A history of gas in Jersey

A history of gas in Jersey

This article from 1981 was compiled by Roger Long from research by Robin S Cox and Rene H Le Vaillant

Staff in 1905

First steps

It is thought that the Chinese were the first to make use of a gas obtained from coal, but it was not until William Murdoch, in Redruth, Cornwall, began examining the possibilities of its application to industrial heating and lighting in 1792, that the age of coal gas was born. Early examples of its use were at the Soho works of Boulton and Watt in Birmingham, which were lit in 1798, and the Lyceum Theatre in London in 1803.

Some ten years after the peace of 1815, Jersey property developers in St Helier embarked upon a building programme which was to last for about 20 years. As early as 1827 the local press observed that it was time the streets were lit by gas, if only to protect the public from accidents which were continually occurring after dark, occasioned by piles of building materials left in the public thoroughfares.

The island was then under the control of a two-party system. The Rose, or Liberal, party had a majority in the States and in the Parish of St Helier at this time and were not in favour of great public expenditure, which included the scheme for public street lighting. The opposing political party, the Laurel, or Conservatives, favoured the introduction of all things new, for their supporters had embarked on the fine new development of the town.

Throughout 1828 the need for street lighting was brought before the eyes of the newspaper-reading public and, with the Laurel party now in the ascendant, some excitement was caused when it was learned that Thomas Edge, of the Westminster Gas Works, had visited the Channel Islands with a view to extending his interests. He met with some resistance in both the islands, in Jersey it being pointed out by some that no self-respecting people were out after 9 pm, that at most times the moon provided sufficient light, and that the local candle-making establishments, of which there were five, would suffer very greatly if this piped gas was to become commonplace in private houses.

A banknote issued by the company

Parish approval

Edge persevered and at a meeting of the Parish of St Helier on 28 April 1830 he was granted permission to dig up public roads to lay the necessary conduits.

On 7 June 1830 he bought from Philippe de Quettevllle, the Laurel Constable of St Helier, 24½ perch of ground in what was then known as Jardin de Middleton. This plot had an 80-foot frontage both on Ruette de la Commune to the north, now Gas Place, and on a new private road, now Robin Place. The surrounding area was at the time truly industrial and contained a ropewalk, slaughterhouses and one of the island’s principal brickflelds.

Edge had for his local manager Thomas Snowdon Peckston. They advertised for local builders to construct two masonry gas reservoirs. 32 feet wide by 16 feet 6 inches deep, and a 5 feet 6 inches wide syphon pit, and by August 1830 the press had noted the laying down of conduits in various streets of the town.

At a meeting of the States of Jersey on 15 February 1831 a report of the Harbours and Piers Committee recommended that public gas lighting should be installed around the harbour, which then consisted of the Old North Pier, Commercial Buildings, Quai des Marchands and the New South Pier.

The long-awaited supply of coal gas to the public took place on Saturday 12 March 1831. The successful inauguration of the network was marked by the illumination of what is now the United Club in the Royal Square by a large star and the letters A R (Altesse Royale) on the following Monday 14 March.

The town had grown a great deal by this time and in September 1836 Edge bought more land to the west of his gas works on which he erected coal stores.

In May 1838, as a result of what were described as “injudicious" arrangements with Edge, the street lighting ceased. The lighting always did cease during the four summer months and for the four nights of the full moon, but an atmosphere had developed between Edge and the consumers such that this termination of street lighting was considered to be his fault. High prices and poor quality gas led to dissatisfaction and on 18 June 1839 a meeting was held to force a reduction in the price of the gas or to see the setting up of a rival organisation.

Price reduction

The founders of the new St Helier's Union Gaslight Company informed Mr Edge that, unless the price was reduced, many shop proprietors would cease to use his gas as from 1 July 1839. No reduction was forthcoming and several consumers did return to using oil or candles. In August 1839, however. Thomas Edge announced that with effect from the previous 1 June he had reduced the price of gas from 15s for a thousand cubic feet to 12s 6d for private consumers, and to 12s for commercial users.

The year 1844 was one of financial depression during which the consumers objected, for a second time, to the high prices of gas and fittings. Clement Perchard, one of the protesters in 1839, who had now replaced Peckston as the local manager, announced to the proposers of yet another rival company that the price of gas would be reduced to 10s a thousand cubic feet as from the following 29 March.

