Hi Judy, I managed to do this before going on holiday by merging my earlier notes with the articles kindly provided by MikeJee.
Park Glass Works, Spring Hill Birmingham
The Park Glass Works was possibly the first full-scale glassworks to be built in Birmingham and is therefore of great historical significance. It opened in 1788 on the Soho Loop of the Birmingham Canal in Spring Hill. It was built by Isaac Hawker
[1], who had previously traded as a glasscutter.
In 1772 Isaac advertised that he “
had moved out of Spiceal Street to no 14 Edgbaston Street, Birmingham where he had laid in a fresh assortment of cut and Plain GLASSS and a great variety of Smelling Bottles[2]” Then in 1778 Isaac Hawker, Glass Manufacturer advertised that he “
is removed from No 14 Edgbaston Street to No 14 New Street where he continues to sell, wholesale and retail a great variety of cut and plain glass[3]” The reference to him as “Glass Manufacturer” has led others to believe that he had built an earlier glassworks in 1778 before he built the Park Glass Works in 1788. I suggest this is flawed. It is commonplace for glass decorators in the 18th century to advertise themselves as glass manufacturers. Their view is that performing the intricate cutting that turns a dull glass blank into a thing of beauty is “manufacture”. Add to this that they were also extensively adding silver and silver plate accoutrements to their works of art; they would truly regard themselves as “manufacturers”. Furthermore, the address of No 14 New Street is clearly town-centre retail premises and not the site of a 100ft tall glassworks! The insurance record
[4] for the New Street premises dated 25 Nov 1788 describes Isaac as “silversmith and glass cutter”.
The Park Glass Works site was located on the Dudley Road, approximately one mile north-east of Birmingham City centre. It is bounded to the east by Heath Street South, to the west by Birmingham Canal Old Line and to the south by the Birmingham New Line Canal.
Its construction is 176 years after the glassmaking industry began at nearby Stourbridge, but Birmingham was booming in 1788 and Isaac Hawker obviously spotted a market opportunity once canals had come to Birmingham. Rather than buying blanks from the Stourbridge glassworks to decorate i.e., cut and retail, he developed a bold scheme to build his own glassworks in Birmingham.
Prior to the canals it would have been uneconomical to bring the heavy raw materials of sand, clay and coal to Birmingham by road. R.K. Dent wrote in 1879, “
Previous to Mr Hawker’s first attempt to manufacture glass in Birmingham in 1785, the Midland counties were supplied from Stourbridge, but before the end of the century, Birmingham glass was competing strongly with that of Stourbridge . . .[5]”
Isaac and his family were non-conformists, several of the family burials were at the Friends Burial Ground at Bull Street in Birmingham. The Society of Friends in Birmingham was at that time the spiritual home for many of Birmingham’s great entrepreneurs, manufacturers, bankers and scientists. It is almost inevitable that he raised capital to build the glasshouse from his Quaker brethren.
Isaac and his wife Sarah had five children: John
[6], Sarah
[7], Ann
[8], Mary
[9] and Isaac
[10]. As we follow the fortune of the business through newspaper announcements it is possible to track the family’s involvement.
The business traded as Isaac Hawker & Son. There are many references to the business in the National Archives including records in the Matthew Boulton Family Papers.
Isaac Hawker died in 1791
[11] and the business was continued by his oldest son John Hawker who carried on running the business.
About 1808-1810 John Hawker sold the glassworks to Biddle and Lloyd (John Biddle and David Lloyd) who used the works to produce stained and coloured glass.
If we track later generations of the family it appears that some returned to Isaac’s trade of retailing glass, while others pursued different trades.
By 26 February 1827 John Alfred Hawker
[12], merchant, dealer and chapman of Birmingham, grandson of Isaac Hawker was bankrupt
[13]. Then by 10 March 1831 he was back in business, this time as a maltster
[14]. There is nothing to suggest that he was involved in the glassmaking business.
Isaac Hawker’s second child Sarah Hawker had married Isaac Bedford in 1792 but he died in 1798, aged 30 so Sarah went into business with her son Isaac Hawker Bedford
[15]. In 1843 “
the partnership lately subsisting between Sarah Bedford and Isaac Hawker Bedford both of Birmingham, vendors of glass and chinaware heretofore carrying on under the firm of Sarah Bedford and Son was this day dissolved[16]”. Sarah Bedford then carried on the previous trade in her own right.
But it appears that Isaac Hawker Bedford had simply cut his mother’s apron strings and set up on his own because in 1846 Isaac Hawker Bedford of Birmingham obtained a patent for “
improvements in the manufacture of window and other glass[17]” The reference to window glass suggests that by then he was working as a glass maker, presumably in somebody else’s factory. Although it is possible that his improvements were discovered while operating as a glass decorator rather than a glass maker. An improvement in annealing comes to mind as an example of what it might have been. This is only one of many patents that he registered. Many more can be seen for glass dishes in the National Archives.
About 1835-1842 Biddle sold the glassworks to Lloyd & Summerfield.
1850 Lloyd & Summerfield made coloured vases shaped like the onion family.
1861 Lloyd & Summerfield apply the Siemens patent furnace to glass melting.
1870s glassworks closed.
1880 the glassworks were demolished and the site remained vacant until the Barker & Allen silverworks was built on the site in 1896.
2017 the entire area was scheduled for redevelopment by Galliard homes to build the “Soho Wharf” scheme of 750 new homes and apartments.
May 202 Oxford Archaeology was commissioned to undertake a comprehensive archaeological survey. This uncovered some remnant of the glassworks, but most of it had been erased by the building of the Barker and Allen silverworks
[18].
[1] Isaac Hawker, born about 1742, probably son of John Hawker and his wife Mary Holmes.
[2] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 8 Oct 1772.
[3] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 6 Oct 1788.
[4] London Metropolitan Archives, City of London, Records of Sun Fire Office.
[5] Robert Kirkup Dent,
Old and New Birmingham, Birmingham, 1879, p.343
[6] John Hawker, son of Isaac Hawker and his wife Sarah, b. 17 Jan 1764, Birmingham, m. Margaret Walker, 14 May 1787, Birmingham.
[7] Sarah Hawker, dau. Of Isaac Hawker and his wife Sarah, b. 13 Nov 1768, Birmingham, m. Isaac Bedford, 13 Jan 1792, Birmingham.
[8] Ann Hawker, dau. Of Isaac Hawker and his wife Sarah, b. 17 Sep 1771, Birmingham.
[9] Mary Hawker, dau. Of Isaac Hawker and his wife Sarah, b. 2 Feb 1774, Birmingham.
[10] Isaac Hawker, son of Isaac Hawker and his wife Sarah, b. 24 Apr 1776, Birmingham
[11] Isaac Hawker d. 18 November 1791, Birmingham, bur. 23 November 1791.
[12] John Alfred Hawker, son of John Hawker and his wife Margaret, nee Walker, b. 8 Nov 1792, Birmingham, d. 1839, Birmingham.
[13] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 26 Feb 1827 and
Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 30 June 1828.
[14] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 28 Mar 1831.
[15] Isaac Hawker Bedford, son of Isaac Bedford and his wife Sarah, nee Hawker, b. 30 July 1794, Birmingham; d. 1868, Birmingham.
[16] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 29 May 1843.
[17] Birmingham Journal, 3 Jan 1846.
[18] Oxford Archaeology,
Soho Loop, Dudley Road, Birmingham, Archaeological Evaluation Report”, June 2020