The gas storage tower (Canmore ID 133539) is part of a former gasworks located at the north-east end of Balfour Village, Shapinsay, to the south of the Sands Road highway (NGR HY 47995 16658).
Built in the mid-nineteenth century, they were the most northerly private gasworks in Britain and ceased operation in the 1920s, when they were demolished. The gasworks are shown on both the First and Second Edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1881 and 1902, respectively. The gasometer stands at the north-east corner of the works, which comprises two rectangular, roofed buildings, one of which is divided into two parts, with an enclosing wall.
The site was visited as part of the project launch in Shapinsay during March 2024, with recording undertaken by the ORCA team and local volunteers in May 2024.
Shapinsay’s characteristic, regularly laid out landscape is the result of nineteenth-century agricultural improvements undertaken by the laird, David Balfour. The estate had been purchased by David’s grandfather, Major Thomas Balfour, in 1782, who began the agricultural improvement as well as founding the village of Shoreside. This was renamed Balfour Village by David and, along with terrace cottages, semi-detached houses, a smithy, a grain mill and a new pier, he constructed a gasworks of which the gasometer is the only surviving structure.
The gasworks was constructed sometime between 1856 and 1861. From correspondence written in 1856 between David Balfour and James Hansor, who had patented a method for extracting gas, and the 1861 Census data, we know that a gas stoker lived in the village. The gas storage house, or “gasometer”, was constructed of stone taken from Noltland Castle, in Westray, also part of the Balfour estates, giving the structure an ancient and defensive appearance.
The gasworks produced gas for lighting at Balfour Castle, throughout Balfour Village and along the pier. They produced coal gas in a closed, air-free cylinder, through the heating of coal to a temperature of 600 to 1,000 degrees C. The resulting gas was driven off, purified and stored in the gasometer to ensure that the mains system would not run out of gas.
The main component was the storage vessel, called a bell, which needed to be rigid but light. Initially they would have been made of wrought iron but later were of steel. The bell would be positioned in a guide frame allowing it to move up and down. The top and sides of the bell were closed but the base would be open and this would often sit in a tank of water to ensure a good seal. The tank would often be the most complex piece of engineering of the gasometer, needing to hold 500-700 gallons of water for each 100 cubic feet of the bell’s interior capacity. The gas was drawn into and out of the holder by pipes rising inside the water tank.
On the outside, the gas storage tower is cylindrical, built mainly of stone rubble but with a distinctive red brick crown. The structures that stored the coal gas would be housed inside, but almost all of these have been removed and the interior is covered by detritus and vegetation. There is an external doorway facing west. Two rings of six windows were built around the structure, one set at the height of the door lintel and the other around the red brick cap, deliberately built to resemble the loopholes seen in medieval fortifications. Overall, the building was designed to give the impression of being a turret in a system of fortifications.
The stonework contains a red sandstone panel bearing the Balfour coat-of-arms, the date ‘1725’ and the initials of John Balfour and Elizabeth Traill, above which is a yellow sandstone dormerhead bearing a rose and thistle. A further yellow sandstone dormerhead, pedimented and decorated with a unicorn relief, is visible to the north.
A series of sub-rectangular apertures were visible on both the outer and inner circumferences, below the base of the brick cap. These may have been used to anchor the internal fittings of the gasometer, perhaps the frame which would have held and guided the bell. Further apertures nearer the base on the exterior of the tower may have served a similar purpose.
A concrete ring runs around the full circumference of the tower interior, built on intermittent concrete blocks with a narrower, taller ring running behind; these sit within a concrete groove, the inside edge of which is marked by a metal pipe running round their full circumference. These features were built in an area that is lower than the exterior ground surface, and they may have anchored the open underside of the bell whilst also forming part of the water tank that sealed the gasometer base.
Sources
- First Edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (Orkney CII.4 (Shapinsay) 1881)
- Second Edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (Orkney CII.4 1902)
- Garson, S. 2022. Shapinsay A-Z: A brief history. Shapinsay Heritage, Arts and Crafts, Balfour Village.
- https://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/details/975774