The growth of the town and the second attempt to form a rival company caused Thomas Edge to become very much more active locally. Between 1845 and 1852 he bought more land to the west of his coal stores and six houses in Bath Street, which include the offices of the present company.

Agreement was reached with the parochial authorities of St Saviour for street lighting as far as the church, which was inaugurated on l6 March 1850. And negotiations began with the three parishes involved in the lighting of the road to St Aubin. In his English affairs Thomas Edge became bankrupt and on 30 September 1850 a receiver sold the St Helier gasworks to local trustees. This led to the formation of the Jersey Gas Light Company, of which Elias Neel was elected president, George Heller Horman vice-president, and John Gibaut secretary. The other directors were Charles Fixott, Matthew Gallichan. George Gaudin and Thomas Anthoine; Clement Perchard was appointed manager.

Home lighting

Local ownership resulted in a new confidence in gas and it at last became fashionable as a form of lighting in domestic properties. The Royal Court was lit and heated by gas and the newly-erected Victoria and Albert Piers were lit in 1857, the Markets in 1858 and the old Public Library in 1859. Extensions to the system were laid to Petit Bagot, Millbrook, St Lawrence Valley and Augres.

Clement Perchard died in 1860 and on 23 August Elias Neel was appointed president and manager. Subsequently a new hostility developed between the company and the consumers and for the third time a rival gas company was promoted. During Clement Perchard's management the price had been reduced to 6s 6d a thousand cubic feet and the suggestion of a new company caused the directorate to drop the price to 6s. This was not good enough for the consumer who, by further agitation, obtained an instant reduction to 5s.

As a result of this episode the duties of president and manager were separated and Joseph Morris was brought from Guernsey to run the company in December 1862.

In January 1861 the Company bought more adjoining land on which to extend the works, in order to cater for the increased consumption created by the inauguration, on 24 June 1864, of the gas supply to St Aubin. In March 1867 the company purchased the last house in Campbell Place (now 109 Bath Street) making them owners of the whole of the site between Gas Lane and Gas Place.

There followed a period of comparative stability and steady progress. A new office and the company's first showrooms were opened on 31 May 1880, on the site of the present showrooms. This satisfactory situation did not prevent the board keeping a wary eye on developments in other fields: “The question of electricity has been constantly under the attention of your board, but its progress has not created any anxiety in their minds.”

Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrations were enhanced by the erection of 63,825 jets in ‘designs’ on a number of public and private buildings.

Joseph and Harry Morris

Harry Morris, a future manager, was appointed assistant to his father Joseph in September 1895. The following year the board and shareholders presented Mr Morris Snr with an elaborate epergne mounted on a massive plinth of silver, suitably inscribed, in recognition of 34 years of service as engineer and manager.

A less cordial note was struck at about this time by the consumers in St Aubin, who petitioned the company - unavailingly for a reduction in the price of gas from 3s 6d per 1000 cubic feet to 3s as paid by Town consumers.

November 1893 saw the first mention of Mr Charles Robin's property in Tunnell Street, the site of the present works, and its purchase was completed by the following February. Substantial increases in output, which had quadrupled between 1862 and 1895, led to the decision to expand into larger premises, as a result of which construction of a completely new works on the Tunnell Street meadow was begun. It was reported during 1897 that progress on the new retort house was slower than expected and the first charging of the retorts was delayed until December 1899. Continued problems were encountered and it was February 1902 before the retorts in the old works could be finally shut down.

At a special general meeting in October 1909 it was reported that for some time the company had been involved in preparing a private bill to be presented to the States in opposition to a proposed Projet de Loi which called for “Public control of Gas, Water and Electric undertakings“. Among other steps taken an independent valuation and assessment of the company was obtained, as a result of which the board congratulated Joseph and Harry Morris, they being satisfied “...that the Jersey Gas Light Company works are in a condition equal If not superior to any works of the same size in the United Kingdom’’.

The States passed the Bill for the Control of Public Companies in March 1910. The Company thereupon successfully lodged a petition with His Majesty's Privy Council “. . .praying that the said Bill be not sanctioned." The company’s position as a public utility was eventually regularised in 1918 by incorporation by an Act of the States of Jersey as the Jersey Gas Light Company Limited. As well as providing safeguards for the company, control of gas quality and pressure was made statutory, and thereafter the tariff was based on British Thermal Units sold rather than gas volume.

