Princess Diana in the Black Country
Bugle reader JOHN TRAFFORD continues his story of 400 years of glassmaking heritage in the Black Country
Moor Lane Glassworks. This is the first glassworks built in the Brierley Hill area but the date of building is unknown but believed to have been in 1724. It was built by Robert Honeybourne, who began his working life as a maltster. The glassworks stayed in the Honeybourne family until John Honeybourne went bankrupt in 1823.
The glassworks were then leased to Joseph Silvers and Joseph Stevens. In 1824/28 this partnership was joined by James Mills and traded as Silver, Mills and Stevens. Joseph Stevens died in 1846 and as he was not married he left Joseph Silvers in charge, who, when he retired handed the business to his two sons-in-law, William Stevens and Samuel Cox Williams in 1847, founding the firm Stevens and Williams.
By 1870 the cone was in poor condition, due to subsidence, so a new factory was built a quarter of a mile away from the old site, in North Street, Brierley Hill. The Moor Lane Glassworks was demolished.
** North Street Glassworks. Work started on this new glassworks in January and was completed in August 1870. It had a 12-pot frisbie furnace. What is interesting about this new works was that it was built further away from the canal than the old works, but it was next to the railway, which clearly meant the method of canal distribution was on the way out and the railways were coming in.
On September 7 that year, the old Moor Lane furnaces were put out. To celebrate the hundred or so workers were treated to a day’s outing to the Clent Hills.
In February Frederick Carder joined the firm as a 17-year-old draughtsman and designer. By February 1882 John Northwood had ben appointed works manager.
June 1925 saw the Duke and Duchess of York, later to become King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, visit the works. To mark this occasion a patent was taken out in 1826 for the firm to be known as Royal Brierley Crystal.
In 1949 Reginald Silver Williams-thomas reorganised the factory with the old cones and furnaces being demolished and replaced by more modern furnaces in a spacious building.
More royal visits were made. On St George’s Day, 1957, the Queen and Prince Philip paid a visit, followed on November 1, 1966, by Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, and Diana, Princess of Wales, on May 23, 1985.
Epsom Enterprises purchased the business in 1999, followed by the works closing in 2000. By January 2002 the firm reopened in Tipton Road, Dudley.
** Moor Lane Bottle Works. The date of building in unknown but it was well established by 1771, under the ownership of Thomas Seager, located on the western side of North Street. It was leased to Westwood and Moore, who traded in 1857 as Edward Westwood and Co., glass bottle manufacturers.
Edward Westwood, after losing his sister, who had been committed to an asylum in 1857, closed the works down. It was advertised for sale in 1900 but the final history of the bottle works is not known.
** Harts Hill Glassworks. Believed to have been started around 1875 by William Harrop and William Stevens, it stood at the far end of Vine Street. In 1888 it traded as William Harrop and Co. Sometime in 1910 George Carder, brother to Frederick, was appointed manager and created a style of glass called “Flambeau.”
Harrop’s business closed in 1916 but production appears to have carried on under James Round. In 1923 Round joined Lewis Lowe to form Dudley Drop Forging on the old glassworks site.
** Wallows Street Glassworks. Little is known about this glassworks other than it was late Victorian and stood on the west side of Dudley Road in Brierley Hill, where a footbridge crossed the Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway’s line.
It is shown on a map of 1884 but its proprietors are not known. It is believed to have manufactured flower stands, engraved and etched vases in ruby glass, decorated with applied acanthus leaves in crystal. A 1901 map shows the glassworks as disused and they were demolished in the early part of 1950.
** Round Oak Glassworks. This was another Victorian glassworks that stood on the north side of Dudley Road, just north of the Round Oak railway station. In 1910 it had its own railway siding, which possibly carried coal from the Baggeridge pits.
The first reference to the glassworks is from a dispute in 1883 which led to lockout. The firm traded as Smart Brothers Round Oak Glassworks, manufacturers of fancy glassware, cut, etched and engraved tableware. A change of ownership took place in 1894, to Arthur Pearson, with his brother Harry running the firm and in 1928 trading as H. Pearson and Co.
In 1959 the disused cone was still standing but it is now demolished, date unknown.
** Grafton’s Glassworks, Silver End. It is not certain when this cone was built, or the name of the builder. It has been suggested the date was 1796, as a list of glassworks shows this works as Coltman and Grafton in that year. The cone was an immense and unusual bellshaped dome and was a local landmark.
It is shown on an 1803 map as Coltman and Grafton and it is known to have been run by William Grafton. Sometime between 1802 and 1810 William Haden Richardson joined the firm. In 1882 the site was occupied by William Bailey and Co., who turned it into an iron foundry, called Bailey and Pegg, later the Hayseech Foundry. The date of demolition of the cone is not known but council houses were built near the foundry in 1947.
** Delph Bottle Works. James Wright ran this bottle glassworks that was built, date not known, at the Delph, now known as Silver End. It was built on the north bank of the Stourbridge Canal and traded as James Wright and Co., employing 33 men, 12 boys and four girls. On November 30, 1893, a terrible accident happened, killing two men. They were Arthur Ryder and Enoch Oliver. They were underneath a siemen tank investigating a leak when the base of the tank collapsed into the tunnel and the men became overwhelmed by molten glass.
Wright and Co. went into receivership in 1900 and the glassworks closed down and was demolished.