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What do gas works have to do with fruit trees? Can this be real or is this a mistake on the map? The gas works location seemed such an unlikely place for fruit trees, so we dug deeper, and here is what we found.
What do gas works have to do with fruit trees? Can this be real or is this a mistake on the map? The gas works location seemed such an unlikely place for fruit trees, so we dug deeper, and here is what we found.
Gas works fruit trees on the map
Gas works fruit trees on the map
The 1878 OS County Series map shows fruit trees along the roads leading to the Gas Works.
The Luton Gas Works near the New Bedford Road, as shown on the 1878 OS County Series 1:2500 map.
This could be because in the first edition of the OS Maps, symbols were not used consistently. Or were there actually fruit trees?
We looked further back in time to find an answer.
Orchards on the tithe map
Orchards on the tithe map
The 1842 tithe map shows the same portion of land before the coming of the railway. Somewhat unexpectedly, it marks two plots next to the Gas Works as 'orchard'.
The plots were owned by Fredrick and Charles Burr (an important brewing family in Luton), and occupied by a William Brown.
Plot 1430 is the Gas Works. Plots 1429 and 1427 are both orchards, and plot 1426 is the The Fox public house.
On the 1842 tithe map, plots 1427 and 1429 are registered as orchards.
The corresponding entries in Luton's tithe register
The corresponding entries in Luton's tithe register
The entry in the tithe apportionments showing the 2 orchards on plots 1429 and 1427.
Curiously, the owner and occupier of the so-called 'Gas House' remain nameless. They are noted as 'Proprietors of Gas House'.
Open questions
Open questions
The orchard in 1842 are clearly not in the same place as they are on the 1878 map.
However, is there a connection between the two sets of orchards?
When the trees were grubbed up for the railway and the extension of the Gas Works, were they replanted or replaced in the curious pattern we see by the 1878 map?
Are they aligned by that time with what were previously small canals or ditches connected to the River Lea?
A possible connection: advances in chemistry - Gas Works spoil used for making fertilisers?
A possible connection: advances in chemistry - Gas Works spoil used for making fertilisers?
The Bedfordshire Times and Independent from 1845 tell us that ‘Well-known agricultural chemist, Mr G.W Johnson analysed refuse from Gas Works, which ‘when properly used, form very valuable fertilisers, both for agricultural and horticultural purposes’.
It goes on to say that 'A gentleman from Aylesbury pays three farthings per gallon for the gas ammoniacal liquor at the Aylesbury works’.
Newspaper cuttings from the Bedfordshire Times and Independent, 28 November 1845 and the Gas Works on the 1842 Tithe Map.
Would ‘ammoniacal liquor have been taken out and spread beneath the trees on the Burr brothers' orchards? That may have to remain an unanswered question.
The Luton Gas Works site today
The Luton Gas Works site today
A recent satellite image with a yellow outline showing where the orchard tree symbols were in 1878. You will surely find apples there now... in the shops. If you pop down to Sainsbury's or Lidl there today, spare a thought for the lost Gas Works orchards of Bury Park.
The outline of the row of trees superimposed on a recent satellite image, showing the supermarkets between Telford Way, Crawley Road, Francis Street and Bury Park Road. Satellite imagery ©2024 Airbus, Google, Maxar Technolgies, Map data ©2024.
Slideshow: then and now
Slideshow: then and now
The whole case of the Gas Works orchard remains mysterious.
Further research ideas
Further research ideas
The Fox public house and the orchard nextdoor - used for cider?
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