Only one serious dispute has marred industrial relations within the company. This led to the workmen withdrawing their labour on 1 November 1921. But they ensured the safety of the gas-making plant throughout the strike and work was resumed 18 days later.

During 1923 plans were put forward for a high-pressure gas distribution system to serve the east of the island. Construction was started the following year and the first gas entered the system on 20 December 1924. This and other extensions led to increased demand which was met by the installation of a Water Gas Plant in 1926. The only other interruption to gas production apart from the wartime occupation was in 1931, when exceptional rainfall on 24 August caused Le Fauxbie brook to flood into the works, which was put out of action for a short while.

The Occupation and after

The German Occupation tested the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the company’s workforce to the full. Shortages of raw materials and spare parts created ever-increasing difficulties and in September 1944 production of gas ceased. The gasholders were, however, filled and this gas was used as fuel for communal soup kitchens during the winter of 1944-5. As soon as a supply of coal was assured immediately after the Liberation, a stock of coke, which had been carefully concealed from the occupation authorities, was unearthed and used to commence heating the retorts.

Consumption grew rapidly with the return of the evacuees and the post-war expansion of tourism. New plant was sorely needed to replace the existing overloaded and outworn plant, and construction of a vertical retort house was begun in January 1952 and completed in March 1954. A further period of expansion followed and, by 1964, the annual gas output had risen to nearly 700 million cubic feet. The company now had over 130 miles of main between Gorey and Corbiere, making gas available to about 85% of the population.

A number of factors, not least of which was the rapidly rising price of coal, led to a search for an alternative raw material. As catalytic reforming of liquid petroleum gases had by this time become an established means of gas production, construction of a butane reforming plant was undertaken, and early in 1967 a gradual change from coal gas began. On 4 December 1968 the last of the old retorts was shut down, concluding a period of 138 years of coal gas production.

The most traumatic period in the company's recent history arose from the decision, imposed upon the board by several considerations, to convert from what was called town gas to a butane/air mixture. In addition to building new gas making plant, a costly programme for converting every appliance in the island to the new gas was undertaken over a comparatively short period. This exercise, although not without problems, was successfully completed in June 1977 and butane/air is now well established.

The simplicity and smallness of the new gas-making plant, which produces gas at over 98% efficiency, has enabled the company to place on the market a substantial area of its Tunnell Street property, which was largely used for storing thousands of tons of coal and coke.

Since 1973 the twin pressures of rampant inflation and the need to conserve fossil fuel resources have put a brake on the expansion formerly enjoyed by all the energy-producing industries. Despite the public’s evident response to these forces the greatest daily output in the company's history occurred on 18 January 1979. The 1981 price of butane feedstock used to make gas is nearly 14 times that paid for the first load in 1966, yet the average price of gas supplied has only increased by a factor of seven during the same period.

The rapidity of recent technological changes will surely be a warning to those who would forecast what the future holds, as the Jersey Gas Company enters the second half of its second hundred years. Nevertheless, the company is already making plans for further technological developments and, with a record of service to the consumer which is second to none, faces the future with confidence.

Directors in March 1981

• Peter Gilroy Blampied (Chairman)
• John Roland Christopher Riley
• Gerald Francis Voisin
• Eric Ivor Messenger (managing)
• John Harold Vint
• Colin Charles Beverley Sutton
• Anthony Paul Langlois

• Engineer and Assistant Manager, M J O’Keefle.
• Secretary and Accountant, R G Le Blancq

Presidents / Chairmen

• T Edge 1831-1856
• E Neel 1856-1873
• G H Horman 1873-1879
• J Gibaut 1879-1887
• M Gallichan 1887-1902
• A J Aubin 1902-1930
• C B Buttfield 1930-1935
• J A Perrée 1935-1954
• C W D Aubin 1954-1963
• L V Bailhache 1963-1979
• P G Blampied 1979-

Managers/Managing directors

• T S Peckston 1831-1843
• C Perchard 1843-1860
• E Neel 1860-1862
• J Morris 1862-1911
• H Morris 1911-1939
• S P Pepin 1939 — 1961
• W Wedgwood 1961-1971
• E I Messenger 1971 —