What happened to Gasometers ?

In this video we look at the demolition of a gas holder, Gasometer in Manchester UK. The Bradford road gas works was established in Manchester in 1877. The Bradford area is a suburb situated in East Manchester. This area consisting of Gorton, Clayton, Bradford, Ardwick was very industrial. Victorian industry was able to flourish in the area due to the nearby coal resources. The demand for gas usage was increasing and so an additional gas works had to be built at Bradford road. These gas works at the time produced Coal gas or as commonly called ‘Town gas’ It was stored in huge Gasometers that dominated the skyline. Nearby was a Colliery, coal mine called Bradford Colliery. Although it eventually caused mining subsidence in the area and had to close. It was one of the main providers of coal for the gas works. The gasometer we are looking at is being demolished. It was built in 1908 and has dominated the skyline since. It is a telescopic gasometer, it rises and falls depending on how much gas is being stored in it. We have many old photos of Manchester that show the industrial history of the area. We see that stages of demolition at the hands of the cutters torch. Cut up with an oxy-acetylene torch the gas holder has been reduced to scrap metal. With the advent of Natural North sea gas not required to be stored it spelt the end for these kind of telescopic gas tanks, gas holders, gasometers. This is a video that documents the industrial and Victorian history of Manchester and the UK.

[@MartinZero]

The artist that painted the picture is Steven Scholes. The painting is called 'Hulme Hall Lane 1962' Apologies I left it out

[@vsvnrg3263]

successfully painting the shimmer of wet ground is a well accomplished achievement.

[@DrDickNose]

Thanks. I was going to ask. It's an awesome painting.

[@ThatsViews]

I wonder if Steven Scholes is a relative of mine? My family are Scholes' of the village of Scholes in Bury, Greater Manchester. Small world!

[@eattherich9215]

I love the painting.

[@elizabethsheffield6609]

......it's a beautifully painted poignant reminder of looking out of your Cozy-Warm-Front-Room Window on to a Getting-Dark- Wet -Saturday- Afternoon in late November when the Football Match has finished.

[@fatimaali8645]

Don’t ever stop recording history … it needs to be preserved for future generations to see how we lived ❤

[@fatimaali8645]

@ clearly u don’t value the past and how ur ancestors lived and history helps to educate and better the future… by seeing what we did in our past and what mistakes we made and to learn from them but hey what do I know !

[@bayadere8308]

@@PreservationEnthusiast What a particularly stupid statement; utter nonsense.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

@@fatimaali8645 Not much because we repeat the same wars and mistakes generation after generation. Some conflicts have been going on 100s and 1000s of years when history has shown they are pointless yet we still don't learn from it. As for relatively primative technology like this, it can be recorded in books etc.

[@Mad3838]

@@fatimaali8645 the worlds been going downhill for years so you clearly live blind.

[@isthereanybodyoutthere9397]

Bear in mind that Victorian gasometers were constructed of cast iron which rusts in the soil, and a by product of town gas which they housed would produce condensation which pooled at the bottom of the holders, and arsenic that would infect the water. This meant that when the bottom of the holder rusted, the infected water would leak into the surrounding soil and water table.

[@Angusmum]

THANK-YOU, THANK-you, THANK-YOU. I was born and lived in Bradford till I got married in 1967. Some of my family of ancestors moved there in the 1860’s and by the time of the 1881 census, the rest of my family had joined them. They were a big family of miners and there were plenty of them who worked in Bradford Pit. One of them was killed there; he was just 19 years old. All of my family from that era are buried in Philip’s Park Cemetery. The gas works, the power station, the wire works and in my mind’s eye I can see the it all as well as the engines pulling the coal from the pit. After I married I moved away and I tell my children how massively industrial the area used to be but I know that they really can’t imagine how it used to be (and there was no grass). Thank goodness for Philips Park. You two have saved my memories. My children and grandchildren will now have the opportunity to see what I’ve been trying to explain to them all these years. I’m thinking that the City of Manchester owe you a debt that will probably be more massively appreciated in the future and even more as the years go by. T H A N K Y O U.

[@BigBlue1895]

My mam was born in 1920 on Glenden St, Miles Platting which was just behind the gasometer. How fitting that all those years later, the great Manchester City are playing down the road from where mam was born.

[@BigBlue1895]

Who remembers the Bradford Road Inn that looked like the Peveril of the Peak with its green tiles on the outside?

[@Angusmum]

@@BigBlue1895 👍

[@Angusmum]

@@BigBlue1895 👍

[@geoffpriestley7310]

Do you remember the wooden cooling towers on canal Road when bradford had its own generators

[@PeterATomich]

Great video, it's impossible not to see beauty and feel pride for these turn-of-the-century industrial works. I watched all of the 19th century beer breweries in Milwaukee get torn down or turned into hipster apartment buildings. Even the American malls are getting torn down and replaced with condos, or even worse Amazon Prime warehouses!

[@philevans4021]

I remember hearing a story of a company that had erected new mobile phone masts, and they kept getting reports of signal outages in the area. They couldn't work out what the issue was, sometimes everything was fine, and then sometimes there'd be no signal. Until they looked at the line of sight of that mast with where it had a microwave link, and realised it was in line with a gasometer. When they had put it up and tested, the gasometer was empty, so everything was fine. But of course as it filled back up and went up and down, it would intermittently block the signal and cause outages.

[@Returntotheworld]

That’s hilarious. Pretty bloody big oversight that lol.

