Entrance to the former gasworks

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 20 Jul 2008

On Gashouse Hill. The Aylsham Gas Light and Coke Company Limited was formed in 1849 and gas works were erected soon after at the southern end of Millgate, now known as Gashouse Hill. The streets, most of the public buildings and many shops and houses were lighted by gas until the arrival of electricity in 1929 but the streets continued to be lighted by gas until 1946. After its purchase in 1927 by the British Gas Light Company Ltd. the gasworks became the Aylsham sub-station. When in 1937-8 a gas main was laid, the gasometer began to receive charge from the Norwich gasworks and local gas production ceased. By 1949 the station was a sub-station of the Eastern Gas Board. In 2003-4 the site was officially decontaminated by the Gas Board who still own the property. The site is now a garden; only one brick building remains but the locations where the gas tanks used to stand can still clearly be discerned, one having been outlined in brick and planted with flowers. The house > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/891392 used to be occupied by an employee. ("Millgate" - A Study by the Aylsham Local History Research Group, 2006.)

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