The history of the cones: Wordsley
Dobs Hill Glassworks, Buckpool. Thought to be the first glasshouse built in the Wordsley area, it stood on the north side of Brierley Hill Road, opposite Dock Road. When built, the area was known as Bugpool.
It is reported that the first occupier in 1710 was Windsor James and James and Thomas Compson worked the glassworks until they went bankrupt in 1723. However, Windsor James carried on at Dobs Hill until his death in 1729, after which there is nothing written about the glassworks until 1776, when Sarah Glazebrook was the lease occupier, as well as occupier of the Audnam Glassworks, the owner being Robert Honeybourne.
Benjamin Richardson wrote, “That the Madam Glazebrook would sit in her bedroom window with an hour glass and time her workers’ shifts.” It is believed that a flagstone with their story written on it is buried on Dobs Hill but folklore has it that under this flagstone Madam Glazebrook’s spirit lives.
The cone collapsed sometime around 1800, after which the Glazebrooks built a new cone on the Stourbridge Canal side. The location remained a mystery until redevelopment of land between the Stourbridge Canal and the River Stour in 1993 uncovered the remains of the cone of the west side of the canal.
** Flint Glassworks. The date of building is not known, but the cone is marked on a 1774 map. It stood on the west side of the Wolverhamptonstourbridge road, on the banks of the Stourbridge Canal. It is thought that it was owned by John Hill and built by Mr Guest, a mason who lived at Wordsley Green.
In 1781 Hill employed local furnace builder Joseph Richardson to build a new 10-pot furnace. Hill sold the works to Richard Bradley in August 1782, whose brother-in-law was George Ensell. In 1792 Bradley installed a steam engine to power the cutting wheels in the decorating shop and he had permission to take water out of the canal to supply the steam engine.
When Richard Bradley died in 1796 he left the glassworks to his sister Kitty and niece Lucy Mary Ensell in trust. It was ultimately to be divided between themselves and his nephews Charles Ensell and Richard Bradley Ensell. Charles was appointed manager. Six weeks after the will was proved Lucy Mary married John Holt, who took over her responsibility in the business. The business traded as Bradley, Ensell and Holt.
In 1802 the first open and shut mould was invented by an employee, Charles Chubsee. As he could not afford to patent his invention, it was soon widely used in glassworks..
In 1810 glass making was discontinued at the Flint Works and they were transformed to manufacture Bilston steel. In 1827 George William Wainwright purchased the steelworks and returned them to glass making. Benjamin Richardson was appointed manager and the furnaces were relit in July 1828. In 1829 Wainwright sold the lease to Richardson and his brother William Haden Richardson. Thomas Webb joined the company in December that year. When Webb’s father died in 1835 Thomas inherited his share in the White House Cone. By December 1836 Webb had broken up the partnership to concentrate his efforts at the White House, younger brother Jonathan joined the Richardsons and they traded as W.H.B. & J. Richardson. However, in February 1852 the firm was declared insolvent and the glassworks closed.
They reopened in 1853 under the management of Benjamin Richardson, who formed a partnership with his nephews Philip Pargeter and William James Hodgetts.
In 1930 the Webb Crystal Glass Company of the Dennis Glassworks purchased the firm. Blanks from the Dennis works were finished off at the Wordsley works until 1934, then the buildings were idle. In 1945 Ronald Christiansen wanted the cone demolished so he could sell the bricks, as bricks were in short supply after the Second World War. He employed a large demolition company who put scaffolding up on the inside of the cone. When the workmen arrived, they took one look at the precarious state of the cone and immediately left the site. So, one Sunday morning, local man Bill Aston, with explosive and precision, brought down the whole cone, at a cost of £25. Christiansen still wanted to make some money by selling the bricks, so German and Italian prisoners of war were brought from the nearby camp at Bromley Lane to chip the bricks. It was then that Mr Christiansen discovered that the bricks were all hand made and shaped to form the circumference of the cone, with each course being smaller, to form the taper of the cone. For years the bricks were left in a pile,
The area where the cone stood is now occupied by Micron Engineering.
** White House Glassworks. Built on land belonging to Joshua Bradley, it does not appear on the 1774 map, so it is assumed to have been built sometime between 1779 and 1785. A smaller cone was built alongside the first sometime before 1812. It was built by Comber and Holt Raybould, who sold it to Bradley, Ensell and Holt in January 1819. It remained in the Ensell family until Sarah Ensell, sometime after 1833, let the glassworks to John Webb and John Shepherd, who traded as Shepherd and Webb.
By 1842 William Haden Richardson had purchased the White House and it was conveyed to William Haden, Benjamin and Jonathan Richardson. They built a wooden bridge over the canal to connect with the Flint Glassworks.
The Richardsons mortgaged the White House to William Webb jnr. in 1852, when the firm W.H.B & J. Richardson was insolvent. At the death of William Webb jnr., Edward Webb brought his sons into the business. He died in 1872, and was known not only as a glass manufacturer but also as a farmer and seed merchant.
In 1897, his son, Edward Webb, leased the glassworks to his distant cousins and they founded the firm Webb & Corbett.
On Tuesday, Marsh 31, 1914, a disastrous fire broke out. Webb & Corbett, instead of renovating the cone, moved to Coalbourn Hill Glassworks. Later in 1914, the site was leased to Stuart and Sons, who purchased the White House in 1916. Stuart and Sons renovated the 130-year-old cone. In 1936 they moved to their new glassworks, so work ceased at the White House. By 1939 the old cone had become unsafe and so was truncated. The underground tunnels were used during the Second World War as air raid shelters. It is believed that the White House and Red House cone were linked by a tunnel underneath the Stourbridge-wolverhampton road – while the logic of this theory can be seen, there is no evidence to support the theory.
The remaining White House cone was capped in 1969 and demolished in 1979. The site is now the home of the White House Cone Museum of Glass.
** Kinver Street Glassworks. Very little is known about these glassworks, believed to have been built around 1880. They stood on the west side of the Kinver Street junction with the High Street, close to where John Northwood was born. The building ran out of character with the 18th century glassworks, as it didn’t have a cone. In 1890 it was occupied by Webb, Shaw and Co., until 1892, when they moved to the Dial Glassworks. A 1901 map shows the glassworks as disused.
** Brewery Street Glassworks. In 1822 the Parrish family are reported to have been cutting glass here. Then the site contained a glasshouse, cutting shop, a corn mill, steam engine and a house with a garden. Frank Passey purchased the business sometime before 1881. He still traded as J. Parrish and Co., but soon ran into financial difficulties and in 1889 attempted to sell the business. Stevens and Williams purchased the name, goodwill and patterns and in October 1889 Samuel Elcock purchased the glassworks.
Little is known about Elcock, other than that he was glass cutter living at the Crown Inn, Wordsley and he was on the com