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Tan Bank - The Old Gas Works
The Old Gas Works
The entrance to the Belmont car park off Tan Bank marks the site of Wellington's first gas works, which were opened by William Edwards in 1823. At the start of the Victorian period, his company enjoyed a monopoly on the town's gas supplies, which was broken in 1851 by TC Eyton, a naturalist, author and prominent local businessman who also established a waterworks company for the town around the same time. Following a dispute over Wellington's street lighting (in those days, lit by gas) Eyton formed the Wellington Coal and Gaslight Company and it absorbed Edwards' business in 1863, after his death. Eyton's firm, which was also based on Tan Bank, had left for new railside premises on Bridge Road by 1870 and later became known as the Wellington (Salop) Gas Company, surviving as a private concern until nationalisation in 1949. The gasometers on Bridge Road were a familiar landmark for many generations of Wellingtonians until their demolition in the 1970s and the site is today occupied by housing.