Site Record

The works at Grangetown were opened in 1863, when the population of Cardiff was approximately 33,000. “The new Gasworks are now in working operation and seem to be constructed with an eye to economy, convenience, and all the modern appliances and improvements” reported the Cardiff Times from March 10th, 1865. The Grangetown gasworks were marked on the 1880 OS maps and town plans, they had two gasholders at this time. The gasworks were being extended in 1869 according to a report in the Cardiff Times from the 4th September 1869. In 1893 a stage-floor horizontal retort house was built, with 21 regenerative settings of eight D twenty-foot throughs. Benches and ironwork by R&J Dempster Ltd. "The number of retorts did not justify mechanisation". A railway incline led into the coal stores on either side; discharge was also to both sides. "Another demonstration of the facility with which shipping may be dealt with at Penarth Dock took place recently when a steamer arrived with a cargo of 1,495 tons of gas coal for the Cardiff Gas Company. She entered the dock at 1 p.m. and the work of discharging was commenced immediately. The vessel was afterwards placed under the new tips in the basin. While here she took on board 2,070 tons of coal, the whole process of unloading and loading being completed in only 17.5 hours". (Coal Merchant and Shipper 12/4/1902) In 1907 the 1893 retort house was extended and fully mechanised by John Aird & Sons, Wests (conveyors and compressed air charging/discharging machines and capstans) and Drakes (retort benches). A further 14 settings of eights were built by Drakes, making 560 mouthpieces in a building 427 feet by 68 feet wide. South end boarded for future extension. Conveyors took coke to a 400-ton overhead hopper intended primarily for the rapid loading of railway wagons with coke. At this time there were still about sixty beds of direct-fired retorts of various ages, some still in use, along the western boundary. These were coaled manually from ground-level sidings. An installation of 80 'Type A' G-W continuous vertical retorts was commissioned in December 1914, it had a capacity of 2,520,000 cu.ft./day. By 1949 the demand for gas from the Undertaking had increased from 12 to 17 million Therms per annum. Gas Production ceased in June 1973 but continued to provide a butane additive to the supply to reduced dependence on the national gas system. Plated cylindrical gasholder of 1881 supported by a double tier of 16 cast-iron Doric columns. (A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of South East Wales, AIA, 2003) B.A.Malaws, RCAHMW, 11 August 2005. The gasworks were visible on the 1880 to 1994 OS maps.