Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: NazeingResearch on June 21, 2007, 11:00:15 AM
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Hello there, I'm new to the forum and have been trying to find as much information on Ravenhead glass as I possibly can. I was hoping someone here would be able to fill in the gaps; for such a large company there seems to be very little information about them.
What I have found so far (if any of this is incorrect please let me know!) Its the beginings of the company I am having a really hard time establishing and names, designers associated with Ravenhead.
1901: Ravenhead was bought out by Pilkingtons
1948: UNited Glass installed a new machine, the Westlake, made by Oewns-Illinois. The firm was now capable of producing huge amounts of glasses fully automatically. @Worthington', 'Paris' & 'Waterloo' designs first to be produced this way.
1964: United Glass closes Sherdley plant, all production moved to Ravenhead
1977: Company sales amount to £15 million
1987: United Glass/Ravenhead sold to Maerican Bottlemaker Libby
2000: Ravenhead sold to Durobor, owned by Belgian Regional Government of Wallonne Brabant
2001: 300 Jobs lost when firm closed in March, after falling into financial dificulties
2003: Rayware bought factory site and the Ravenhead name, continued to produce Ravenhead glass
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Anything left over will hopefully be revealed in Sheffield
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check out a copy of Lesley Jackson's "20th Century Factory Glass" - it has a three page article on Ravenhead.
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...also Andy McConnell's book '20th Century Glass' has an interesting 6 page article on Hardie Williamson you might enjoy.
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Cheers for the tips. I have a copy of 20th Century Glass, but it doesnt tell you anyhting about Ravenhead's early history. Luckily they have a copy of 20th century factory glass in a couple of libraries so I'll get that one out. THanks for your help
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You might also be interested to learn that Heidi is currently researching United Glass (Sherdley/Ravenhead) with a view to publishing a book at some point. We have also 'started' a web site (started = it has a menu! ;D) which is at:
www.sherdley-ravenhead.com
Naturally, any input would be most welcome. The dates look right to me, but I'll alert Heidi to this thread who has far more experience than me.
Designers of screen-printed designs from c.1955-1980 are Alexander Hardie Williamson, Annette Meech and John Clappison. We also have a forum for Slumped and Transfer printed gl;ass that you might like to explore for further information:
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/board,12.0.html
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Just out of curiosity, is there any reason for using the ID 'NazeingResearch'?
The reason I ask is because the Nazeing MD, Stephen Pollock-Hill, does frequent this board.
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You might also be interested to learn that Heidi is currently researching United Glass (Sherdley/Ravenhead) with a view to publishing a book at some point. We have also 'started' a web site (started = it has a menu! ;D) which is at:
www.sherdley-ravenhead.com
Naturally, any input would be most welcome. The dates look right to me, but I'll alert Heidi to this thread who has far more experience than me.
Designers of screen-printed designs from c.1955-1980 are Alexander Hardie Williamson, Annette Meech and John Clappison. We also have a forum for Slumped and Transfer printed gl;ass that you might like to explore for further information:
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/board,12.0.html
I spent about 10 minutes yesterday looking through the source file on that site trying to find the pages thinking they were just broken links! Haha. Will post again when I find out more, and probabaly pick your brains at some stage too. Cheers for the help (and the pointer not to try the website again until its finished, doh)
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Hi, NazeingResearch.
As David says, I've been delving into the history of United Glass/ Sherdley/ Ravenhead. My interest started with the screen-printed tumblers designed for Sherdley and then Ravenhead by Alexander Hardie Williamson. You can see my ever-expanding collection in the Glass Gallery at http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/thumbnails.php?album=254 (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/thumbnails.php?album=254).
The company history is incredibly complex, but the following is my current best understanding:
1913 - six bottle manufacturers in and around St Helens (Nuttall & Co, Alfred Alexander & Co Ltd, E Brefflit, Robert Candlish, Cannington Shaw, and Moore & Nettlefield) merge to create United Glass Bottle Manufacturers Limited. The merger enables the six factories to pool resources to purchase new automatic bottle-making machinery from the US glass manufacturer Owens-Illinois.
