there for 38 years; he did
not expect to be able to find another job.
Slater – Lawrence Slater
began his employment at the Gas Works in 1954 as an assistant engineer. He
became deputy station manager in 1960 and station manager in 1968. He was still
holding the latter position when the works closed in 1971.
End of an Era
Newly qualified Gary Gardner, Chem MRSC, started work at Portslade Gas Works in 1963, along with some other ‘new boys’. He found the place to be a curious mix of the old and the new, and indeed when he saw the water gas plant in operation, he felt it was like going into an industrial museum.
Portslade Gas Works was probably unique in more ways than one. For example, most gas works had their holders on site but this was not the case here because the gasholders were in Hove, actually, right next door to St Andrew’s Old Church. Therefore the gas had to make an extensive journey through the mains but the gas pressure was already low and became lower before it arrived at Hove. To fix this problem, boosters were installed at the holder station; however, when the boosters were finally switched on, they proved to be too powerful and the flow of gas from the works to the holders was too slow to keep up. Thus the boosters were switched off, and never used again. When a higher gas pressure was introduced this problem was solved, but others arose, such as ageing pipework and flakes of rust blocking up valves. Another fact about the Portslade works was that it was highly unusual to have both coal carbonisation and naphtha stream reforming on one site.
It was into this new naphtha reforming plant that Gary Gardner came as an assistant chemist working mainly on quality control. Promoted to Senior Assistant Chemist his speciality became gas analysis and developing a gas chromatographic method to analysis gas when it came to working outside – for example, if a plant needed to be de-commissioned. He had the satisfaction of being awarded £50 in 1969 for his sterling work in gas analysis. Although £50 does not sound much today, in 1969 it was a very pleasant bonus. (£50 in 1969 has the equivalent in purchasing power of £816 in 2019)
The Steam reform plant resembled an oil refinery because of the number of new techniques that were applicable. It was the latest method for making town gas, but was used to complement the traditionally-produced gas on site. The laboratory was characterised as a ‘clean area’ and it was necessary because some of the equipment was quite sophisticated.
The laboratory was situated on the south side of the works but it was inside an older building that had perhaps once been an engine house.
The main area was where most of the specialised tests were carried out, but there was a small room opposite the rear door where spent oxide samples were analysed for sulphur. The results enabled the purification engineer to determine which of the purifier beds needed to be changed. The purifier was a series of boxes that could be connected together, or the sequence altered, or an individual box isolated. It is interesting to note that the man who looked after, and managed, the purifier beds was Mr Len Mepham, whose family had a long association with the works.
To remove a spent oxide bed was not a pleasant job because it had to be dug out by hand, and the box replenished with fresh oxide. In the 1960s working conditions for some people were not pleasant at all. Indeed, the amounts of carbon monoxide in the Water gas plant sometimes exceeded the permitted level. There were nasty whiffs emanating from the ammonia scrubbers too.
Tests were also carried out on new coal arriving at the harbour and destined for the fairly new vertical retort house, which had replaced the old horizontal retorts. Ships containing naphtha would lock and unload their contents into special holding tanks. In addition there was also bulk storage for butane, which was used on occasions to trim the calorific value of gas to ensure it complied with the ministry standard known as 500BTU/cuft.
The laboratory workers made the most of their lunch break. Sometimes, they played chess, but on other occasions they hopped into the work’s own ferry boat, and the ferryman soon took them to the north shore where they would enter the Halfway House in Station Road for a pie and a pint.
Some employees in the 1960s:-
Station Manager - Lawrence Slater 1968-1971 – he had served as deputy station manager from 1960
Purification Engineer - Mr Len Mepham
Jack Frogatt (he took over after Mr Mepham retired)
Divisional Responsibility - Bob Jones (chemist)
Station Chemist - Geoff Clubb ( ex Dover Works)
Laboratory Manager - Tom Davey
Laboratory Technicians:-
Ray Goldsmith,
Ian Pinn,
Garth Caswell,
Geoff Dominey (a South African who was epileptic, and unfortunately died in service),
Margaret Dursley (she did oxide analysis), Keith Holmyard
End of an Era
Newly qualified Gary Gardner, Chem MRSC, started work at Portslade Gas Works in 1963, along with some other ‘new boys’. He found the place to be a curious mix of the old and the new, and indeed when he saw the water gas plant in operation, he felt it was like going into an industrial museum.
 |
| copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove A 1933 aerial view of Hove's gasholders (now the site of a Tesco's store) and St Andrew's north churchyard before it was destroyed and obliterated by the building of a Tesco's car park. |
Portslade Gas Works was probably unique in more ways than one. For example, most gas works had their holders on site but this was not the case here because the gasholders were in Hove, actually, right next door to St Andrew’s Old Church. Therefore the gas had to make an extensive journey through the mains but the gas pressure was already low and became lower before it arrived at Hove. To fix this problem, boosters were installed at the holder station; however, when the boosters were finally switched on, they proved to be too powerful and the flow of gas from the works to the holders was too slow to keep up. Thus the boosters were switched off, and never used again. When a higher gas pressure was introduced this problem was solved, but others arose, such as ageing pipework and flakes of rust blocking up valves. Another fact about the Portslade works was that it was highly unusual to have both coal carbonisation and naphtha stream reforming on one site.
 |
| copyright © G.Gardner/Portslade Gas Works Gary Gardner's award winning gas analyser design |
It was into this new naphtha reforming plant that Gary Gardner came as an assistant chemist working mainly on quality control. Promoted to Senior Assistant Chemist his speciality became gas analysis and developing a gas chromatographic method to analysis gas when it came to working outside – for example, if a plant needed to be de-commissioned. He had the satisfaction of being awarded £50 in 1969 for his sterling work in gas analysis. Although £50 does not sound much today, in 1969 it was a very pleasant bonus. (£50 in 1969 has the equivalent in purchasing power of £816 in 2019)
The Steam reform plant resembled an oil refinery because of the number of new techniques that were applicable. It was the latest method for making town gas, but was used to complement the traditionally-produced gas on site. The laboratory was characterised as a ‘clean area’ and it was necessary because some of the equipment was quite sophisticated.
