Davis, Greathead and Green, Stourbridge, 1850-1860.
Information extracted from Jason Ellis’s ‘Glassmakers of Stourbridge and Dudley 1612-2002…’, published by the author in 2002:
Benjamin Richardson credited Thomas Wheeley with having built two cones ‘near the long canal bridge in Brettell Lane and on the north side of the Stourbridge canal.’ There was one glass house with ten pots in 1796, and a second cone was added between 1812 and 1822. By 1834 Thomas Wheeler’s second eldest son, William Seager Wheeley, was running the glasshouse in partnership with his younger brother, John Wheeley, and John Davis, who lived near the works in Brettell Lane. The following year the products of the firm were ‘flint glass, plain and cut’. In the early 1840s, the partners were involved in a fraud scandal involving the excise duty on exported glass, and the business subsequently failed between 1841 and 1845.
John Davis escaped from the scandal, probably unaware of the fraud being perpetrated by his partners, although he was left with considerable debt. On 24 June 1846 John Davis leased the glassworks from William Seager Wheeley for twenty-one years. In 1850 Davis formed a partnership with William Greathead and Richard Green, with Davis essentially being the dominant partner.
Greathead had worked for William Gammon, glass manufacturer of Aston , near Birmingham, then from 1836 to 1843 at Hawkes’ Dudley Flint glass works, the last two years as a partner. After the failure of Hawkes’ business, he then spent a further seven years at Badgers’ Phoenix Glassworks.
Richard Green was also very experienced having been in the glass trade since joining Hawkes’ in 1837 at the age of fifteen .
The Great Exhibition of 1851, held in the Crystal palace in Hyde Park, gave the newly formed firm of Davis, Greathead and Green an excellent opportunity to display its ware. The official catalogue shows examples of their painted glass imitations of Greek pottery. Their exhibits included: “a great variety of vases, jars, and scent jars for holding flowers, &c. in the Egyptian, Etruscan and Grecian styles;many of them cut, coated, gilt , painted in enamel colours, after the antique, with figures ornaments, flowers, landscapes , and marine views, of the following colours, viz. ruby, oriental blue, chrysoprase, turquoise, black, colour, opalescent blue, cornelian, opal frosted , pearl opal, mazareene blue, &c., Topaz, flints &c.”
In 1860, Davis, Greathead and Green vacated Brettell Lane glassworks and moved to Dial Glasshouses. The Brettell Lane glassworks was then altered and used for a time as an ironworks; the glasshouse being known as ‘the old shell’. By 1882, probably much earlier, it became unsafe and was demolished. In 1934 Samuel Taylor & Son’s chain and anchor works covered the original site.
Fred.
Davis, Greathead and Green at the New Dial Glasshouse, Audnam, 1860-1878.
The New Dial Glasshouse (which supplemented then replaced the nearby ‘Old’ Dial Glasshouse) was built by John Pidock in 1788, with two new cones – a large cone, 80 feet in diameter (although the height to which it was built is not known) for bottle glass, and a smaller cone for broad glass. It was in a prime position close to the turnpike but right on the bank of the Stourbridge canal (itself opened less than 10 years previously). Originally making bottles, crown and coloured glass, by 1853 the glassworks was offered for sale as a flint glassworks with a six-pot bottle house. It presumably stood unoccupied for seven years until it was let on 20 March 1860 to Davis, Greenhead and Green for twenty-one years at an annual rent of Ł200.
John Davis was the principal partner, as he had been at Brettell lane. In 1861 he employed sixty-nine men, sixteen boys and nine women, making him the second largest employer f the six main Stourbridge glassworks.
Richard Green left the partnership on 1st June 1865 to manufacture glass in Manchester.
William Greathead died on 26 February 1867. He left his estate to his widow, Anna Maria, nee Green . One of his executors was his brother-in-law and former partner, Richard Green. On 12th March 1869 Richard Green assigned the lease on Dial Glasshouses to John Davis. Davis now had sole responsibility for the business and the Ł200 per year lease payments.
The firm traded as John Davis & Co. from 1873, and in August 1875 he introduced members of his family to the partnership.
John Davis died in 1878.
Fred.