Field Archaeology Specialists
A buildings assessment and metric survey were carried out at Hungate in York (NGR SE 6079 5178), on behalf of Mike Griffiths and Associates for Crosby Homes. It was undertaken during March 2002, in advance of the proposed redevelopment of the Hungate area.
The buildings of the former York Union Gas Works and Bellerby’s Saw Mill exhibit a more complex developmental history than initial viewing would suggest. Much more fabric of the gas works, which occupied the site up until 1850, has survived than was previously thought. Indeed, the eastern boundary wall of the gas works remains in its entirety, having been incorporated into the west wall of Building A, the east walls of Buildings C and D, and the east wall of the two storey block of Building B. Such surviving fabric is of interest in that its represents possibly the only surviving above-ground evidence for the second gas works to be built in York.
Building D also preserves the ground plan of the single-storey structure located at the southeast corner of the gas works site. It represents an interesting example of adaptive re-use, the single-storey 1830s structure being extended upwards sometime after 1850, the new first floor presumably being used as a workshop.
The ground floor of the two-storey core of Building B retains, in its interior, the only ‘polite’ architectural fabric within the complex. The survival of moulded cornices and lobby partitioning point strongly to this floor having been used as the saw mill office from the mid nineteenth century onwards.
The fact that standing fabric belonging to the nineteenth century gasworks still exists strongly suggests that extensive below ground remains of the gasworks have largely survived subsequent redevelopment of the site.