The Louth Gas Works was established in this site off Thames Street in 1826, after the Louth Gas Company had been incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1825. The company was established by a group of proprietors with an initial capital of £6000, raised in £25 shares. The successful opening of the works was celebrated by the renowned aeronaut Charles Green, who made an ascent in his coal-gas filled Royal Coronation hot-air balloon. The flight was made on the 4th of August 1826, and was launched from William Hardy's coal-yard, adjacent to the works. Production of gas on the site continued, with demand growing sufficiently that a Mr Alex Milne, an engineer from Edinburgh, was elected Superintendent of the works in December 1846, and tasked with increasing production. Demand continued to rise, prompting a major phase of expansion of the works in 1855 at a cost of £1200, with the site on Thames Street being enlarged and new gas holders being constructed on a new site off Maiden Row, closer to the town centre (see MLI126062). An additional Act of Parliament passed in 1877 prompted a further phase of enlargement of the works in 1879-80. The works were nationalised in 1949, becoming part of the East Midlands Gas Board. Production at the site is recorded to have stopped at some point in 1957 or 1958, and whilst many of the former works buildings have since been demolished (including all of the gas holders), some buildings are still extant, including a rare surviving example of a former horizontal retort house. {1}{2}{3}{4}{5}