Our region’s heritage on the banks of the cut
OUR front page picture this week takes us back to the late 1950s and it shows a group of children walking along the towpath by the famouse Red House Glass Cone in Wordsley.
The photographer was standing on Dadford Bridge, which carries Bridge Street/mill Street over the Stourbridge Canal, and was looking towards Glasshouse Bridge and the busy A491.
On the left is the famous Red House Glass Works with its cone, now immortalised on the Black Country flag, and beyond it is the chimney stack of the Whitehouse Glass Works.
The Act of Parliament authorising the canal was passed in 1776 and the construction. by engineer Thomas Dadford and James Green, was complete by 1779.
The Red House Glass Cone was built between 1788 and 1794 by Richard Bradley. At 90ft high, it is the best preserved example in the UK.
Production at the cone ended in 1936 but it survived while neighbouring glass cones were demolished. It was grade II listed in 1966 and in the early ’80s the cone was restored and opened as a museum. There was further restoration, 2001-02, since when the cone has been part of Dudley Museum Service.