1932 - UGB installs new American automatic tableware machines, two pressing machines and a machine for making thin blown tumblers, at the former Cannington Shaw site in Sherdley. Begins making tableware under the trademark Sherdley Ware.
1948 - UGB installs Westlake machine, made by Libbey division of US bottle-maker Owens-Illinois, fully automating production of stemware at Ravenhead.
1959 - UGB renamed United Glass. Producing a third of all container glass made in the UK.
1964 - Sherdley works closed. Tableware production moves to Ravenhead factory; bottle production to new factory at adjacent Peasley site.
1987 - United Glass bought by Owens-Illinois. Ravenhead becomes part of Libbey St Clair, a Canadian branch of Libbey Glass.
1990 - Ravenhead factory sold to Rand & Simoni.
1992 - Ravenhead acquired by Bankers Trust and then bought by Belgian glassmakers Durobor.
late 1990s - Ravenhead the largest manufacturer of table glass in the UK, employing about 1,100 people, exporting to over 100 countries, and producing up to 100 million glasses a year.
1999 - Ravenhead goes into administration.
2000 - Ravenhead brand acquired by the Rayware Group.
2001 - Ravenhead factory closes, making 300 staff redundant. Most are over 50 and are told that they will receive only statutory redundancy pay, and that they will have their pensions reduced by about 20 per cent, as the pension scheme contained a £5 million black hole. Machinery shipped to Zhuhai on the south China coast.
2003 - Rayware Group announce purchase of the former Ravenhead site, which it intends to use to revitalise the Ravenhead brand, re-branding pint pots and other traditional glasses with the Ravenhead name. It hopes to create 200 new jobs at the site.
2007 - Rayware marketing glasses, ovenware and vacuum flasks under the Ravenhead brand.
I have some information about the firms which combined to form UGB, but nothing like a complete picture. I think the connection with Pilkingtons is rather earlier than your information suggests: in 1872, Nuttall & Co sold their factory at Ravenhead to Pilkington Brothers and transferred production to a new factory with gas-fired furnaces on a thirteen acre site at Ravenhead.
The United Glass container operation continues to this day as a subsidiary of Owens-Illinois. The United Glass name was kept until 2005, when it changed to O-I as part of a global re-branding of Owens-Illinois. The Peasley Cross factory in St Helens closed in 1999 and production concentrated at Alloa, Scotland and Harlow, Essex.
As David says, the principal designer associated with Sherdley/ Ravenhead is Alexander Hardie Williamson, who worked for them from 1944 until his retirement in 1974. Thereafter, designers included John Clappison (best known as a ceramicist working for Hornsea Pottery and later Royal Doulton), who worked for Ravenhead from 1972 to 1976; Annette Meech, still working as a studio glassmaker, who worked for Ravenhead from 1972 to 1983; and David Queensbury of the Queensbury Hunt design partnership, who was head of ceramics at the Royal College of Art.
There is, as you say, very little published material on Sherdley/ Ravenhead. In addition to the books mentioned by Max and Ivo, there is some more information about AHW's work in a leaflet produced by Broadfield House Glass Museum to accompany their 1996 exhibition Slim Jims and Tubbies. There is also a chapter on Sherdley/ Ravenhead in British Table and Ornamental Glass, L M Angus-Butterworth, 1956. John Clappison's designs for Ravenhead are covered in a new biography by Pauline Coyle: http://www.hornsea-pottery.co.uk (http://www.hornsea-pottery.co.uk). If you've found other sources, I'd be very interested to hear about them.
Hope this helps - and apologies for the length of this posting!
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Anything left over will hopefully be revealed in Sheffield
???
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Just out of curiosity, is there any reason for using the ID 'NazeingResearch'?
The reason I ask is because the Nazeing MD, Stephen Pollock-Hill, does frequent this board.
Better keep myself in check then, thats my boss! Im working at Nazeing doing research for the soon to be opened glass museum. I am surrounded by books, piled high on my desk, and I have access to registration records of most county's in Britain, but it still isnt enough sometimes, as with Ravenhead. Obviously I need more books at my side, which thanks to the help I received here are on their way as we speak
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Many thanks - I have corresponded with Stephen a few times and have offered to help with this venture: my speciality is Chance glass. Do let me know if I can help in any other way - e-mail if you prefer.
