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Gas Museum

1878 establishments in EnglandBuildings and structures in LeicesterGas museumsGrade II listed buildings in LeicestershireHistory museums in Leicestershire
Industrial buildings completed in 1878Industry museums in EnglandMuseums established in 1977Museums in LeicesterNatural gas infrastructure in the United KingdomTechnology museums in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom museum stubsUse British English from August 2015
GasMuseumMay2010
GasMuseumMay2010

The Gas Museum, also known as the National Gas Museum, is situated in the former gatehouse of a gasworks in Leicester, England, and deals with the history of domestic and industrial gas supply. It is claimed to be "the biggest collection of gas and gas related artefacts in the world".The building is a Grade II listed building, dating from 1878, with a clock tower. The public museum is on two floors, with over 4000 items in storage. It was opened 29 April 1977, then called the John Doran Museum. It was one of 2 museums run by the British Gas Corporation until its privatization in 1987 when it was taken over by the National Gas Museum Trust, a charity set up for the purpose. The collections of the London Gas Museum and of the South West Gas Historical Society were transferred to this site in 1998.Displays include accounts of the history of gas usage in the UK and examples of technology. There is a tableau of 1920s kitchen with gas equipment. Domestic items include washing machines, gas irons and even a gas-powered radio. Much of the collection is of items made to operate on town gas which had to be replaced when UK gas supplies were changed over to natural gas in the 1970s, and were collected by British Gas engineers.It is run by the National Gas Museum Trust with financial support from Centrica and National Grid plc.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Gas Museum (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Gas Museum
Aylestone Road, Leicester Aylestone

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N 52.616528 ° E -1.141944 °
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British Gas Museum

Aylestone Road
LE2 7QT Leicester, Aylestone
England, United Kingdom
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GasMuseumMay2010
GasMuseumMay2010
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Raw Dykes
Raw Dykes

Raw Dykes (grid reference SK583026) is a Roman earthwork and scheduled monument in Leicester. The monument consists of two parallel banks up to 20 metres apart, with an excavated channel running between them. A stretch 110 metres long survives, but originally the earthwork was at least 550 metres in length.The official entry in the schedule of monuments maintained by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport states that the remains are those of a Roman aqueduct, stating that "the narrow cut within the centre of the ditch represented the main water channel and was designed to increase the flow of water by concentrating it within a constricted space". A publication by Leicester City Council has speculated that the earthwork may have been a canal, rather than a source of clean water, but concluded that the aqueduct-interpretation is "by far the most likely suggestion". Kathleen Kenyon, among others, argued that the level of the aqueduct (following the modern 60-metre contour) was lower than the Roman bath in Leicester, and that Raw Dykes was therefore a failure. However, J.S. Wacher has argued that the Romans were skilled hydraulic engineers, and that it is possible that they pumped water into the town from the Raw Dykes aqueduct. There is evidence that they employed a pump and a storage tank at Leicester's Roman baths in the 4th century.Excavations in 1938 found two Roman pottery sherds from the 1st century AD, indicated that Raw Dykes was constructed during or after this time. The first written reference to the earthwork occurs in the borough of Leicester's accounts from 1322. During the English Civil War, Royalist soldiers used part of the earthwork as an artillery emplacement; it also appears on several 18th- and 19th-century maps. Since the early modern period its length has been greatly shortened by the expansion of Leicester. Members of the public cannot access the site, but a viewing enclosure has been constructed leading off Aylestone Road.