Glass Making in Fishergate
Glass making began on the site between Brownie Dyke and Fishergate in 1797, immediately after the river Foss navigation was constructed. Naburn Lock had been built only 20 years earlier and these improvements allowed barges to reliably deliver large quantities of bulk materials, such as sand, coal, and later fuel oil, directly into the works. Until it closed in 1983, the huge York Glassworks dominated Fishergate and by the 1970s, it provided skilled work for up to 3000 operatives, mainly making bottles and jars for a wide range of consumer products.
The first glassworks was established by a York jeweller, John Prince in Scutt’s Close, a plot next to Castle Mills Lock. In 1804, Prince formed a partnership with John Hampston and in 1822, Charles Priestley joined the firm. Their products are thought to have been mainly glass tableware.
After the death of its founders and financial difficulties, a new business the York Flint Glass Company, was established on the site in 1835 by another glass making expert, Joseph Spence. The firm expanded from this period onward, specialising in the production of accurate measures for medical and pharmaceutical companies. A mark of their quality is that a new standard of ‘York Measures’ was created.
A catalogue of 1840 describes some highly decorated glass jars with the royal arms and fine gold enamel lettering ‘done by superior London artists’. The company took out many patents, including the ‘Phototype Recess Label’ for chemists bottles.
In 1851, Sir William Eden of Durham conveyed a 14 year lease to the then owners; Spence, Meek and Wilson, to allow expansion of the works over most of Stone Wall Close. The factory grew to fill the area over the next century so that in 1912, it had three furnaces and gave employment to 255 men and 30 women. But during the Great War, the firm got into difficulties and under instruction from the government, Mr W. L. Pratt took it over. New machinery was installed, but the post-war slump led to increasing debt and it closed in 1923. To help clear their debts, Pratt sold land adjacent to Blue Bridge Lane, where a cinema was built (see Van Wilson's article on the Rialto HERE). Pratt re-opened the factory in 1929 as the National Glass Company.
Workmen digging foundations for new buildings often encountered archaeological remains, and around 1930 a stunning gold ring was found on the finger of a skeleton. Now known as the Fishergate Ring, it dates from before the Norman Conquest and shows a man’s head with an animal on either side. Read more about the ring on THIS page of the website.
The company remained in ownership of the Pratt family until 1972, when it merged with Redfearn, becoming Redfearn National Glass, with John Pratt as managing director. Despite huge investment and initial success, the changing economic situation led to closure in 1983. The huge factory was demolished and today it is home to the Fewster Way housing estate and the Novotel.
Following demolition, an archaeological investigation was made which not only found the 13th century Gilbertine Priory and an earlier church, but also the largest Anglian settlement yet found in York. You can read more about this HERE.
Local historian, Van Wilson, has written a brief history of the glassworks with an interesting collection of photographs, which you can download HERE.
York Oral History Society interviewed John Pratt, the former Managing Director of Redfearn National Glass. You can read an illustrated version of the interview HERE.
Former managing director of Redfearn National Glass Company, John Pratt briefly described the manufacturing process:
Glassmaking is a continuous process, you have the raw materials which are sand, about 73% limestone and a material called soda ash and the sand was refined glass making quality sand, and the biggest deposits latterly were in the King’s Lynn sand quarries. They served most of the country from there then the limestone came from the Peak District. That was quality limestone, very low in iron and the soda ash which, in layman's terms is called a flux, makes the glass runny but it also makes it workable. Too much soda ash meant the glass could be weathered very easily and exposed to a damp atmosphere for extended periods of time so you’d get a weathering effect on the outside.
Describing the merger which created Redfearn National Glass, John Pratt said:
The bottle making machines were getting more and more expensive so we decided that we needed to become larger if we were going to be viable. We finally agreed a merger with Redfearn Brothers of Barnsley. Their glass works was extremely large, on an 80 acre site. There was an element of family ownership but they were a public company.
A merger was arranged on a share exchange basis and the new chairman was Anthony Barber, the son-in-law of Milton Asquith, then chairman of Redfearn Brothers and we called the new company Redfearn National Glass. The head office was decided to be at York, it was a slightly more convenient place for a number of reasons.
Describing the background to the closure of the factory, John Prat said:
Competition was increasing and we decided to look again at the company's strategy. We started a campaign of becoming more efficient and regrettably it involved redundancies and in the early 1970s we had redundancies one year after the other, an extremely painful process. And at the end of that we still had the two factories but were employing 1200 staff instead of just over 3,000. But it was necessary. Had we not done that we would not have had a business at all. A very painful exercise, one of the worst jobs anybody has to do.
Further reading:
Peter Wilson won the Rosenfield Cup in 1954/55 for his essay on the History of the Fishergate Glassworks. You can read a copy HERE (apologies for the poor quality reproduction)
York Press published 53 photographs of the glassworks, including pictures of the workers.
You can link to the article HERE
Glass bottle hunters may find this article interesting:
Redfearn Bros. by Bill Lockhart, Beau Schriever, Bill Lindsey, and Carol Serr
You can link to it HERE
The York Herald published an article about the Glassworks on 24 September 1910. You can read a transcript HERE
In January 1954 the magazine Pottery and Glass published an article titled Glass making in Fishergate, York, by L.M. Angus-Butterworth. You can read it HERE
York Explore has an archive of documents, Ref 356, with deeds, photographs and drawings.
