Data copyright © Simon Cox unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Bristol and Bath Heritage Consultancy Ltd
1 Seagers Court
Audley Road
Chippenham
Wiltshire
SN14 0EN
This collection comprises of images from a Level 2 Historic Building Recording survey of part of the south wall of the former Bath gasworks' northern site, which is located to the east of Windsor Bridge Road, Bath (NGR: ST 73601 65114), in advance of site-preparation works, undertaken in March-July 2021 by Bristol and Bath Heritage Consultancy.
The earliest, ashlar, section of wall pre-dates an 1856 proposal plan for the gasworks, and may date to its original 1818 establishment. The surviving section of this earliest wall terminates at a former gateway, which once provided access to a canal towpath to the south. Here, it is abutted by a western extension to the wall, in cruder rangework, probably added with the extension of the gasworks to the west in around 1860. A blocked opening at the western end of this wall may be a former window belonging to a large purifier house.
The eastern end of the earlier ashlar wall terminates at a junction with the red-brick wall of a retort house also built around 1860, and demolished in around 1980. The red brick wall has clearly been butted onto, or built over, the earlier ashlar wall here. The wall was demolished from this junction westwards to the abutment of Windsor Road Bridge, which dates to 1980. The demolition involved the removal of a length of c. 74m of walling, comprising the pre-1856 ashlar wall and the c. 1860 western extension, but leaving the remains of the red-brick retort house wall intact.
The wall contained a number of features on its northern face, apparently representing various repairs, entrances, buildings and structures either butted onto, or incorporating, parts of the now-demolished wall over the course of its 160-year plus existence, although it is difficult to ascribe a precise date or function to a number of these features.