tarboat's photos with the keyword: retorts

Carrickfergus gasworks has been preserved as a museum by a local Trust and comprises the largest surviving gasworks in Britain and Ireland. I was privileged to be given a personal tour of the premises when I visited. This is one of the three retort benches on the site. Sadly the Trust has found itself unable to meet the cost of running the museum and it is now closed and handed back to the landowners Historic Environment Division. Hopefully it will reopen in 2023.

Derelict clay retorts at the site of Poynton gasworks. This gasworks was developed in the 1870s when a much smaller works was abandoned. It closed in 1935 at the same time as the colliery which owned it. Gas was then piped into the village from the gasworks at Stockport.

Carrickfergus gasworks has been preserved as a museum by a local Trust and comprises the largest surviving gasworks in Britain and Ireland. I was privileged to be given a personal tour of the premises when I visited. This is one of the three retort benches on the site.

The Fakenham Gasworks Museum is a real gem and highly recommended to anyone interested in industrial history. At one time the works employed 8 men and supplied 500 homes.It closed in 1965 but was preserved and made into a museum in 1987. It is the only complete surviving gasworks in England. This is the retort house which dates from 1907 - 1910 with 14 retorts grouped around two furnaces. The ascension pipes can be seen rising from the retorts to feed the gas and by-products into the hydraulic main above. The hydraulic main was essential to stop gas feeding back when the retorts were opened for recharging.