Topic: Crawfords Flint Glassworks of Bromsgrove

[Anne]

I've just picked up a reference to a glassworks I've not come across before and that isn't listed in Ivo Haanstra's, Miller's a-z glass fact file:

In the second half of the 19th century a glassworks operated from 22-26 Sidemoor, Bromsgrove. This was set up by two brothers, the sons of William Crawford a nailmaker at the rear of his house. The firm which traded as Crawfords Flint Glassworks specialised in cruet sets but also made lamp chimneys, ruby jugs with flint handles, cream jugs, vases and various fancy articles. Four furnaces are recorded. The business failed in 1897.

A hunt through the census gives the sons' names as William (junior) born 1860, occupation glass blower in 1881 (aged 21), and James born 1866, also occupation glass blower in 1881 (aged 15). By 1891 William (junior) appears to be a glass bottle maker employing people and James no longer making glass.  Sidemoor, then a small village on the outskirts of Bromsgrove, was a centre of nail production, so almost everyone worked in that trade from an outbuilding at the back of their cottage. The outbuilding contained a furnace for making the nails, so I wonder if the sons used that same furnace to practice their glass blowing trade?

I've not yet managed to find any more about their production, in fact Google only gives one reference for this glass works, which is the one where I found the info above, so it'll be interesting to see if anything else turns up to add more to the story of what was clearly a short-lived business, but with four furnaces so there should be something surviving from them (she said with crossed fingers).