They’ve been and done and put the gas in

Lord have mercy on us all – they are going to blow us up. They’ve been and done and put gas in at the Wesleyan Chapel and none of us will be safe in our beds.

They make the gas from coal, so my neighbour said. They carry the coal to the retort house behind the inn on a horse and cart. All the way down the hill to the dock from the railway station with the wheels on skids. There’s a big furnace and you can feel the heat of it when you come past from the fields. And the smell – there’s nothing to describe it.

​On Sunday last, Reverend Stokes preached a sermon and lit the lights and Mrs Hamsey and I ran out, our aprons over our heads. Our Martha came to the house and told me not to be so daft, and that the Reverend had raised £8 towards the expenses of the gas fitting, but you’re not getting me back in that place. Not as long as I live. God will have to find me up the hill at St Stephens. 

Yorkshire Gazette 14 December 1861