Read the schedule HERE
These two photographs show all that remains of the Glassworks; the manager's house in Fishergate and the retaining wall along Brownie Dyke. The rest of the site has disappeared under the Novotel and Fewster Way housing estate. The plan below shows the Glassworks site at its height in 1960. Note the manager's house at the left end of the parade of shops. Image York Explore
The first glassworks was established by a York jeweller, John Prince in Scutt’s Close, a plot next to Castle Mills Lock. In 1804, Prince formed a partnership with John Hampston and in 1822, Charles Priestley joined the firm. Their products are thought to have been mainly glass tableware.
After the death of its founders and financial difficulties, a new business the York Flint Glass Company, was established on the site in 1835 by another glass making expert, Joseph Spence. The firm expanded from this period onward, specialising in the production of accurate measures for medical and pharmaceutical companies. A mark of their quality is that a new standard of ‘York Measures’ was created.
A catalogue of 1840 describes some highly decorated glass jars with the royal arms and fine gold enamel lettering ‘done by superior London artists’. The company took out many patents, including the ‘Phototype Recess Label’ for chemists bottles.
In 1851, Sir William Eden of Durham conveyed a 14 year lease to the then owners; Spence, Meek and Wilson, to allow expansion of the works over most of Stone Wall Close. The factory grew to fill the area over the next century so that in 1912, it had three furnaces and gave employment to 255 men and 30 women. But during the Great War, the firm got into difficulties and under instruction from the government, Mr W. L. Pratt took it over. New machinery was installed, but the post-war slump led to increasing debt and it closed in 1923. To help clear their debts, Pratt sold land adjacent to Blue Bridge Lane, where a cinema was built (see Van Wilson's article on the Rialto HERE). Pratt re-opened the factory in 1929 as the National Glass Company.
Workmen digging foundations for new buildings often encountered archaeological remains, and around 1930 a stunning gold ring was found on the finger of a skeleton. Now known as the Fishergate Ring, it dates from before the Norman Conquest and shows a man’s head with an animal on either side. Read more about the ring on THIS page of the website.
The company remained in ownership of the Pratt family until 1972, when it merged with Redfearn, becoming Redfearn National Glass, with John Pratt as managing director. Despite huge investment and initial success, the changing economic situation led to closure in 1983. The huge factory was demolished and today it is home to the Fewster Way housing estate and the Novotel.
Following demolition, an archaeological investigation was made which not only found the 13th century Gilbertine Priory and an earlier church, but also the largest Anglian settlement yet found in York. You can read more about this HERE.
Local historian, Van Wilson, has written a brief history of the glassworks with an interesting collection of photographs, which you can download HERE.
York Oral History Society interviewed John Pratt, the former Managing Director of Redfearn National Glass. You can read an illustrated version of the interview HERE.
Former managing director of Redfearn National Glass Company, John Pratt briefly described the manufacturing process:
Glassmaking is a continuous process, you have the raw materials which are sand, about 73% limestone and a material called soda ash and the sand was refined glass making quality sand, and the biggest deposits latterly were in the King’s Lynn sand quarries. They served most of the country from there then the limestone came from the Peak District. That was quality limestone, very low in iron and the soda ash which, in layman's terms is called a flux, makes the glass runny but it also makes it workable. Too much soda ash meant the glass could be weathered very easily and exposed to a damp atmosphere for extended periods of time so you’d get a weathering effect on the outside.
Describing the merger which created Redfearn National Glass, John Pratt said:
The bottle making machines were getting more and more expensive so we decided that we needed to become larger if we were going to be viable. We finally agreed a merger with Redfearn Brothers of Barnsley. Their glass works was extremely large, on an 80 acre site. There was an element of family ownership but they were a public company.
A merger was arranged on a share exchange basis and the new chairman was Anthony Barber, the son-in-law of Milton Asquith, then chairman of Redfearn Brothers and we called the new company Redfearn National Glass. The head office was decided to be at York, it was a slightly more convenient place for a number of reasons.
Describing the background to the closure of the factory, John Prat said:
Competition was increasing and we decided to look again at the company's strategy. We started a campaign of becoming more efficient and regrettably it involved redundancies and in the early 1970s we had redundancies one year after the other, an extremely painful process. And at the end of that we still had the two factories but were employing 1200 staff instead of just over 3,000. But it was necessary. Had we not done that we would not have had a business at all. A very painful exercise, one of the worst jobs anybody has to do.
Further reading:
Peter Wilson won the Rosenfield Cup in 1954/55 for his essay on the History of the Fishergate Glassworks. You can read a copy HERE (apologies for the poor quality reproduction)
York Press published 53 photographs of the glassworks, including pictures of the workers.
You can link to the article HERE
Glass bottle hunters may find this article interesting:
Redfearn Bros. by Bill Lockhart, Beau Schriever, Bill Lindsey, and Carol Serr
You can link to it HERE
The York Herald published an article about the Glassworks on 24 September 1910. You can read a transcript HERE
In January 1954 the magazine Pottery and Glass published an article titled Glass making in Fishergate, York, by L.M. Angus-Butterworth. You can read it HERE
York Explore has an archive of documents, Ref 356, with deeds, photographs and drawings.
Read the schedule HERE
These two photographs show all that remains of the Glassworks; the manager's house in Fishergate and the retaining wall along Brownie Dyke. The rest of the site has disappeared under the Novotel and Fewster Way housing estate. The plan below shows the Glassworks site at its height in 1960. Note the manager's house at the left end of the parade of shops. Image York Explore