[@linmal2242]

The 'Law of Unintended Consequences' ! LOL

[@SHERMA.]

bullshit. if you know anything about how those types of signals work then you know its bs these gasometers are typically pressured to 2-3psi. meaning the inside of them is barely any denser than the atmosphere you breathe. and dont tell me the metal side supports blocked the signal because then you would look really stupid!

[@sailordude2094]

Funny how that works, lol. I would have fired the site manager that OK'd the tower's placement!

[@virgojoe72]

Hello from America, love your channel and glad you are recording everything that you can and creating a KZbin archive. The gasometer at Pumping Station N, built around 1920 near St. Louis Missouri U.S. , was abandoned in favor of underground storage after 2000 and we lost our last Gasometer in 2013.

[@paulfoster2984]

Roy's pictures are bloody brilliant, Thank you for sharing them Roy.

[@apb3251]

Roy is Ojay on 28 days later if you want more of his pics

[@paulfoster2984]

@@apb3251 Great, Thanks for the info.

[@TheJoefussGarage]

I live in the Northeast portion of the states, and we had many of these gentle giants, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey where I grew up and have lived. Thank you two blokes, for giving a voice to these essential monuments to our transition to "modern" times.. Most people don't give history it's due.. I'll keep an eye your travails from over the. "Pond" !!! Take care gents....

[@strobx1]

We had a large & small gasometers at the Muskegon Illuminating Gas Company in Muskegon Michigan. Then Michigan Consolidated Gas Company (now Detroit Edison) built a natural gas pipe line. The burner jets had to be changed because Coal gas and Natural gas are different. The Gas plant was torn down.

[@johnstreet797]

In northern New Jersey our stove went from coal to town gas and finally to natural gas.

[@philippabaker1078]

This was a lovely video. Your channel is so important. Future generations will hopefully, realise the value of your work.

[@kathryns4722]

Thank you for a great video. My dad was a boilermaker and made many gasometers. As a little girl, I used to say, 'did you build that one dad?' as we drove past the Bradford one and he's always say yes - which is a lie as the Bradford one predates him quite a bit - I'm sure he's laughing at me now - he took that one to the grave! It's such a shame to see them go. Your images were brilliant hats off to you both. Thank you once again for a poignant trip down memory lane.

[@vsvnrg3263]

ha ha. dad jokes.

[@rogercantwell3622]

Gas holders were (and still are, in places) used to cope with local demand, being filled at night ready for the morning. The thing about gas, though, is that you can store ten times as much of it in a given space by increasing the pressure ten times (roughly, I won't get into ideal and non-ideal gases). So, as long as the main network is up to it, which it is nowadays, you can simply pump more gas into the big pipes and reduce the pressure before it goes to people's houses, what is known as "line packing". The expansion valves to get back down to domestic pressure are often at the remaining "gasworks" sites and tend to be covered in frost, since the expanding gas cools rapidly. The corrugated MAN holders are tar-seal gas holders with an internal piston and the type that goes up and down are water-seal gas holders. The local gas pressure is surprisingly low, so a deep pond of water around the base of each rising section is all that's needed to keep the gas in.

[@teamidris]

Wonderful description :o)

[@colinofay7237]

Thanks

[@dieselmanmike]

I was going to look this up but your comment has answered my questions ! Cheers.

[@cjmillsnun]

Nicely put into laymans terms. I suspect like me, you're in the industry.

[@kenstevens5065]

Great video production. I remember the changeover to natural gas, I worked for a civil engineering company in the early 1970's on new main installations. The Gas Board people said back then, like was said about the first nuclear power stations that energy would be so cheap you'd just pay a fixed standing charge, no need for metering! How wrong they were.

[@olddeuteranomaly5112]

Great video, thank you. The full name of the German company mentioned at about 8:05 was spelt Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg. That might help if anybody tries to look it up. They now trade as MAN Truck & Bus. It was the first company in the world to make diesel commercial vehicles, in partnership with the inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel.

[@darrylrotrock7816]

Ha, you beat me to it - I just left a comment explaining much the same thing. I was scratching my head as no town "Austere" exists in Germany...

[@valerielongmore5040]

I think if my dad was alive he would be very grateful to you both for getting all this history together. He was works manager at West's improvements on hulme Hall Lane which you captured on the film. I remember going into the works by the steps you showed briefly. He used to tell me all about those gas works because west's were greatly involved. Sad he's no longer alive of course but I'm so glad you did this filming. Thank you both very much.

[@RonNewsham]

My dad worked at West's as a plater. I think he worked on those gasometers. Very iconic, and so much engineering in them.

[@ianmaddams9577]

One of the best documentarians of our great British history. Progress is so sad at times .. thank you Martin appreciate all your research and efforts 👍🏻

[@jonathanj.7344]

I wouldn't call alot of modern changes progress.

[@publover273]

​@@jonathanj.7344 Change is rarely for the better.

[@mj.l]

@@publover273 that's what happens when ghastly empires collapse. less affluence because the stolen loot stops flowing in, but the wealthy have ensured that their spoils are never shared with those who work for a living.

[@reasonablespeculation3893]

@@mj.l So all the innovation, organization , management and labor (along with the coal and raw materials) that produced large industrial power stations and manufacturing complexes was stolen? Stolen from who exactly?

[@mickc7388]

@@reasonablespeculation3893 Ignore, the idiot either a leftie or an alien.

