The story of Heathfield’s gas works

It was incredible to read this week about the breakthrough nuclear fusion experiment which could revolutionise the world’s supply of energy in the future.

Ironic too, as the offices of The Heathfield News had only recently received a communication from the Grandson of Charlie Harrison who was Warden of the Heathfield Gas Works because over a hundred and twenty years ago, Heathfield harboured high hopes of being the source of a new and endless supply of energy in the form of natural gas.

Gas was discovered accidentally in August 1896 in the stable yard of the Heathfield Hotel near where the Sainsburys Store is today.

A water bore-hole was being excavated but when it seemed the water was bubbling, a candle was lowered down into the hole to investigate, resulting in the ‘bubbles’ igniting and a 16ft flame shot up in the air.  The hole was capped off. 

The following year rail workers, seeking purer water for their engines also dug a bore hole near the station.  The gas that subsequently escaped was very pure and had only a slight odour, however, with no water found and gas escaping, they decided to contain it and it was used for the station’s lighting and also powered an engine pump.

In 1901 an American company The Natural Gas Fields of England Ltd sank several boreholes around Heathfield, with the gas output from one reaching an impressive 15 million cubic feet a day – equivalent then to one eighth of the total daily gas consumption in London.  The company’s ambitious aim was to ‘control the supply and furnish light and power to the whole of central and southern England’.

Excitement and rumour circulated in anticipation of the plentiful supply of Heathfield gas. Numerous experimental balloons were released from the station labelled ‘Natural gas carried me from Heathfield, Sussex’.  One of them floated all the way to Germany in just a day or two.

Medallions were struck to mark the coronation of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra inscribed: “Heathfield Sussex 1902. Natural gas first used for light and power” as a momento.

Despite the high hopes and ambitions, the gas lit less than 100 houses in Heathfield, the Heathfield Hotel, the station and the streetlights.  When the pressure began to decrease, a coal gas generating plant was installed in Gasworks Road (now Marshlands Lane) and residents opted for this more reliable source, which was also seen as safer than the odourless natural gas.

Heathfield Station continued to be lit by gas until 1934 when more conventional gas supplies took over.  By 1963 it was evident that the gas was finally running out and the supply was permanently sealed. The station was closed two years later.

Here’s a photograph that appeared in the local newspaper of Charlie Harrison filling a gas cylinder at Heathfield Station.  Pure Heathfield gas was compressed into cylinders by Charlie and sent to Didcot for use by scientists engaged in atomic research.

Story courtesy of local historian and writer Nicola Walker from Hellingly