Please pass my regards on :D
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Hi, NazeingResearch.
As David says, I've been delving into the history of United Glass/ Sherdley/ Ravenhead. My interest started with the screen-printed tumblers designed for Sherdley and then Ravenhead by Alexander Hardie Williamson. You can see my ever-expanding collection in the Glass Gallery at http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/thumbnails.php?album=254 (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/thumbnails.php?album=254).
The company history is incredibly complex, but the following is my current best understanding:
1913 - six bottle manufacturers in and around St Helens (Nuttall & Co, Alfred Alexander & Co Ltd, E Brefflit, Robert Candlish, Cannington Shaw, and Moore & Nettlefield) merge to create United Glass Bottle Manufacturers Limited. The merger enables the six factories to pool resources to purchase new automatic bottle-making machinery from the US glass manufacturer Owens-Illinois.
1932 - UGB installs new American automatic tableware machines, two pressing machines and a machine for making thin blown tumblers, at the former Cannington Shaw site in Sherdley. Begins making tableware under the trademark Sherdley Ware.
1948 - UGB installs Westlake machine, made by Libbey division of US bottle-maker Owens-Illinois, fully automating production of stemware at Ravenhead.
1959 - UGB renamed United Glass. Producing a third of all container glass made in the UK.
1964 - Sherdley works closed. Tableware production moves to Ravenhead factory; bottle production to new factory at adjacent Peasley site.
1987 - United Glass bought by Owens-Illinois. Ravenhead becomes part of Libbey St Clair, a Canadian branch of Libbey Glass.
1990 - Ravenhead factory sold to Rand & Simoni.
1992 - Ravenhead acquired by Bankers Trust and then bought by Belgian glassmakers Durobor.
late 1990s - Ravenhead the largest manufacturer of table glass in the UK, employing about 1,100 people, exporting to over 100 countries, and producing up to 100 million glasses a year.
1999 - Ravenhead goes into administration.
2000 - Ravenhead brand acquired by the Rayware Group.
2001 - Ravenhead factory closes, making 300 staff redundant. Most are over 50 and are told that they will receive only statutory redundancy pay, and that they will have their pensions reduced by about 20 per cent, as the pension scheme contained a £5 million black hole. Machinery shipped to Zhuhai on the south China coast.
2003 - Rayware Group announce purchase of the former Ravenhead site, which it intends to use to revitalise the Ravenhead brand, re-branding pint pots and other traditional glasses with the Ravenhead name. It hopes to create 200 new jobs at the site.
2007 - Rayware marketing glasses, ovenware and vacuum flasks under the Ravenhead brand.
I have some information about the firms which combined to form UGB, but nothing like a complete picture. I think the connection with Pilkingtons is rather earlier than your information suggests: in 1872, Nuttall & Co sold their factory at Ravenhead to Pilkington Brothers and transferred production to a new factory with gas-fired furnaces on a thirteen acre site at Ravenhead.
The United Glass container operation continues to this day as a subsidiary of Owens-Illinois. The United Glass name was kept until 2005, when it changed to O-I as part of a global re-branding of Owens-Illinois. The Peasley Cross factory in St Helens closed in 1999 and production concentrated at Alloa, Scotland and Harlow, Essex.
As David says, the principal designer associated with Sherdley/ Ravenhead is Alexander Hardie Williamson, who worked for them from 1944 until his retirement in 1974. Thereafter, designers included John Clappison (best known as a ceramicist working for Hornsea Pottery and later Royal Doulton), who worked for Ravenhead from 1972 to 1976; Annette Meech, still working as a studio glassmaker, who worked for Ravenhead from 1972 to 1983; and David Queensbury of the Queensbury Hunt design partnership, who was head of ceramics at the Royal College of Art.
There is, as you say, very little published material on Sherdley/ Ravenhead. In addition to the books mentioned by Max and Ivo, there is some more information about AHW's work in a leaflet produced by Broadfield House Glass Museum to accompany their 1996 exhibition Slim Jims and Tubbies. There is also a chapter on Sherdley/ Ravenhead in British Table and Ornamental Glass, L M Angus-Butterworth, 1956. John Clappison's designs for Ravenhead are covered in a new biography by Pauline Coyle: http://www.hornsea-pottery.co.uk (http://www.hornsea-pottery.co.uk). If you've found other sources, I'd be very interested to hear about them.