[@holmesjunction]

Another great video. My father-in-law was an apprentice for a local gas company before the war and only retired in the 1980s. - He climbed quite a few 'gas holders' and made extra money greasing and painting them periodically. Natural Gas was the start of their demise and privatisation killed them off. - Natural gas was drier than 'Town Gas' and as the pipes dried out, they leaked. Many miles of pipes had to be replaced. - Gas pumped from the North Sea could feed the country most of the time but in severe cold it couldn't cope, so they used the gas holders to maintain the pressure. - Many gas holders needed renewing. It was cheaper to import gas when required. - Town Gas was not pure and had many pollutants. It condensed and settled in the bottom of the holders (soaking through the foundations and into the land below. The cost of demolishing the holders and cleaning up the land (along with the crash in the price of scrap steel) meant many stood idle for years. They only get demolished when the land is sold for development. - A few of the old frames have been converted into flats by building inside the frames to keep the character (good example over in Dublin - not on your patch?).

[@ianyorke2617]

Interestingly the old town gas contained around 50% hydrogen.

[@thecommissaruk]

There was the ruins of a gasometer behind the flat I lived in as a student - the pond it used to float in was incredibly deep and quite dangerous. The land was considered "contaminated ground" so it was not allowed to be built on when a local developer wanted to build a few luxury houses there. It became mysteriously non-contaminated when another developer wanted to build hundreds of flats instead 😂

[@gs425]

​@@ianyorke2617 and most or the rest was carbon monoxide...hence why sadly it was lethal

[@ianyorke2617]

@@gs425 Depending on the production method Carbon Monoxide varied between 1-10% which certainly made it toxic. Syngas had a far higher level but I don't think it was used in the gas mains.

[@heckelphon]

I believe the tar component in the old town gas acted as an efficient sealant for any slightly deficient joints, and, as you have indicated, the natural gas had the opposite effect, dissolving away the tar and exposing those same bad joints. But the gas companies wouldn't admit that in the 1970s, and they wanted to ascribe all sorts of other reasons to the plethora of leaks, including one particular one which demolished a block of flats in Putney, London in 1985. How lucky it was that they could feed the new yellow high pressure mains as liners into the old pipes, and how lucky were the companies who got those lucrative contracts in the early 1980s!

[@charlesward8196]

Thanks for the great history video. I remember growing up 65 years ago in the Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. (Another great industrial powerhouse with access to Great Lakes shipping and the Mississippi River transportation corridor) and seeing gasometers in the area. Our home had an oil fueled furnace and water heater (boiler) when my parents bought it in 1951, but a couple of years later gas was piped into the neighborhood, and both of those units were converted to gas. I don’t know what the original kitchen stove was, but it was gas, too, when I was age 3.

[@Idrinklight44]

St Louis had several also

[@heapy10001]

Martin what a video . Roy you are a legend for climbing the gasometer and taking those pictures. If they would only build something as iconic and beautiful in there place it wouldn’t be so bad . Keep it up lads Sunday wouldn’t be the same without you . Paul, Burnley

[@stethemeterman1968]

I grew up in Ancoats and went to school nearby would see the tank full at the start of the week and go down by the end of the week. Great video brought back some good memories .

[@MartinZero]

Brilliant, cheers

[@RegebroRepairs]

Gasometers is such a genius solution to a problem. Completely outdated today, obviously, but as an engineer, I'm just sad that such a clever solution is gone. Stockholm luckily has a few brick ones that are going to be preserved by being converted to other use.

[@DanRyan-v5y]

I thought that a similar idea could be used for storage of mop up energy from windmills, rather than using fire prone lithium batteries. Maybe use compressed air or something.

[@vsvnrg3263]

how are they going to get rid of the smell? the smell will have soaked inside the bricks.

[@RegebroRepairs]

@vsvnrg3263 Mercaptan is a gas that boils at 5C. It has long evaporated. But that said I don't think the brickwork was ever exposed to the gas.

[@RegebroRepairs]

@@DanRyan-v5y Some places use water for this.

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@RegebroRepairs , you might be right. but that smell gets everywhere. i'm assuming it gets absorbed in the water that makes the seal to stop the gas escaping. the smell remains in the dirt where there has been a long term underground gas leak.

[@HowardDavies-w4v]

Really fascinating as usual, I was the last drawing office manager at Gaythorn and trialled holder automation at Bradford Road. The original NWGB drawings you showed showed used to be filed in my office at Gaythorn. Hats off to Roy for climbing to the top, I could only manage to the 1st lift. The holders were used for diurnal storage to boost the network during breakfast and teatime peaks. The completion of the pipe link with Europe, which now provides additional gas on demand, meant the holders' demise. Great viewing and good memories. Thanks for this.

[@jetsons101]

Martin you and your team/friends should be in the Manchester Historical Society Hall of Fame. I hope they appreciate what you have done to help keep the History of Manchester alive and kicking for all to enjoy -- even us that are over 5,000 miles away in Torrance CA. Thank again for this great watch.

[@MartinZero]

Much appreciated 👍🏻

[@linmal2242]

And us in AUS too !

[@daveshongkongchinachannel]

You certainly jogged a long forgotten memory as I also now recall conversations between the neighbours about the switch to North Sea Gas.

[@AttillatheHun-ph5eu]

As a kid, late 60s early 70s Bradford was my playground, the canal, the railway, New Viaduct Street, Philips Park. The gasometers were such an iconic part of the scene in those halcyon days.

