Before the days of gas lamps, streets could be treacherous places at night, with cutthroats lurking in the shadows.

Beverley got its first gas lamps in the 1820s after London, York and Bath – and 200 years on still has 39 of the lampposts – which are thought to be the oldest in the world.

Gaslight lit things up in a way that could not have been imagined.

"It was amazing to people who had never seen any sort of street light before," says historian Barbara English, organiser of Heritage Open Days in Beverley, whose theme this year is astounding inventions.

Date:5th September 2022.
Picture James Hardisty.
Professor Barbara English, local historian is taking part in the Heritage Open Days: The History of Gas - in Beverley. Barbara is pictured
near the grade 2 listed lamps positioned around Beverley Minster. The cast iron lamps were originally gas, now electrified are believed to be the oldest in the world dating back to 1824. — Date:5th September 2022. Picture James Hardisty. Professor Barbara English, local historian is taking part in the Heritage Open Days: The History of Gas - in Beverley. Barbara is pictured near the grade 2 listed lamps positioned around Beverley Minster. The cast iron lamps were originally gas, now electrified are believed to be the oldest in the world dating back to 1824.

They were the work of a pioneering and extremely energetic gas engineer called John Malam, who won the contract to supply the town in 1824, with a very tight deadline.

"He had to find a site, buy it, build a gasworks, put machinery in, get the lamps shipped from Sheffield (packed in loam so they wouldn’t break), dig up the streets, put in the gas pipes from Figham all over town and put the street back (between June and October 1824).

"He missed the deadline by about two months – but he got them in by Christmas," said Prof English.

Before gaslighting, people used candles or "rather mucky torches" which smelt and could be dangerous.

The gas lamps stayed in use until the outbreak of the Second World War – some Beverlonians still remember the gaslighter, a trusted figure, who used to scoot up and down a ladder to do his job.

Street lights were turned off during the war for fear of helping enemy planes find their targets and afterwards they were electrified. Most councils threw away their lamps. But conservative Beverley kept them and still proudly boasts its lampposts, dated 1824, 1825 and 1826, with cast iron columns made at the Thorncliffe Works near Sheffield.

Many can be found in the area around the Minster, newly repainted in red and "Beverley green" and loaded with symbolism. The lamps used to be on Toll Gavel, but kept getting hit by trucks.

The lions stand for England while the olive branches signified peace. "England had been at war with France forever – 10 years after Waterloo they still remembered it,” said Prof English.

They are all Grade II listed, and bear the name of their makers – either Malam or William Crosskill. A local lad, Crosskill is better known for being an inventor and designer of agricultural machinery – he made clod crushers, threshing machines, drills and wagons. But he also turned his hand to making gas lamps from his ironworks in Mill Lane and supplied the first gas lights to Hamburg in 1844.

Heritage Open Days run from September 9 to 18. Professor Russell Thomas, acclaimed historian of gas, will be giving a talk at 11am and 2pm on Saturday on the origins and development of gas lights.

Visit www.heritageopendays.org.uk.

Heritage Open Days: How a Yorkshire market town still has the world's oldest gas lamps after 200 years