L
Last Chance
Guest
I have now finished the first of two books on Chance Brothers and it is currently published. This volume is called Chance Expressions and details the history of domestic glassware produced by the company and includes a concise catalogue of all the glass it produced.
The second volume, Chance Reflections, will cover the history of the company and the technologies it was involved with: lighthouses, optics, rolled-glass engineering. I also hope to include memories of former workers, so would value any information that can be provided. Most particularly, photographs would be really welcome - not necessarily of the works, but ones demonstrating the social side as well. Also any ephemera or magazines like Pilkington's Cullet News or the Chance in-house magazine, Chance Comments are of particular interest.
I am already in touch with Broadfield House and Smethwick Heritage Centre, and the people there have been most helpful. The latter's stock of Chance Comments is quite extensive, but there are a few gaps! Hopefully the Chance archives, currently at Pilkingtons at St Helens, will be "coming home" to Sandwell library very soon, so this will keep me very busy!
I am also in touch with Ray Drury (last Chief Engineer) and Tony Cartwright (general manager of the Fiesta department), Howard Cosnett (transport) and Geoff Bennett (Pensioners Club). Do these names ring a bell? Do you know anyone who used to work at Chance? Any information, no matter how irrelevant you may feel it is, could be of great interest to me.
I am also quite happy to talk to any collectors of Chance glass, and anyone is free to wander around my web site: www.chanceglass.net as it gives a small insight to what my aims are – feel free to contact me through the site e-mail address.
The second volume, Chance Reflections, will cover the history of the company and the technologies it was involved with: lighthouses, optics, rolled-glass engineering. I also hope to include memories of former workers, so would value any information that can be provided. Most particularly, photographs would be really welcome - not necessarily of the works, but ones demonstrating the social side as well. Also any ephemera or magazines like Pilkington's Cullet News or the Chance in-house magazine, Chance Comments are of particular interest.
I am already in touch with Broadfield House and Smethwick Heritage Centre, and the people there have been most helpful. The latter's stock of Chance Comments is quite extensive, but there are a few gaps! Hopefully the Chance archives, currently at Pilkingtons at St Helens, will be "coming home" to Sandwell library very soon, so this will keep me very busy!
I am also in touch with Ray Drury (last Chief Engineer) and Tony Cartwright (general manager of the Fiesta department), Howard Cosnett (transport) and Geoff Bennett (Pensioners Club). Do these names ring a bell? Do you know anyone who used to work at Chance? Any information, no matter how irrelevant you may feel it is, could be of great interest to me.
I am also quite happy to talk to any collectors of Chance glass, and anyone is free to wander around my web site: www.chanceglass.net as it gives a small insight to what my aims are – feel free to contact me through the site e-mail address.
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