 |
| copyright © G.Gardner/Portslade Gas Works Senior Assistant Chemist Gary Gardner and Deputy Chairman Mr R.H. Sandford Smith |
The main area was where most of the specialised tests were carried out, but there was a small room opposite the rear door where spent oxide samples were analysed for sulphur. The results enabled the purification engineer to determine which of the purifier beds needed to be changed. The purifier was a series of boxes that could be connected together, or the sequence altered, or an individual box isolated. It is interesting to note that the man who looked after, and managed, the purifier beds was Mr Len Mepham, whose family had a long association with the works.
 |
| copyright © G.Gardner/Portslade Gas Works Gary Gardner setting up a gas chromatography field trial in the Sussex countryside |
To remove a spent oxide bed was not a pleasant job because it had to be dug out by hand, and the box replenished with fresh oxide. In the 1960s working conditions for some people were not pleasant at all. Indeed, the amounts of carbon monoxide in the Water gas plant sometimes exceeded the permitted level. There were nasty whiffs emanating from the ammonia scrubbers too.
Tests were also carried out on new coal arriving at the harbour and destined for the fairly new vertical retort house, which had replaced the old horizontal retorts. Ships containing naphtha would lock and unload their contents into special holding tanks. In addition there was also bulk storage for butane, which was used on occasions to trim the calorific value of gas to ensure it complied with the ministry standard known as 500BTU/cuft.
The laboratory workers made the most of their lunch break. Sometimes, they played chess, but on other occasions they hopped into the work’s own ferry boat, and the ferryman soon took them to the north shore where they would enter the Halfway House in Station Road for a pie and a pint.
Some employees in the 1960s:-
Station Manager - Lawrence Slater 1968-1971 – he had served as deputy station manager from 1960
Purification Engineer - Mr Len Mepham
Jack Frogatt (he took over after Mr Mepham retired)
Divisional Responsibility - Bob Jones (chemist)
Station Chemist - Geoff Clubb ( ex Dover Works)
Laboratory Manager - Tom Davey
Laboratory Technicians:-
Ray Goldsmith,
Ian Pinn,
Garth Caswell,
Geoff Dominey (a South African who was epileptic, and unfortunately died in service),
Margaret Dursley (she did oxide analysis), Keith Holmyard
Senior Assistant Chemists:-
Ray Hopper (responsible for Steam Reform plant testing)
Arthur Hoare (responsible for steam reform pant testing on shift)
Dick Childs (he transferred to Portslade when the Bexhill works closed down)
Bill Hubbard (looked after the benzole plant)
Mike Kelly ( Responsible for the softened and deminerealised Water Plants)
Gary Gardner (responsible for the Analytical Section, specialising in Gas Analysis by Gas Chromatography)
(Information kindly supplied by Gary Gardner, Chem MRSC)
Source
(Information kindly supplied by Gary Gardner, Chem MRSC)
An Unfortunate Legacy
After so many years since the Gas Works shut down,
an unfortunate legacy has become apparent, and that is pollution
emanating from the site. This was first noticed about five years ago.
It does not happen often, perhaps once a year, and usually after
rough seas, but local beaches had to be closed for a day last year
because of oily deposits. After a thorough investigation two years
ago, the conclusion was that although it is unpleasant, the situation
was not considered a danger to public health. The oily smell is
likely to be from hydrocarbon contamination.
Tony Parker, Shoreham Port’s Climate Change
Director, had the following to say on the subject,
‘We’ve installed half-a-dozen extractor units
to suck up the oil. We’ve taken 1,600 litres out of the ground. We
can hope that the level of the oil will reduce to a point where it
does not become a problem, but this could take five or six years.’
An alternative
solution that would cost millions of pounds and still only remove 35
per cent of the oil, would be to dig up 30 acres of beach. (Argus
21/8/30)
Argus – re the ferryman
(16 October 1997 / 17 October 1997 / 21 October 1997 / 29 October 1997)
Brighton, Hove & Worthing Gas Company Magazine number 47 (June 1934) number 57 (December 1935) number 61 (December
1936)Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Gray, James Victorian and
Edwardian Brighton (1972)
Hove County School for Girls Magazine 1961-1962;
Visit to the Gas Works
Middleton, Judy, Brighton & Hove in Old Photographs;
A Second Selection (1994)
Middleton, Judy, Britain in Old Photographs; Portslade (1997)
Middleton, Judy Hove and Portslade in the Great War (2014)
Personal interview with Fred Hill
Personal interview with relatives
of Doug Mepham
Personal interview with Ernest
Charles Moore
Various local newspapers on
microfilm at Hove Library
AMS 6166/1 Portslade Gas Works
Wages Book 1872-1873
AMS 6166/2 Portslade Gas Works
Water Consumption 1892-1946
AMS 6166/3 Brighton, Hove &
Worthing Gas Company; specification for vertical retort 1948 (86 pages)
AMS 6166/4 Brighton, Hove &
Worthing Gas Company; specification for pile-driving 1950
SAS 1/214 Brighton, Hove &
General Gas Company; notice in Parliament 1865
SAS 1/215 Proposed Gas Works 1866
SAS 1/221 The Times (21
March 1870 / 22 March 1879) re dispute over ownership of the Gas Works site
SAS 1/225 Ingram v Upperton;
dispute over ownership of Gas Works site
Copyright © J.Middleton 2016
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