[@JohnHopkins-hn7hu]

We lived close by, Phillips Park, was visited on a Sunday, when Dad wasn’t working. We would take a picnic, that is, jam butties and if we were lucky, orange cordial. Ended up working for ‘The Gas Board’. Visited Bradford works a couple of times and worked at Gould St, Thomas St Stretford along with many other sites/offices. In all the time we lived on Greymere Lane, I still can’t remember the actual works and we lived within a couple of hundred yards away. We moved to Culcheth, about a million miles away (actually about 16) when I was 7yrs old. I recalled my visits to Bradford to my mum and dad, who hated the dust, smell and noise the yard emitted.

[@AttillatheHun-ph5eu]

@@JohnHopkins-hn7hu Great days though eh...

[@patrickflohe7427]

What are they?

[@AttillatheHun-ph5eu]

@@patrickflohe7427 Gas holders.

[@Stefan8u]

I think it's ironic that the same people that love a cottage in local stone, have no appreciation for an industrial building built in local materials. Great video, by the way excellent work in all aspects.

[@thomasdieckmann5711]

Outstanding great video, Martin. I had tears in my eyes when it was gone. Wonderful way to bring maps, historic images and today emotionally together. And good to see Roy telling parts of the story himself. Again, a Sunday evening highlight.

[@MartinZero]

Thank you Thomas, I needed you to pronounce the MAN words 😄

[@thomasdieckmann5711]

You did a great job there. I was not aware that MAN was involved in these "Gasometer" (same name here). MAN is spoken letter-by-letter and refers to "Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg" and today is most known for its trucks. If I can help, let me know, always a pleasure 😊

[@jppitman1]

In the States I`d see these very so often and had always wondered what they were and what they stored and how they worked with all of that tall framework. Now I know. Fascinating. The photography is really something, too. Thank you for recording this for historical purposes and posterity.

[@yonmons]

I joined GMP as a boy in 1976 passed those gasometers most days, when I saw that sign for Briscoe Lane it put a great big soppy lump in my throat well done guys on you efforts and recording the history of Manchester, probably only a true Manc would ever understand 👍

[@TezLivin]

Congratulations on producing this fantastic informative video, truly a work of art, which brought tears to my eyes. It deserves wide recognition and awards, IMHO. I remember the explosion in 1956 on the site of the Felixstowe Gasometer which resulted in many injuries and the death of 2 workers including mt uncle Fred Durrant ( manager of Trimley Tigers Cycle speedway team), he was hit by a flying brick. Your production will stir many memories as comments show. Thankyou.

[@NuttyAboutOldMGCars]

Another great production, thanks Martin ! & extended team

[@BriMackey-wp8vj]

Martin, you have an amazing ability to make even the destruction of a gasometer an emotional experience. Very well done!

[@NarnianRailway]

Gasometers serve as a good landmark reference to search history on older Ordnance Survey maps. Awesome history and photos.

[@mattwestuk1]

They did an amazing job in preserving the old Victorian gasometer framework outside of Kings Cross/St Pancras. If you haven't seen, they constructed apartments inside of the frame. Quite remarkable really.

[@tutacat]

It is called Gasholder Park as well

[@neilbrown3359]

That's exactly what I was thinking when watching this. It would make an excellent facade to an apartment complex or shopping center.

[@steveoliphant8541]

They are converting the old Bethnal Green Gas Holder Station as well to apartments. The construction was in progress last summer.

[@MrNaguah]

Wow. I always wondered why the old gas works looked like that, but never would have guessed they were actually telescoping. Thanks for explaining.

[@100SteveB]

I remember when they were a common sight all over the country. When i was a kid back in the 70's i was always fascinated with how they worked, and how the levels changed. Landscapes changed when they were built, and changed again when they finally get demolished. Thankfully we have people like yourselves that record them for history.

[@alexjaybrady]

Its amazing that they worked and for so long, a machine that large that can move, filled with flammable gas, very impressive engineering

[@srfurley]

The MAN gasholders were also known as waterless gasholders. There was a third type which you do not show here. It did away with the frame by having helical rails on each tank section on which the next section ran. My mother was born in 1915. She remembered being taken, as a young girl, on a school visit to Old Kent Road gasworks. She said she was terrified of it. Gasworks were terrible places to work, but I would have been interested to see one. I like the painting; who was the artist? Croydon gasholder frame was taken down a few months ago. It looked about the same size as your one. There were several gasholders with ornate frames, just outside St. Pancras station in London, including a triplet. They had to be taken down to make way for the high speed rail link to the Channel Tunnel, but they were listed and so were re-erected nearby, with flats built inside the frames. When Ilkley gasworks was demolished much of the stone was kept on site, and used to build Booths supermarket. Look out for a film ‘The Last Retort’. It was filmed at a small gasworks with horizontal hand charged retorts. I have seen it described as being Newton Stewart and Clitheroe, so I’m not sure which is correct. I remember well the conversion of appliances to natural gas in about 1970; a massive operation.

[@scooby1992]

I could be wrong and forgive me if my London geography is way out but I seem to remember a gasometer near either Lords or The Oval cricket grounds and vaguely remember a commentator at a match saying of the cricket ball after being batted for a six , " and it's gone clean over the gasometer " . I dont know whether that is myth or an exaggeration though !

[@MrBrianms]

Well done. The social history documentary is thoughtful and respects the folks who worked there. Thanks.

[@just_passing_through]

It is sad to see them go, as you say, they are such an iconic landmark, but I understand. They serve no purpose these days, and the land can obviously be put to better use. It’s not as if they could be called beautiful. Some things deserve to be preserved, but I’m not sure gasometer framework is high on this list. Having said that, it’s astounding that they were ever able to be created. The fact that they are still standing is a testament to the engineering of the day. I hope of the remaining 95, at least one is permanently preserved.

