Monmouth Gasworks

Monmouth Gasworks
Monmouth in 1900 with gasworks in foreground
Former names	Monmouth Gas and Water Co. Ltd
General information
Address	May Hill
Town or city	Monmouth
Country	Wales
Coordinates	51°48′39″N 2°42′21″W / 51.8107°N 2.7058°WCoordinates: 51°48′39″N 2°42′21″W / 51.8107°N 2.7058°W
Completed	1846

Monmouth Gasworks was the facility for making town gas in Monmouth, Wales. The gasworks had its coal delivered by the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway and was frequented by Charles Rolls to fill up his balloon.

History

Rolls with his mother and father at the gasworks

The site was set up in 1838 when the Monmouth Gas and Water Company was founded and the land leased for the site from the Duke of Beaufort^[1] at the foot of the May Hill between Monmouth Town and Wyesham near Monmouth Mayhill railway station. In the 1850s a number of railways were built in the area, which improved on the existing tramways. A special branch line of the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway served the gas works at Wyesham.^[2] The company’s prime source of revenue at that time was the water side of the business. The gas part of the business supplied fuel for street and private lighting to the town.^[3]

Until the 1930s the gas works were operated by the Monmouth Gas and Water Co. Ltd. The gas was manufactured from coal that was brought by railway. From some time before the Second World War, this gas works was owned along with other gas plants at Ross-on-Wye, Caldicot and Caerleon by the Severn Valley Gas Corporation.^[4]

In the early twentieth century the gasworks was used by Charles Stewart Rolls, who had already co-founded Rolls-Royce Ltd and whose interest had turned to aviation. He was a founding member of the Royal Aero Club who were initially balloonists. Rolls, whose family lived near Monmouth, would travel to these gas works to have his balloon filled with gas.

The site ceased to be used as a gasworks sometime after 1960.

OS Map of Gasworks in Monmouth 1880

Notes

1. "MONMOUTH GAS AND WATER COMPANY (LIMITED)", Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales), 7 February 1884, p. 4
2. "035 Wyesham". Lower Wye Valley. Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
3. Keith Kissack, Victorian Monmouth, The Monmouth Historical and Educational trust, ISBN 0-9503386-2-1
4. "Monmouth Gasworks". Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in Wales. Retrieved 7 April 2012.