Hope this helps - and apologies for the length of this posting!
Wow thats impressive, and very helpful, so thank you! In reply to you other post, Sheffield holds the Turner glass museum, the Frank Wood Library and The British Glass library, which will hopefully help fill in any holes I have left in my research. Will make sure I get as much as I can on Raven head and get back to you if I find anything of interest :)
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Many thanks - I have corresponded with Stephen a few times and have offered to help with this venture: my speciality is Chance glass. Do let me know if I can help in any other way - e-mail if you prefer.
Please pass my regards on :D
Stephen has mentioned you on a couple of occasions (always in a good light), so its nice to meet you myself. He mentioned your website, which I will have to visit. If its no trouble I would like to email you the short summary of chance I have when it is finished, just in case there is anything important that should be included, or any mistakes within it. Anyway, thats when the time comes.
Will cathc you elsewhere on the board sometime
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No problem - Stephen did mention this in an earlier mail.
Finally, Broadfield House, as Heidi mentioned, is worth contacting:
http://www.dudley.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/museums--galleries/glass-museum
They basically did a house clearance at AHW's house after he died and to give you an idea of the task facing Heidi:
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-7590
:o ;D :o
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Sorry, David's right, I should definitely have mentioned the AHW collection at Broadfield House.
St Helens World of Glass (http://www.worldofglass.com/museumonline.asp (http://www.worldofglass.com/museumonline.asp)) also has some items: UGB bottles and jars, collection of trade samples of United Glass tableware produced in 1935 (bowls, dishes, cup, sherry glass, plant pot and saucer, trays, vases), Ravenhead items from 70s/ 80s (mainly promotional and commemorative ware) donated following closure of Nuttall Street manufacturing plant in March 2001.
One other publication I should have mentioned is The Ravenhead Company Story – Glassmakers since 1842, produced by the company in 1997. I've been searching for a copy for a while without success - I suspect it would have been a very small print run. But might be worth asking your Sheffield contacts if they've come across it.
I understand that the United Glass company records from 1856-1976 are held at Hertfordshire county archives (www.hertsdirect.org/libsleisure/heritage1/HALS (http://www.hertsdirect.org/libsleisure/heritage1/HALS)) - along with Broadfield House, high on my hit list of places to go when I can clear some time for archive research.
Can you say a bit more about the Nazeing glass museum? It sounds really interesting.
Do get in touch, either here or by e-mail (click on the envelope under my name) if you've got any further questions about UG/ Sherdley/ Ravenhead and I'll do my best to answer.
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Welcome to the GMB. In case you've not seen it, you might find the recent Archive forum topic Della, take a bow--- Glass Archives info. (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,14217.0.html) by Marcus of interest.
... Sheffield holds ... the Frank Wood Library ...
I've been identifying some Wood Bros' pressed glass products (other than eyebaths and baby feeders which are quite well known) by the alphanumeric punch fonts used by their mouldmaker(s). Prior to your comment, I didn't even know if the Wood Bros' archives had survived. It would be useful to me to check my findings against this material. Grateful thanks for that.
Also on the subject of Wood Bros, I visited the little museum at Elsecar last year, and found it attractive and interesting. You might find it useful for layout and display ideas.
Bernard C. 8)
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Hello, this is my first post on this forum. You state that the United Glass Sherdley plant closed in 1964. This is not the case. I was appointed Furnace Superintendent for the UG sherdley plant in 1967 when there were three furnaces in production, 25 shop produced amber glass and nos 26 and 27 produced green glass. 26 shop was using an Owens rotary vacuum machine to produce Gordons Gin bottles. The last time I saw that machine it was in the Birmingham science museum. I was later Works Chemist of both the Sherdley and Peasley Plants until I left the company in 1976 when Sherdley was still in operation. Hope this info is helpful
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Thank-you for taking the time and trouble to join the board to pass this information on. :)