[@benayers8622]

i think they are beautiful but thats very likely because they remind me of pre tech better times, more than their actual aesthethic 'look' 😊

[@just_passing_through]

@@benayers8622 I can totally understand that.

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

There is one preserved, it is in North London, I think it's not far from Kings Cross station but I can't remember the exact location, if there's anyone who knows for sure reading this I'm sure they will correct me.

[@stuartbridger5177]

​@@KevinRudd-w8sIt is just outside the back of St Pancras International. Looks like it has been converted to flats. Clearly visible from the Eurostar train.

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

@stuartbridger5177 Thanks for that, though it was around that area somewhere.

[@LancashireLass]

I miss gasometers. They weren't pretty, but there is something kind of stately about them. Fantastic video as always.

[@keithslater7813]

As kids we went inside one that was shut down there was a long rope inside. We had it away for a swing over the river the first lad to swing over the river was known as test pilot the rest of his life

[@benayers8622]

so jealous ❤️

[@sparetime2101]

An excellent video. Very well researched and professional presentation. I remember as a boy of 12 being taken up to the top of Ely’s gas holder and looking down on the people in the local outdoor swimming pool. That was back in 1956 when my father was the manager and chief engineer. I can also remember it being built and unlike the adjoining which was riveted together, the then modern one was welded steel panels. Sadly that’s all gone but I have researched the history of this once private gas works, there were about 1,000 works at one time, and a copy of my book ‘Can you smell Gas” is in the Boolean library, Cambridge university library, the National Gas archive in Warrington and a few local libraries.❤😊😂

[@shaunmoran6511]

Great video Martin, thumbs up to Roy for his photos, I’m in Hull , our last gasometer was demolished about a year ago , I remember the gas man coming to our house in the 50s and 60s to empty the gas meter, count the 1 and 2 shilling pieces on our kitchen table , you would get a rebate a few shillings back , he wore a black uniform with a cap like a bus conductor, different times . In the early to mid 60s North Sea gas came online, any gas appliances you had , fires boilers etc had to be converted, before the conversion was done any remaining town gas had to be burnt off , this was done in the street by some sort of pipe work contraption I can recall the yellow gas flame . Maybe I’m weird but I liked the smell of town gas , a bit like the original victory V lozenges, they’ve changed now . I could go on but this msg is way to long .

[@britishlongbarrows]

I'm a bit too young to remember the smell they put in to town gas. I remember my mum telling me the coal tar soap had been, ahem, found at the "gas works". I now realise she was just trying to shut me up but it backfired as I loved the smell so much I kept pestering her to take me to find more 😅

[@shaunmoran6511]

@@britishlongbarrows yes I’d forgotten about the soap , was it pears but yes it did have a smell of town gas man, memories heh 👍.

[@britishlongbarrows]

@@shaunmoran6511 I thought it was pears but just googled it and looks to be wrights. Lovely smell and reminds me of the old creosote too 😀

[@shaunmoran6511]

@@britishlongbarrows yes , wrights coal tar soap , now I remember 😊😊

[@nickbarber2080]

@@britishlongbarrows Proper old creosote was a byproduct of making Town Gas...they stopped selling it quite a few years ago...as with Coal Tar Soap...and substituted it with a similar smelling chemical but not as good and didn't smell as nice in my opinion.

[@podulox]

Very well done! Thank you for taking the time to record this event, which will become a part of our history.

[@terryalmond8777]

Amazing peace of local history....gone but not forgotten.. well done lads...

[@richardlewis869]

This is a very good Video. Our children will never know how much work men and women did in the past. Thanks you for making this video . Richard from Somerset where the cider apples trees grow

[@elizabethsheffield6609]

.....".Coates comes up from Somerset, where the Cider Apples grow!" can't remember much except something like....... "to make the Party Go!"

[@MrDblStop]

Having been born just up the road from where this video was filmed, and then having spent the latter half of my life in Somerset, it's sad to see the gasometers and Bradford Pit go, but also to see how few of the old orchards are left in Somerset.

[@jeffjones6107]

What a great video. My mam used to take me to Philip's park in springtime back in the 60s to look at the flower displays which it was renowed for. I seem to remember watching shunters going across the road at Bradford Colliery stopping the traffic as they crossed.

[@MartinZero]

Wow now thats a brilliant memory

[@MrDblStop]

First time I've seen 'mam' written down on the internet? :) And one of my earliest memories was feeding the ducks in Clayton Hall park.

[@rensha8635]

Don’t know how I got here, but glad I did. I found this fascinating. I remember one of these town gas cylinders in Bedford. I only knew it as a gas works but never knew any more. I have learnt so much from this video. I now understand why it was located next to the River Ouse, and so much more.

[@andyday4535]

Brilliant to see and hear Roy telling some of his story, well done!

[@sextonmallard3325]

Great pictures gents. As a lover of industrial heritage, seeing the last remaining structures recorded is a great endeavour.

[@leewhitehead6460]

I grew up with the derelict power station ( played in it many times) the gasometer and the " big banger" we called it. End of an era thanks for the documentary video 👍👍

[@johnrockley9472]

Fantastic! You should get an award for the footage, brilliant and a record of history. Of course the men working in the industries had short lives, their arse was out of their trousers, their wives had no coat and their kids had no shoes, poor housing and poor food. I remember in the early 60's the smell of the gas works on a hot airless day whilst trying to study in college in Southampton, all gone now. Great memories.

