Catalogue description GRAYS AND TILBURY GAS COMPANY

Grays and Tilbury Gas Company

The Grays undertaking, founded in 1853 by Deed of Settlement, started life as the Grays Thurrock Gas and Coke Company Ltd. Its works lay on the Southend Road, near to the Thames. It obtained statutory powers in 1884, when it changed its name, and up until 1913 the company only supplied Grays and Tilbury. In 1913 the company took over four undertakings in south-east Essex: Laindon, Stanford-le-Hope, Billericay and Rayleigh. Their works were closed but their areas of supply were linked to the Grays works by the innovative method of using high pressure steel mains operating at 30-50 pounds per square inch. Increased demand in these rural areas led to a new horizontal retort house, then a carburetted water gas plant and finally, in 1920, a Tully plant being built. The Gas Light and Coke acquired the undertaking in 1930, closing the manufacturing plant in the following year, however, the site remained in use as a holder station.