Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: neilh on October 18, 2012, 03:08:18 PM
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The glass seen here comes from Joseph Crosfield & Sons Limited at Warrington. Okay it's not the most exciting piece of glass in the world but it's unusual to have a positive attribution for a plain unmarked piece like this. The photos come from a distant descendant branch of the Webb family in Warrington. This was bought as "Crosfield glass", probably between 1900 and 1940.
From what I can gather, Crosfields took over the Bank Quay glassworks in 1893. They were involved in various enterprises, mainly soap making, so glass might have just been a sideline or a sub-business.
There are a few Warrington residents and experts on here - does anyone know about Crosfields glass production? Did they just do a bit of kitchenware?
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I think that is incorrect info, like many "family" attributions.
According to Enterprise in Soap and Chemicals: Joseph Crosfield & Sons, Limited 1815-1965
By Albert Edward Musson, page 83, Crosfields bought the site in 1893 and and knocked the derelict glassworks down
This link (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TsG8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=crosfields+%22+bank+quay+glass+works%22&source=bl&ots=sGGED1U9I9&sig=vuTKMi0NpYV8rfjs14qBTrx1Shg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EiKAUOPRO8iAhQfusICwCw&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=crosfields%20%22%20bank%20quay%20glass%20works%22&f=false) may work, either scroll down or go to next search result
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According to http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3FxkhJ6E5nUC&pg=PT1&lpg=PT1&dq=%22joseph+crosfield%22+glass&source=bl&ots=knWMUOJHI8&sig=Uhg4XgJnP7n1V3Wlhv9DgYvXdb4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JCSAUJn0H5H74QS9tICQCA&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAw (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3FxkhJ6E5nUC&pg=PT1&lpg=PT1&dq=%22joseph+crosfield%22+glass&source=bl&ots=knWMUOJHI8&sig=Uhg4XgJnP7n1V3Wlhv9DgYvXdb4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JCSAUJn0H5H74QS9tICQCA&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAw), they were making silicate glass in the 1960s for other purposes, perhaps they also made glass pieces?
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It was not glass used for glass, as such; it was a precursor to make all sorts of other things, as the advert says, i.e., a convenient and fused form of sodium silicate.
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Well we seem to be lacking firm evidence of Crosfields making glass items, but it was believed to be "Crosfield glass" by a Warrington family, one of whom worked for the company as an engineer in the 1930s. They have some papers relating to Crosfields from that period so if they turn up anything glass related I will update the thread.
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There is quite a lot online about what Crosfield's did make and photos of the site in the 1920s with no glass cone, which I would expect for that time if there was still glassmaking on-site. Joseph Crosfield did have an interest in a glass company but that was much earlier and not at Bank Quay.
What seems more likely to me is that it was made at one of the sites Crosfield's subsumed during its expansion, perhaps Robinson's if not the Bank Quay Glassworks?
http://www.sgt.org/SGTNews/2005/SGTN05_03-06.pdf
In Warrington the whole vast industrial site is referred to as Crosfield's even now. Bank Quay is the railway station
(I meant silicon dioxide, i.e., silica, not sodium silicate)
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Yes I think you are probably correct. The family did seem a little mixed up between Crosfields / Bank Quay / Robinsons. It sounds like this was made by Robinsons in the early 20th century but due to the whole area being known as Crosfields, the family concerned referred to it as "Crosfields Glass".