[@judithsmith9274]

This made me feel very emotional 😢 love the old gasometers. Great video. Thank you.

[@peterward5723]

I was fascinated by your documentary on the coal gas plants and pits in east Manchester... I worked on the shut down of the last coal gas plant in Hull about 1972. We had to strip down a Donkins vacuum governor which had leather diagrams. We had to walk on chequered steel plates with the retorts on either side of us , the heat was unbelievable. Just of interest, at Robin Hood's bay the coal gas plant was in Albion Lane,at the bottom of the town. The original horizontal retorts were incorporated in the sea defence wall on the beach to the right of the slipway after the plant was shut down in the 1950s. Thanks, you brought back so many memories of an industry that so few people know about .

[@malcolmrichardson3881]

Great images of an iconic Manchester landmark. Thank you.

[@JemTheWire]

Whenever I watch one of your videos, and I have watched virtually all now, I say to myself that it cannot be bettered. Yet every time you produce something that IS even better. I have driven past that gasometer hundreds of times and wondered about its history. Thank you Martin and Roy. I love history especially local history, and your channel certainly feeds my fire. Brilliantly researched and presented.

[@TalesOfWar]

This is documentation as much as it is art! It's being recorded for the future generations who want to know about where they live.

[@Kraggypandapops]

This video just appeared on my feed so started watching it. Ended up learning a lot about the gas works and history.

[@CabrilloTV]

Ok,just watched the video, first time have seen a gasometer from the point of view of a drone. I remember my mum changing from a range to gas. Later changing from town gas to what they called high speed gas. Some great photographs in this episode. Keep going we need to document more of this form of social history, also this form of social history is very consumable to the general public. Thank for sharing.

[@BermondseySteve]

Great video. Thx to you for keeping this valuable record of so many important details about gas production and the way of life for so many for so many years - all lost now but for the good work of men such as yourselves. MAN is an abbreviation for 'Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg A.G.', a major German manufacturer of heavy automotive vehicles, including trucks, busses, engines, etc. The MAN logo could be seen on the front of many trucks & busses for decades until the company was merged with Traton SE in 2021. Since they also produced huge amounts of military equipment, their German factories were important targets for Allied bombing during WWII.

[@dickybird9574]

Good on ya fellas. A thoughtful and well photographed piece on Englands industrial past. Thank you

[@wthorwirth]

Amazing fotowork, amazing signs of technical history. This never comes back, but we have illustrations, fotos, movies, and memories...

[@christophernorton33]

Great Video Martin. So many fantastic photos. Big thank you to Roy for his top-of-the-Gasomiitor shots. The Manchester i remember is fast disappearing. Keep up the great work We love it .😀👍👍

[@carbide1]

Well done, when I was doing my engineering apprenticeship in the toolroom at Ferranti Ltd on St Mary's Road, Moston my bus 77 from Moss Side to Ferranti passed the gas works. The industry around this area was unbelievable. Mather and Platt on Biisco Lane not far from the abattoir. Johnson Wire Works, Bradford Pit, British Steel, Crossley Marine engines, Beyer Peacock engines, Gorton Locomotive Works, and the list goes on.

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

It's so sad all those companies have gone and a lot more besides. I will never believe anything other than this country has made a huge mistake by moving away from manufacturing and engineering.

[@richardshaw1919]

Another amazing video and just memories captured by both of you brilliant.

[@scowell]

Thanks for catching the memories and scrapping... Seattle Washington USA made a park of their gasworks... they kept a lot of steam engines and gasification columns... the gasometer itself was covered over and is now a hill for flying kites! The steam engines alone are worth a visit... cemented in place and painted over for kids to play on.

[@chrisdavies1675]

Thank you. Not sure who else has documented the passing of these iconic and once so familiar structures.

[@henryt8063]

Thanks for this. I have seen these “gasometer” constructions in many cities around the world and often wondered what they were. Now I finally know - thank you !

[@texfax]

Beautiful picture at 8:44, with the iconic Stanton concrete columns and the Beta streetlights. Thank you for documenting this for future generations!

[@MartinZero]

Thank you, yes some great pics in this

[@telephonebear21]

@@MartinZero What's the source on this picture?

[@Dave64track]

What a great video I remember going past those with my dad. They were such a historical part of Manchester. It was certainly built to last like one giant mechano structure. Thanks for making this available for future generations.

[@basilguts1786]

Brilliant,loved that. Sad to see a piece of history gone forever. Keep up the great work. 👍

[@chorleycake7942]

I remember as a child, going down town with mum to pay the gas and electricity bills in the respective shops. They even sold the appliances in there, seems a much easier way than all the faff with these different companys we have to deal with now. Our gasometers just outside the town centre were demolished a few years ago.

[@MrDblStop]

"The Gas Board", and "The Electricity Board", phrases you don't hear these days.

[@paul-ie6wi]

I’m 52 and I can’t believe I have never seen one of them gas things rise ! Don’t know if I have ever seen a crain being erected, come to think of it I really haven’t seen much in my boring life, great video, very sad 😢 thank you

[@deanedeane4318]

WOW what a big bit of kit ! Love the old photos ! Excellent video Lads ! 😉🙃😎 NZ

[@jamesmertzelos210]

Thanks for the video... These structures always fascinated me as a kid. There's a place called gasholder park in the king's cross area of London where a cluster of smaller ones have been repurposed, and an empty one had a small grass park layed inside the frame. The old photos you showed, especially the one around the 11:00 mark, really capture the old world...that smoggy air.. Nostalgia. Thanks again.

