The Old Gas Works
Towards the bottom of Downpatrick Street and below the pillbox stood the old gasworks established in 1855 by Mr J M McClenehan of the Rathfriland Gaslight Company Ltd. The surrounding walls and adjacent residence can still be seen today.
Inside the walls stood a tall chimney stack and a large gasometer, long gone. Three retorts were kept at white heat in order to generate gas from the coal with which they were fed, and the purifiers through which the gas passed before being pumped by a gas engine into the gasometer. By-products of the industry were water and coke.
In 1881 John Watson was secretary and a Mr Picard was plant manager of the gas company. The houses in Rathfriland were lit by gas but there were no gas street lamps until 1897.
Gas was used in Rathfriland until it was replaced by electricity in 1926.