Gasholder Station Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate Arkwright Road, Ipswich Phases 1 and 2 Historic Building Investigation and Recording

Oxford Archaeology was commissioned by Montagu Evans LLP on behalf of National
Grid to create an Historic Building Record of Gasholder 133 and its ancillary structures
at the Gasholder Station, Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate, to the north-west of Ipswich
town centre.
Gasholder 133, an above-ground spiral-guided gasholder with four lifts, was
constructed in 1954 on the recently established industrial estate after planning
permission was granted to provide the extra gas storage required by the existing town
gasworks to the south-east of the town. The switch to natural gas throughout the
country between 1968 and 1976 led to the closure of the gasworks, although this
gasholder station and one gasholder at the former gasworks were retained for storage.
By the turn of the 21st century, only Gasholder 133 remained but the redundant
gasholder had been isolated from the mains and decommissioned for some time prior
to its demolition.
The historic building recording focussed upon researching the history of the site and
photographing the gasholder and its context before and during the dismantling. Phase
1 of the project comprised the recording of the gasholder and associated structures in
their context prior to work on site and Phase 2 comprised the recording of the
gasholder during its demolition. Due to the early stages of the lockdown imposed due
to the outbreak of COVID-19, the photographs of the gasholder during its demolition
were, with the approval of National Grid, provided by the demolition contractor, Erith
Contractors Ltd.
The wider programme of recording work of the remaining gasholders across the
country will allow a comparison of the structures between sites.