Mystery structure in Nechells/ Aston

[pigsonthewing]

What is the circular structure in this map, on the opposite side of the canal to Nechells Gas works:

Georeferenced Maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland

in this aerial photo, it appears half-way down the left-hand side, as a crescent of water:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raf_542_226_f22_0159.png ?

A CPD distribution depot occupies the site now:

OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.

www.openstreetmap.org

 

[mikejee]

It must be a gasometer. On the large scale map: https://maps.nls.uk/view/228801890 it is identical to the gasometer on the other side of the canal and is next to a tar tank

 

[Morturn]

I agree, I thing it is a part demolished gasometer. What your looking at is the concrete conical base with water around the edges. As you may already know, gasometers sat in a lake of water and would rise up and down as they filled with gas.

 

[Godber]

I agree with you both, Mike and Morturn, it certainly does seem to be a partially dismantled gasometer. The O.S. map from 1902 indicates the nearby Windsor Street gasometers with the same pattern, a disk with dots around the circumference. What puzzles me is that a large portion of it looks to have been bridged and then covered by a building. Surely it would have been simpler to fill the entire thing in? I’ve found more pictures of the site online, one dated 1938 which shows no sign of the structure and another undated one which shows it quite clearly. So it was there in the OS map of 1902, not there in 1938, then makes a return in the original photo pigsonthewing mentions in the opening post!

 

[Morturn]

There may have been problems filling it in as they are a source of ground pollution so covering them over may have been a quick temporary solution.

Here is a diagram of a gasholder cross section for clarity.

Source: The Secretary of the Trustees Gas Educational Fund - Catechism Of Central Station Gas Engineering In The United States, Trustees Gas Educational Fund, New York, 1909, Page 313

Attribution: By The Secretary of the Trustees Gas Educational Fund [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons