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Aston Glass Works (circa 1810)

Thylacine

Thylacine

master brummie
Here are two remarkable pictures of the Aston Flint Glass Works as seen about 1810. The proprietors were Brueton and William Gibbins, members of a large and prosperous Birmingham Quaker family.

[Source: Emma Gibbins (editor). Records of the Gibbins Family. Birmingham: by Cornish Brothers, 1911.]
 

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Facinating post Thylacine. I have looked through your link with great interest and will study more later. The Bevington family are of interest which I presume is where the road in Aston where my family lived got it's name.
 
Thanks, Wendy. The book contains a wealth of 18th and 19th century family history and some lovely illustrations. Surnames include: Aggs, Bassett, Beckitt, Bevington, Bowly, Brueton, Cadbury, Clarance, Fox, Galton, Gibbins, Gillett, Hyatt, Leonard, Lovell, Lowe, Stanley, Thomson, Tregelles, Tunstall.
 
Not connected to the glassworks , Thylacine, but from that interesting book, there also is the picture of Digbeth House, home (at an earlier time) of Thomas Gibbins and his wife (ex- Emma Cadbury). it is described by the book as being next to the Birmingham battery , where Thomas was MD. Looking at the 1889 map below, it must have been in front of the works. you can see the house set back with steps at front door, gateway to the left and a wing coming to the street next to that.
mike

map_c_1889_birm_battery__digbeth_house.JPG


digbeth_house.JPG
 
Great find, Thylacine & fascinating. I see that there are lots of references to locations so I'll be reading the book with close scrutiny. There may still be some of the properties surviving, though I have still to check. The house at Banbury would have been close to Banbury Cross.
Thank you for the picture & map, Mike. Its always good to know a location.
 
Looking for the Gibbins glass works:
1818 Gibbins B. and W. Aston Glass Works
1830 Gibbins, Brothers, cut, flint, & window glass manufacturers, Baggot-st
1841 Gibbins Bros , merchants, are listed as at the Aston Glass works, Bagot ST. 1849 Bagot st Crown & Sheet Glass Co is unnumbered but listed next to Gibbins Bros, merchants, 6 Bagot St
1855 Gibbins Bros, merchants, 6 Bagot St

Therefore I think it reasonable to conclude that the Aston Glass Works were behind what was in 1849 no 6 Bagot st. The street was renumbered around 1858, but this site is on the north side close to the junction with what was then Aston road. The entire works seems to have gone by 1889, so we cannot be exact, but it was wthin the green region on the map (NOT the whole area)
Mike
 
Thanks, as always, Mike for shedding light. Sadly I think the building that now stands on the site looks like a container design inspired monstrosity.
Bagot St pictures are uncommon, but here is a view of No 6 Court 1903:
 

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No 6 court was on the same side of thr street, further to the west .the end of the court is shown on the map above just below where it says cardiff wharf
Mike
 
Thanks for your contributions, and welcome Lyn.

One thing I would like to know is the earlier history of the glass works. From the Gibbins book, it would seem that Brueton Gibbins was operating the works for some time before his brother William became a partner. But was the glass works there before Brueton Gibbins took over, or did he build it?
 
Thanks for that interesting reference, Bordesley.

Presumably by "Brueton, Gibbons and Williams" they mean "Brueton and William Gibbins". The previous proprietor's name "Jones, Smart and Co" led me to these slightly earlier pictures (from James Bisset's Magnificent Guide or Grand Copper Plate Directory for the Town of Birmingham of 1808), at the excellent Revolutionary Players website. There is a "zoomify" option. The caption is worth copying here:
One of several glass houses in Birmingham. The exterior view of Jones and Smart's Glass House is dominated by the glasshouse cone, a huge brick structure, from which smoke emerges. The cone served as a giant chimney, creating an updraught for the furnace. The interior view of the cone shows the furnace and glassmakers at work. Glass was melted inside clay pots and the glassblowers inserted their irons into the furnace to withdraw the molten glass. A boy on the left, called a teaser, feeds coals into the furnace. Next to him the servitor is blowing glass to create the bowl of a wineglass. On the right, the footmaker roughly forms a lump of molten glass on his iron. Close to the furnace, the senior workman, the gaffer, is seated at the glassmaker’s chair. He shapes small lumps of glass brought to him by the footmaker to create the stem and foot of the wineglass. The gaffer also connected the stem and bowl. The glass had to be kept at a high temperature to enable it to be soft and workable and would therefore have to be reheated. When finished it was taken to an annealing chamber. This was a long tunnel where heat was maintained at different temperatures through which glass was drawn so that it could be cooled very slowly. The glass could then be engraved and cut.​
 
What a wonderful description on early glass production Thylacine. I love glassware and the manufacture has always fascinated me. The best glass blowing I ever saw was in Germany the man was on a stage with his furnace and he produced the most amazing glass. Shame I had no idea what he was saying! I love Brierly crystal sadly no longer around.
I was amazed at how plate glass was produced by Chance Glass an amazing innovation as before widows were bulls eye glass.
 
Thanks, Wendy. I'm certainly finding the topic fascinating.

Chance Brothers and Co (Spon Lane, Smethwick) was established in 1824 by brothers (Robert) Lucas Chance (1782-1865) and William Chance (1788-1856) and became one of Great Britain's leading glass makers. William's grandson James Timmins Chance (1814-1902) registered seven glass making patents in the period 1838-1852. There are numerous BHF threads on this company (including one of yours, Wendy). Just search on "Chance Glass". See also the Chance Glass website by author (and BHF member) David Encill.

Another Birmingham glass maker was William T Gillinder (circa 1821-1871), who was the Central Secretary of the Flint Glass Makers' Friendly Society in the period 1851-1854. In the latter year he emigrated to the US, where he established the Franklin Flint Glass Works at Philadelphia in 1861.

Some books on the Birmingham glass trade (sadly no e-texts located so far):
William Costen Aitken. Glass Manufacturers of Birmingham and Stourbridge. Birmingham, 1851.
William T Gillinder. Treatise on the Art of Glass Making. Birmingham: by S Russell for the Author, 1851 (second edition 1854).
Francis Buckley. The Birmingham Glass Trade 1740-1833. Sheffield: Society of Glass Technology, 1927.​
And here's a useful webpage: The Dragon's Glassory: A Glossary of Glass Terms.
 
my grandad worked at chance glass..used to cycle there every day and bring back bits and pieces for our nan..alas none of these pieces are remain with the family...there is a thread for this company on the forum if anyone is interested..

lyn
 
Wendy said:
What a wonderful description on early glass production Thylacine. I love glassware and the manufacture has always fascinated me. The best glass blowing I ever saw was in Germany the man was on a stage with his furnace and he produced the most amazing glass. Shame I had no idea what he was saying! I love Brierly crystal sadly no longer around.
I was amazed at how plate glass was produced by Chance Glass an amazing innovation as before widows were bulls eye glass.
Click to expand...
Hello again,my late wife loved glass, about four or five years ago we went to Tutbury glass and watched
them blowing, is that the word? I dont think it is still going, Bernie
 
A picture of another Birm glass works.
(Replacement)
 

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Thomas Harman. Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham. Birmingham: Cornish Brothers, [1885].
Glass. — In the reign of Henry VI [1422-1461] the commonest kind of glass was sold at 2s the foot, a shilling in those days being of as much value as a crown of today. The earliest note we can find of glass being made here is the year 1785, when Isaac Hawker built a small glasshouse behind his shop at Edgbaston Street. His son built at Birmingham Heath on the site now occupied by Lloyd and Summerfield. In 1798 Messrs Shakespeare and Johnston had a glasshouse in Walmer Lane. Pressed glass seems to have been the introduction of Rice Harris about 1832, though glass "pinchers" (eleven of them) are named in the directory of 1780. In 1827 plate-glass sold at 12s per foot and in 1840 at 6s, ordinary sheet-glass being then 1s 2d per foot. There was a duty on plate-glass prior to April 5, 1845, of 2s 10½d per foot. The "patent plate" was the invention of Mr James Chance, and Chance Brothers ... are the only manufacturers in this country of glass for lighthouse purposes ...​
 
An important early Birmingham glass maker was Meyer (or Mayer) Oppenheim (or Opnaim), who came from Pressburg in Hungary (modern Bratislava in Slovakia). On 28 November 1755, while living in London, he secured a patent for "red transparent glass". Perhaps as early as 1757, but definitely by 1762, he established the first glass works in Birmingham at 94 Snow Hill. After registering additional patents in 1764, 1769 and 1770, he appears to have encountered financial difficulties. In 1777, the London Gazette records his bankruptcy, which dragged on until at least 1780. Oppenheim is last heard of in and around Rouen in France in the period 1783-1789. His son Nathaniel Oppenheim may have continued to trade in Birmingham.

Can anyone discover anything further about this pioneer Birmingham glass maker?
 
Hi All,

I remember, as a bobby on the beat in the 1950s, there was a glass blowers, as we called it. in Phillips Street, Aston almost at the junction with Aston Road North. It was a favourite put up on night duty as it was the warmest place in Aston. I never did know the proper name but perhaps someone with access to a Kellys in the 1950s could come up with what it was. If I remember correctly they were blowing bottles of some sort.
Old Boy
 
Thanks for that, Aidan. There are many mysteries out there ...

A search of the Eighteenth Century Journals (ECJ) database (newspapers and periodicals 1685-1815) yields nothing relevant on "Oppenheim" or "Opnaim" (his Birmingham moniker). The Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) database yields hundreds for references to "Oppenheim": I'll have to narrow my search down. ECCO does give two relevant (but not very informative) snippets for "Opnaim":
[1] Swinney's New Birmingham Directory (c 1774):
Opnaim, Meyer, Merchant, 94, Snow Hill.​
[2] The London Magazine (June 1777):
BANKRUPTS ... Mayer Oppenheim, otherwise Opnaim, late of Birmingham, glassmaker.​
[ECJ and ECCO are huge resources which I am still only learning to navigate. Access is kindly provided free of charge by my National Library of Australia "reader's card". Available to anyone with a residential address in Australia. Now I just happen to have a shed in my back yard which I might be willing to rent out ... ;)]
 
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Good to have your input, Aidan. We have been poorer without your contributions.
Where is Swinney's New Birmingham Directory available? I am aware of the Bissetts picture of Swinneys, but that is all. Thanks for the alert Thylacine.
 
Well thank 'e BordesleyExile <tugs beret affectionately> it is good to be unshackled again, I was getting to enjoy it. Your kind, supportive words answers my own question as to why I spend my time on here.

A vanilla google search turns up a few glimpses:
* One of the last patents granted in France under the ancien regime was to a certain Meyer Oppenheim(er) 'de Bermingham,' in 1789, for an improved method of glass manufacture. The link also explores some of his possible family https://www.deaneroadcemetery.com/biographies.htm#Oppenheim
* Mayer Oppenheim was born in Pressburg (then a town in Hungary), Mayer appears importantly in the annals of English glassmaking as the inventor of red (ruby) glass, for which he was granted a patent by King George II in 1755....Later, Mayer Oppenheim opened a second business in London, where he received a second patent for ruby (garnet) glass from George III. He still identified himself as "Mayer Oppenheim, of Birmingham in the county of Warwick.... https://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp006-5_glass.htm

I wonder if the various patents are available online? There were not many Jewish families in Birmingham at that time and I wonder if he played a part in setting up the Synagogue in the Froggary (I love that name) around 1783 (although being bancrupt can't have helped)?
 
The expert on the hisory of Birmingham & Midlands glass is D N Sandiland, but I have been unable to find any of his books for sale. An earlier article which predate Sandilands is Birmingham Glas Works in Household Words 1852. I know its a long shot but perhaps someone else can find access.
 
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