Monument record 0058310000 - SW of Gas House Cottage

Archaeological survey of National Trust land in 1989 at Ascott records the surviving remains of the 19th and early 20th century estate gas and electricity generating works. The original gas house survives along with the base of one of the two gasometers shown on 1st edition OS maps. There are few surviving fittings from the gas works, which was superceded by a steam driven electricity generator. A large coke-fired boiler by Marshall & Sons Ltd of Gainsborough powered the generator. Adjoining workshops seem to have housed an engine with an overhead drive shaft to power machinery including the estate saw mill. See report for further information, sketch plan and photo (B6).
Ascott cited as a good example of a surviving late 19th century domestic generator house complex. Photo of gas holder tank and adjacent generator house (B10).
Gasworks marked on the 1880 to 1920 OS maps indicating a private gasworks to Ascott House. The gasworks on the 1879 map is shown as a small rectangular building flanked by two small gasholders, all located east of the approach track and with a second building (on later maps labelled 'Gas House Cottage') to the east. By the 1898 map the complex had then included an electrical works. The 1923 map shows a layout much as it stands today, with a building block and adjacent added gasholder to the west of the earlier gasworks site. Retort House was still standing. Gas holder tank c9m diameter only partly infilled. Later steam-powered electricity plant nearby (B12).