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Fakenham Museum of Town Gas

George Acheson


Organisation:
Fakenham Museum of Town Gas
Regions:
England, Norfolk
Notice Period:
Regular (more than one month's notice)
Type:
Charity
Fee:
Free: No fee but donations to the museum welcome
Category:
History
Updated:
12th August 2026
Tagged:
1830 1880

Electronic Slides and short Video about the invention and production of town gas from coal. Our works, a museum and a National Heritage Site, is the sole complete survivor of over 700 in the country. The video shows William Murdoch the inventor of gas manufacture and Frederick Windsor, his rival and how the first works were built. Fakenham came 30 years or so later built by a local lad who went on to become internationally important. The works and the processes are described and the hundreds of exhibits discussed. and shown on slides. Our sole interest is to make the museum better known and to drum up interest. We are happy to both come to you or host a more hands on visit of a group to the museum. The Museum website is easily found by Google

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About George Acheson

I am chairman of the charitable trust that runs the museum and speak as a double act with Nick Ezra - Vice Chairman and researcher. The gas works is the only one of over 700 remaining in England and Wales, there is an even smaller one in Scotland. It has all the equipment in place to make town gas from coal as well as countless other exhibits from street and house lighting to irons, fridges cookers driers etc etc. We tell the story of how gas was made, who invented it and who worked in the industry. For instance our works was built in 1846 by a Fakenham ironmonger's apprentice who went on to become the pre-eminent gas engineer in the country - President of the UK Institute of Gas Engineers and Vice-President in New York. We illustrate the talk with electronic slides and a short video. We happily talk for an hour or so. Our sole interest is to promote the museum to encourage both visitors and volunteers, I am a retired GP and Nick is a n ex BBC sound Engineer and polymath who won the 2126 Heritage and Museums' Volunteer of the Year award for his work with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.


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