[@doncoffey5820]

Brilliant as always. I always thought the were listed but clearly not. At least you’ve preserved them on film 👍

[@drshrempy352]

Some are, some arn't. The Carlisle one is listed.

[@Returntotheworld]

This was really interesting. I’d seen the frame work of one of these in Bolton for years when I visited and never knew what it was. The idea of storing all that gas in one spot does seem kinda terrifying. Mad that just one guy was up there cutting it up! Thanks for documenting this. Life always moves on.

[@nigelwinter8196]

Thank for a superb video about the history of our he gas works, gasometers etc. Sad that they are all gone forever, wouldn’t it be nice if one of those gasometers could have had a presavation order on it so it could have been a monument to the past.

[@bullettube9863]

Great video as usual! The main purpose of the gas holders was to be filled with gas at low pressure and the weight of the tanks then pressurized the gas enough for it to be transported to where it was used. My dad and two uncles worked for the Rochester gas and Electric company in Rochester NY, my dad worked on the gas side and one uncle worked on the electric side while the other uncle was an accountant in the main office. Another uncle had one of these tanks literately in his back yard until it was taken down. Today natural gas is piped under pressure into underground tanks until it is needed. It's a surprise to many people that Western New York still has many working gas wells, and that many towns had gas works making gas from coal for local use.

[@SimpleJack-mc4cg]

Had one in Ayr. Was sad to see it go. The tech always amazed me as a kid. One day its Full next its 1/3. Never did get to see it moving :(

[@benayers8622]

Agreed 🤔😁

[@soundseeker63]

This video is a gem! Loved all those historic photos, maps and paintings, and the more recent shots and drone footage....which is now historic material it's self, since the structure not longer exists. I'm only in my late 30s but I do clearly remember as a kid seeing these all over the place - Every city had a least a few of them and they were definitely active in the 1990s and early 2000s, long after the town gas era had ended. I do remember seeing this very gasometer in question until quite recently - Would always see it on the skyline coming into Manchester Victoria (From Leeds) on the train. I thought something was missing last time I came over but couldn't quite recall what. I must admit that footage of it being cut up did make me quite sad. I realise they have been technically obsolete for some time now but, as with so many things, you get accustomed to their presence on the skyline and kind of miss them once they are gone. I personally didn't find them ugly, something about the combination of size and delicacy of the structure had a fascinating charm to me..... but maybe I'm just weird..? haha

[@DIY_challenges]

My mom always told me they were rice pudding holders

[@garyw8824]

I was a fat kid ...I would been climbing that

[@ericl2969]

I've never seen your channel before but this was a video I needed to see and I hadn't even known it. In my moderate-sized home town in the USA, we have always had a local distributor of electric power and natural gas. At one time when I was a little kid, sometime in the mid 1960s, my dad explained to me what the big storage tank at the gas-and-electric property was, and he told me that the sidewalls of the tank were simply submerged in water to form a seal, and the more gas was pumped into the tank, the higher it rose, with the sidewalls still sealed by being submerged in water. Well, that made perfect sense to me when I was kid, but as an adult I became an engineering technician specializing in soils and foundations, and became aware of a big design problem. The whole region around the site of the storage tank (we never called it a gasometer here) was filled marshland with very deep soils of soft clay, and groundwater was only a few feet below the surface. This made deep excavation and construction of deep foundations virtually impossible. Thus there would have been no way to excavate and build a foundation so deeply as to house the full height of the side wall of the tank within a ring-shaped tank of water. You didn't address it in your video, but there's a schematic diagram in the video which explains this perfectly, and minimal understanding of physics fills in the details. Some folks might be interested in this, so here goes. The tank shown in the schematic (not sure if it was the same tank as discussed in the video) consisted of three telescoping sections, and when fully collapsed, the walls of all three sections were submerged in a fairly shallow, ring-shaped tank of water, with even shallower water extending across the entire "floor" area of the tank. As the tank was filled, the narrowest (innermost) section - the only section with a roof - would be pushed upward first, then the next-larger section, and finally the largest (outermost) section. As each telescopic joint extended to its limit, a little ring of water was captured and lifted from the main water water tank, remaining trapped within the joint, thus providing a seal even as that joint was elevated much higher. Brilliant! I don't know how many times I have driven by the site of our town's old gas-storage tank (it's been gone for decades) and immediately started wondering about my childhood memories, and HOW the tank walls could rise 100 feet in the air when it was virtually IMPOSSIBLE for those same sidewalls to be submerged in a ring of water 100 feet deep. Thanks to being prompted by your video, now I understand how this was done! Finally, I find old industrial structures and history to be fascinating. Those structures represent a very different time, but one that was a step along the way to where we are today. Engineering and construction was accomplished in those days using much-less efficient methods and a lesser knowledge base than what's available today, and yet those people designed and built structures which are amazing even from our modern perspective.

[@johnn1575]

Great video - used to work on them, really interesting how they worked. They didn't hold a lot of volume as it was low pressure.

[@Mrbobinge]

Touching. Breathtaking imagery. Totally appropriate eulogy for fine old memories of a Mann and its skeletal neighbours. Thanks men.

[@barbaraprest783]

Just leave it there - trying to make everything look pretty is never a good thing - history is what made us , is part of us .

