4th February 1819 - First Gas Light in Leeds

[Leeds Hippo]

Anyone know where it was?seemed to use oil lamps before thisFrom the Annals of Leedshttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mAQWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA548&dq=parish+of+leeds&hl=en&ei=acnFTOzUFI284gbCnpy6Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ6AEwADgK#v=snippet&q=february&f=false

[chemimike]

According to a google cache at http://tinyurl.com/4suhoxy of a page which no longer seems to be available, the first building in Leeds to be lit by gas was the round foundry in Holbeck.    

[Leodian]

chemimike wrote: According to a google cache at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... ogle.co.uk of a page which no longer seems to be available, the first building in Leeds to be lit by gas was th eround foundry in Holbeck The information about the Round Foundry that was brought up through the cached link is fascinating. Part of it is:-"The Round Foundry is the earliest surviving engineering works in the world and was the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in Leeds with tales of espionage and innovation at its heart.The Round Foundry was created in 1795 by a partnership between local entrepreneur John Marshall and engineering company Murray, Fenton and Wood. It was with this foundry that Mathew Murray, one third of the enterprising Murray, Fenton and Wood partnership, made his name with the production of textile machinery, steam engines and locomotives which he exported worldwide.The local hostelry, now The Cross Keys, was the backdrop for scenes of industrial espionage as Matthew Murray’s competitors Boulton and Watt set up a base to spy on developments at the foundry. The Round Foundry wasn’t just a major innovation in terms of industry but the building was also ahead of the competition. It was the first site in Leeds to be lit by gas lighting and Murray lobbied extensively for the city to follow his example in lighting its streets. Murray made his home on a neighbouring strip of land to the foundry and ran steam from the foundry to his house which later became known as Steam Hall. It was the first centrally heated house in England.The Round Foundry developed to become one of the world’s first specialist engineering foundries, incorporating a unique rotunda allowing more efficient access for machinery. Disaster struck the foundry in the 19th century when fire destroyed many of the original buildings, including the large rotunda that gave the foundry its name. Some buildings were saved, the earliest of which dates from 1798 and includes the Green Sand and the Dry Sand Foundries."I appreciate that I probably should have put this message in the Round Foundry thread but in view of the query about the first gas lamps it seemed OK to put it here. Apologies if I should not have put it here.

[jim]

I can't find a Round Foundry thread, so have posted on here. I have just taken delivery of "Matthew Murray and the firm of Fenton Murray and Co" written by Paul Murray Thompson, a descendant of the great engineer. It is quite expensive (£35 inc P&P) but at 495 pages, 21x30cm, a hefty seriously researched and annotated work, this is to be expected.

I have only had time to look through it, but it looks like a definitive engineering history and covers the later history of the buildings.

Available (500 copies only) from the author at [email protected]

[warringtonrhino]

many years ago I had an office in Matthew Murray House at the corner of Water Lane and David Street.
The address was 97 Water Lane, but there wasn't a sign on the building and the door with the number was on David Street.
To help people find the office I made a large number 97 and fixed it on the Water Lane elevation.
I found some of Matthew Murray's old drawings and copied the style for the numbers.

[hyperioncantlogin]

Many years ago,i worked on the round foundry site .https://www.flickr.com/photos/viewfromt ... 5988090968

[The Parksider]

Murray made his home on a neighbouring strip of land to the foundry and ran steam from the foundry to his house which later became known as Steam Hall. It was the first centrally heated house in England. Apologies if I should not have put it here.

You put it where you want Leo.....

I thought "Steam Hall" was Holbeck Lodge that nestled in that triangle created by three embankments carrying lines out of Leeds east, west and south.

It appear on OS maps from the 1850's to the 1950's and was rather spoiled by the line that shunted materials down into that triangle and then under the main line into Monk Bridge foundry later in the 19thC....

The quote that the steam pipe was run from the foundry makes me wonder if I have the location of Steam Hall right!!! It's one long pipe and I wonder why Murray would not just have made himself a boiler (or ordered one online)

[The Parksider]

Murray is a superstar of course yet his memorial stands in the old Churchyard on Holbeck Moor a little bit forgotten, isolated....

......OK team here's the plan, we take down the James Watt statue in City Square and put Murrays memorial in it's place....

[jim]

Murray made his home on a neighbouring strip of land to the foundry and ran steam from the foundry to his house which later became known as Steam Hall. It was the first centrally heated house in England. Apologies if I should not have put it here.

You put it where you want Leo.....

I thought "Steam Hall" was Holbeck Lodge that nestled in that triangle created by three embankments carrying lines out of Leeds east, west and south.

It appear on OS maps from the 1850's to the 1950's and was rather spoiled by the line that shunted materials down into that triangle and then under the main line into Monk Bridge foundry later in the 19thC....

The quote that the steam pipe was run from the foundry makes me wonder if I have the location of Steam Hall right!!! It's one long pipe and I wonder why Murray would not just have made himself a boiler (or ordered one online)

There seems to be uncertainty here. E. Kilburn Scott's "Matthew Murray, Pioneer Engineer"(1928) has repeated reference to "Steam Hall" being constructed in 1804 and to its steam heating . There is also (Plate 9) a photograph of the Holbeck Triangle Building, with the descriptions "Built By Matthew Murray about 1802 and heated by steam, and "HOLBECK LODGE or STEAM HALL".

Paul Murray Thompson's newly published (details above) "Matthew Murray and the firm of Fenton Murray and Co" does not mention the building in the text, but diagram 21, P98, "Later tithe map extract showing the Round Foundry and early Marshall Mills" identifies "Murray's House" on the east side of Marshall Street, by map comparison a little to the south of the still extant footpath running between Marshall Street and David Street, and with Benyon beck to the south of it.

Page 109 of the book quotes from James Watt junior (involved in industrial espionage on behalf of his father's business!) between 12th and 19th of June 1802 "...profits funding new buildings at the works, and a superb house for Matthew Murray.....chief of the new buildings, the rotunda ,from which the works were to get their local name of the Round Foundry..."

As the rotunda building appears on the Tithe Map it follows that the map is not earlier than 1802, that Murray lived in the Marshall Street House subsequent to that date, and by inference that the building in the Holbeck triangle may not have been Murray's.

[jim]

According to a google cache at http://tinyurl.com/4suhoxy of a page which no longer seems to be available, the first building in Leeds to be lit by gas was the round foundry in Holbeck.    

According to the book by Paul Murray Thompson I quote, above, the Round Foundry was lit by gas at the time of a report on the Foundry by J.G. May, the Factory Commissioner of Prussia following a visit during 1814 at which time the system was already in full use. The description is quite detailed , and appears on pages 223/4

Public gas supply in Leeds would appear to have commenced on the date heading this thread, 4th Feb 1819. First mention of the Leeds Gas Light Company is a meeting of 2nd Feb 1818 at which both Mr Murray and a Mr Cawood were asked to present plans. Tenders to complete the work were requested from both contenders on 7th March, and Murray's tender for the ironwork was accepted on the 16th. A further tender for the whole of the gas works (£8000) was accepted on the 23rd. All reported details are to be found on pages 232-46 of the book.