The news that Dorset Council has bought the former gasworks site brings to an end the long history of Weymouth Gasworks.
In 1828 the council was looking for a site for a proposed gasworks and eight years later William Burdon built a gasworks on the western side of the Backwater.
A main was laid under the Backwater to provide a gas supply to Melcombe Regis.
Burdon remained the sole proprietor until 1856 when an Act of Parliament was obtained to form the Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Gas Company.
About that time concern was expressed about the monopoly and poor standard of the gas supply and a new Weymouth Consumers Gas Company was set up and purchased the gas works.
READ: Former gas works acquired by council
In 1928 the gasworks site was extended as land was reclaimed from the Backwater.
This was done contemporaneously with the construction of Westwey Road which had been first mooted in 1921 as a way of alleviating unemployment after the First World War, although the new road was not opened until 1931.
The new gasworks were formally opened on 12 July 1933 at a ceremony attended by Stir Francis Goodenough Executive Chairman of the British Commercial Gas Association, the Mayor, and the Town Clerk.
Many people of a certain age will remember the gasworks in operation.
They will likely remember the coke lorries, the gasworks hooter and the general busyness round the site plus the gasholders, the second one being added in 1956 and demolished a few years ago.
The tar was very useful for preserving fences as my father used to treat our fences with a wonderful smelling product which appeared in barrels.
The gasworks closed in 1958 and gas was then pumped from Poole.
The gasworks was then demolished in early 1962 and I remember watching its demolition on my way home from school.
READ: Pictures of Weymouth as it was in 60s and 70s
I would imagine that it will take some time for the site to be decontaminated before redevelopment, as I remember that spoil from the site was used to infill the Marsh playing fields and a number of Council operatives were overcome when digging in the area by the fumes emanating from earth which had been contaminated.
READ: Pebble-strewn road among images of 60s and 70s
The second photo dates from 1961 and shows the Gasworks clearly in the background with the gasholder erected four years earlier in a prominent position.
The subject of the photo, however, was Cosens’s paddle steamer Monarch being towed from the Backwater on her way to the breaker’s yard in Ireland.
But what a lot of interesting things there are in the photo!
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