[@chucky2316]

They are eradicating our history and hard work

[@MidnightGazebo]

Problem then is the council/landowner need to keep inspecting and maintaining it so it doesn't fall down and hurt someone - not that it's never worth doing, and there are some great examples of gasometer frames being integrated into new buildings, but not necessarily worth it for every example.

[@Magnus-qr7lj]

The buildings that they build now are, UGLY! to be polite, not ever something that will be preserved!

[@johnhankinson1929]

I'm sure there's an architect who could design a hotel that could have fit inside it , such a shame it's gone

[@barbaraprest783]

@johnhankinson1929 that wouldn't get rid of the 'eyesore' - which is why it probably wouldn't happen ( unfortunately) there are people who are afraid of the past imo

[@vsvnrg3263]

a comment has appeared in my list that has disapproved of roy. i dont agree. roy doesnt have your presenting skills but roy is the hard man of your team. he goes where others wont go. he is a valuable member of your team and i'm all for him.

[@BelowAndBeyond]

He's most certainly not just the soft lad that operates a drone 😜

[@trams66]

That was fantastic 👍 I love gasometers and gas holders they have always fascinated me👌

[@tonybridgens6577]

Well done thank you for making this video. I can just remember red-hot coke being pushed out of the retorts at Ford Motors plant in Dagenham, Essex. Where they made coal gas as a byproduct, they wanted the coke to run the blast furnace, I think. They had a gasometer like that, to hold the gas at low pressure.

[@PanzerFalcon2232]

They used to be absolutely EVERYWHERE, now, they're disappearing and tbh, I'm quite sad

[@anthonyjflanagan2754]

Great images from Philips Park . I was born in Bradford and went to St Brigid's. There was plenty of chemically toxic work round there, back in the day AND Boozers to wash down the poison. The house we lived in came under a compulsory purchase order and we had to flit Bradford then as it started to get all pulled down (There were already plenty of crofts and rubble around us - we lived in Limbourne Street off Mill Street - not far from the Church and it's HUGE steps - as well as the Duke of Edinburgh pub !). Thanks Martin . I enjoy your vids

[@nigelt1218]

Many thanks for taking the time to record our industrial history. It was fantastic to watch.

[@Cliff7257]

Grew up in Mill St. opposite Philips Park, went to Queens St. Primary school [ 50's] So sad to see everything being taken away. Thanks Martin for bringing back some of my earliest happy memories.

[@shirleysmith1713]

Thanks for the history, very interesting. 👍🏻 for Roy. Well done Martin 👍🏻

[@MartinZero]

Thanks Shirley

[@UniSeco]

Excellent, really enjoyed that thanks. I remember growing up with a local gasometer too but never knew how they worked. Great that you captured it before it all went.

[@radman8321]

Short sighted getting rid of all the gas storage. The UK has about 3 days storage now, whereas Germany has 3 months. If we ever go to war and lose the supply from the north sea we'll have no heating and precious little electricity within a week.

[@mikeb8548]

Those gasholders hold very little in reality - the pressure is too low in them. They were used to buffer supply from small gas works that couldn't produce enough for peak demand times.

[@radman8321]

@@mikeb8548 You may well be right, although there were thousands of them, so it would have all added up. I know they got rid of a lot of the high pressure storage cylinders too. Then they closed the offshore storage facility we had too. I think it's been partially re-commissioned now, but it should never have been closed.

[@wingnut71]

We were supposed to get underground storage, within porous natural rock formations, but I think they knocked that idea on the head.

[@lloydwilliams7674]

Many thanks for the time and attention to detail on this important video. I live in the U.S. but my Grandfather emmigrated from Manchester early in the 20th Century. He worked here as a boilermaker (as did my two uncles) and, after watching your video, I can better understand why and how. All three worked hard and their hands were strong as steel. I'm certain you can understand. Be assured I will be watching more of your submissions to KZbin. Again, thank you for your work.

[@user-bt4jg5lh4b]

great video man , much appreciated guys

[@raymondwilliams2609]

We had the gasometers too, we had one specifically in an area called Garston Village. Don't really know what happened to it as I very rarely leave the house these days (what's the point going out, you're only going to find people - the same things you're trying to get away from !!). Love these old photos. Well done !

[@martindooley4439]

I remember the day when mum and dad's house was converted to natural gas. We got a different coloured knob on the oven.... Brilliant video and awesome photos Roy

[@stevedemoss]

I came to England from America on a visit with my parents in 1959 and remember seeing the gasometers as we travelled in the Manchester area. I had always wondered what they were and how they functioned. Thanks for sharing this video! It was very informative and a great history lesson.

[@vetrieska11]

Great video as usual, thank You! and small explanation - M.A.N. stands for Maschinenfabrik Augsburg- Nurnberg :)

[@MartinZero]

I did put that in the video maybe you missed it eh ? But thanks for watching 👍

[@vetrieska11]

@@MartinZero it's written Machinerefarik Austere - Nurnberg. It's a mistake or should be written that way?

[@darrylrotrock7816]

@@vetrieska11 Absolutely not. There is no German word "Machinerefarik". And no town in Germany exists with the bizarre name "Austere". No idea where that comes from.

[@darrylrotrock7816]

@@MartinZero You only said "it must be a German design", and the writing is so error-riddled that it took me a minute to recognize what company and towns you meant. It's M.A.N., not "MAN".

[@vetrieska11]

@@darrylrotrock7816 maybe transcription from voice made this mistake, i think so.