Around Preston

This is a topic of interest to me because I live what is known as the "gasworks estate". Lostock Hall gasworks was situated to the west of the East Lancashire Railway (by which I mean, in this article, the route; the company had disappeared in 1859) as it approached Preston from the south, and would have been an important local customer of the railway. Town Gas vs Natural Gas Natural gas is mainly methane, with some ethane and nitrogen. A "stenching agent" is added to give it a smell, so leaks can be detected. It comes from oil reservoirs formed underground; in the UK, these are beneath the North Sea. Natural gas is obviously highly flammable, but is not toxic (though can potentially be asphyxiating). Town gas is quite different - and rather more complex. It is manufactured from coal. It contains a larger proportion of inert gases (nitrogen and carbon dioxide), so gives less energy for the same volume, and contains significant amounts of carbon monoxide, making it t

 Although this blog is about Preston, I am going to start in Southport - it has a Preston postcode, so is near enough. It was reading about Nevill Street that gave me the impetus to start a blog. I found out about it in Wikipedia, looking at a page on underground cities . I was very much surprised to find one just down the road! In fact, there is another in Liverpool, so the northwest of England actually has TWO underground cities. Supposedly... There are a small number of web sites, such as here , that talk about how the road was raised by one floor, so the ground floor of the buildings all became basements, and the first floor became the ground floor, and - though the local council do not want you to know about it - it is still possible to go down into that hidden world! Hmmm. How does that fit with the surrounding roads? You can see a modern aerial view here . Nevill Street runs from Lord Street in the southeast to the Promenade, in the northwest, and has two side streets on each si