The Gasworks Museum

The Carrickfergus Gasworks first opened in 1855. It was used to burn coal to make electricity to help power the street lamps around the town and further afield. The Gasworks utilized small furnaces known as retorts to process the coal and produce gas, which was then purified and piped around the region.

The Gasworks in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland was made up of three rooms filled to the brim with these retorts. It boasts Western Europe’s largest set of retorts as well as a collection of gas appliances and official documentation from the period. The Gasworks finally closed in 1987 when the technology became obsolete.

The workers worked in pairs and were known as stokers. They who would work between eight and nine hours a day together and were paid a meager fee of twenty-five pence a week. One stoker would pack the coal into the furnace and the other would remove the coke and burn off any escaped gas to help prevent the gas from building and causing a large explosion.

Despite the dangers of gas, the Carrickfergus facility only had one fatality over its 132 year history. Ironically, this death was caused by electrocution as opposed to death by gas or explosion.

The Gasworks Museum was restored by the Carrickfergus Gasworks Preservation Society after funding from Mid & East Antrim Council and the Historical Environment Division within the Department for Communities. It was officially opened as a museum in 2002 to the general public.