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Summary

The gas works, at the west end of Ford Road, operated from the 1830s until 1905. The site was redeveloped for housing in the 1920s. The manager's house was also converted into a residential house.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• GAS WORKS (Built, XIX - 1832 AD (Between) to 1839 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1855-1895, First Edition 1:500 Town Map (Cartographic). SDV338879.

'Gas Works' shown at west end of Ford Road.
Map object based on this source.

The Tavistock and District Local History Society, 1994, About Tavistock: An Historical Introduction and Six Town Walks, 26 (Monograph). SDV354806.

Frederick Sherrell Limited, 2007, Proposed Redevelopment at 11 Ford Street, Tavistock, Devon: Phase 1. Desk Study Report (Report - Assessment). SDV350344.

The site of Tavistock Gasworks, 1831-1905, was redeveloped for residential use in the 1920s. The manager's office was also converted to a residential house.

Frederick Sherrell Limited, 2008, Proposed Redevelopment at 11 Ford Street, Tavistock, Devon: Phase 2. Site Investigation Report (Report - Survey). SDV365368.

Geophysical survey on the site of a proposed housing development in 2007 identified several areas of increased conductivity which may be associated with former gasworks buildings on the site. Shallow foundations were subsequently found in a trial pit (TP06) on one of these areas.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

Map object based on this source.

Waterhouse, R., 2017, The Tavistock Canal. Its History and Archaeology, 281-283, fig 8.52-3 (Monograph). SDV361789.

The Tavistock Gasworks is shown on the 1867 Bedford Estate plan of Tavistock. Located on the western edge if the town, it was first proposed in 1832, with machinery and pipes supplied by the Neath Abbey Ironworks in South Wales in 1838.
Waterhouse provides a plan of the gas works, which is a compact site with initially only one circular gas holder; another added at a later date. Photographs of the works in the early 1900s in the Tavistock Museum collection taken shortly before the closure of the site in 1905, partly because there was no possibility to expand the site, which was moved elsewhere in the town. The manager's house survives, although the gasworks buildings and holders were demolished and the site was built over in 2009.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8900 - Desk study, site inspection and investigations at 11 Ford Street, Tavistock

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.