NEWPORT GASWORKS RETORT HOUSE . A large red-brick range of typical retort house appearance. The arched openings of pierced brick were the usual method of ventilating a vertical retort house where coal was distilled in vertical heating tubes (with a ?
limited air supply) to produce coal gas. Since the introduction of North Sea Gas such building have become a rare survival. ?
(Site entry by S.R.Hughes for Buildings of Gwent, John Newman, 2000)
B.A.Malaws, 12 December 2003.
