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Chance Glass Factory

Viv

Forgot to mention that I asked about the photos of the 1954 building. Mark said it definitely wasn't the main site, and was probably at the London offices
 
Visited Chance factory (what is left of it ) yeaterday. you will see from my photos what a mess iot is at the moment, buy hopefully will be restored to soemthing useful and a monumment to our heritage. We met outside the old chance school, which was by where the original main gate was. The building attached near the camera was originally the headmaster's house, and later became the gatekeeper's house. On it is a war memorial.Following that are photos approaching the factory and then some inside and from the windows. The windows were very dirty, which affected the quality of the inage, though i have tried to tart them up a bit. I took a lot more than are on here, but give a selection.DSCN1433a.jpg

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and again. The site had a very friendly dog there. He belongs to the caretaker , who has an apartment on the ground floor. I say friendly, but that is not true for skip lorries that pass from the firm which is at present on the site (illegally) and is to be forced out (hopefully) in November by an enforcement order. The dog does not like these and barks furiously at them. After the frip round the building, we went on a walk on the canals round the site . You will notice that some of the windows in the outbuildings are bricked in. This was to give extra support to the walls , as it was feared that the weight of glass sheet stored in them would be to much for them to support.
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I went on a guided tour of the old Chances Glass factory on Thursday. This was part of this weekends heritage open days. Just derelict buildings but very interesting.
 
i did the tour this morning...very informative and interesting and mark davies was a very good guide...great to see the black country yet again doing their best to preserve their heritage...good luck to them:)

lyn
 
What a daunting project Mike. Hope it all works out for them.

And a very nice clock and tower - first pic post #42.

There's irony in there that a glass factory has some windows blocked up (albeit to prop up the building). Viv
 
Back in the 1960s I was working for Henry Hope & Sons, metal window manufacturers, in Smethwick. I think we were doing the frames and Chances did the glass for a lighthouse. In a spare part of one of our buildings we constructed the fully assembled top of a lighthouse. I think it was to test it all out before shipping somewhere the other side of the world.
 
Not quite the same place as when I used to visit on business. However, as posted previously, Chance Glass Ltd are still going strong in Malvern, and I supplied them with high temperature-resistant materials for handling hot glass. There is still a market for precision Pyrex tubes and optically-pure components such as medical slides.

One of Chance's major markets was for TV tubes, and a couple of managers set up their own company making the rear connectors for tubes, also in Oldbury. I can't remember the name of this company, even though I supplied them (!), but they no longer exist as cathode-ray tube TV's are a thing of the past. I always liked working in and with the glass industry, and my first 'proper' job was as a technologist at Triplex Safety Glass Co, Kings Norton.

G
 
We've just had a few days in Lincolnshire and whilst there visited the aircraft museum at East Kirkby. At the back of one of the hangars was one of Chance's contributions to the war effort.
 

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Sorry, I took these on my phone and can't get them the right way up. They're fine on my laptop but not when posted on the forum. Frustrating!
 
You're welcome Lyn. There's a huge 'antique' village just outside where we were staying. They had several Chance handkerchief vases but quite dear I thought - still looking for another bargain.
 
Thanks for correcting the photos Mike, however, there were two different views of the light - could you alter the one below please? Thanks.
 

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Sorry, I did correct both on my coputer, but then put the same one back twice. It is now corrected
 
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