No gas but girders as Swanvill
VAST swathes the Black Country have undergone dramatic changes over recent years, in particular the removal of outdated industry and the building of thousands of of new homes to keep pace with an ever increasing population.
Change is nothing new to the area which underwent seismic upheavals with the introduction of canals in the 18th century and then the coming of the railways in the 19th century. Factories began to grow in size with easier access to raw materials, and were able to employ more people. As a result many of the Black Country’s villages became towns that gradually merged to create the urban sprawl we have today.
Gas had been introduced as a means of illumination before the end of the 1700s and the technology to bring lighting to the dingy streets of most industrial towns was welcomed by everyone. The advent of incandescent gas lighting in factories, homes and in the streets, replacing oil lamps and candles with steady clear light, almost matching daylight in its colour, turned night into day for many, making night shift work possible in factories. With an abundant amount of coal available coal gas was the obvious by-product and gas works were established to manufacture this precious commodity.
Constructed
Almost every town had its own gas works, but West Bromwich was slightly different. The town’s own gas works was known as the Albion gas works, but there was also one at Swan Village and in 1825 the Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas Light Company was founded by an Act of Parliament to manufacture and supply gas to Birmingham. The Old Works, as it became known, was constructed over a period of four years and when built, one hundred and ninety years ago, was the largest in the country. These were the days before the advent of the railway, and coal had to be delivered via the canal network. Initially this came from the Ridgacre Canal, with a basin connected to the canal, constructed to allow the loading and unloading of coal barges.
Halcyon
The amount of coal needed to supply the works and keep the gasometers topped up depended on demand. But the bargees must have been exceptionally busy come what may with the local canals witnessing probably their halcyon days. Eventually the railway did arrive in 1854 and this had a detrimental effect on the canals almost overnight. The Great Western Railway’s Birmingham to Wolverhampton line brought dramatic changes. Swan Village Station was connected to the line next to the gas works. From the station branched the Great Bridge line, linking up with the South Staffordshire Line which ran to Dudley. The Swan Village Basin line also branched off just before the station at Swan Village that fed into the gas works.
With the railways in place more gas production was possible, thus lowering the price of gas for consumers. The map of Swan Village Gas Works clearly shows the canal’s direct access to the old works, but also the dramatic affect the railway had in serving both the old and the new works, which would be built to