Trifter

SUNDERLAND, CITY OF GLASS

GLASS making in England was originated by the Saxon Abbot Benedict Biscop, who founded the monastery of St Peter’s at Monkwearmouth in Sunderland during the mid 7th Century.  He brought back the secrets of glass making from one of his four pilgrimages to Rome and it has been a major part of the city’s economy every since.  Even now every piece of British Pyrex tableware is made in Sunderland and the National Glass Centre has now been opened in the city.

Biscop’s first glass makers came from a monastery in France in 647 to make windows for his new monastery.  They late taught their craft to the local population.  The monastery contacted German glass makers, a century later seeking their advice and help in producing glass vessels.

These original international contacts gave Wearside the lead in becoming on of the earliest centres of glass making in Britain.  The craft was slower in becoming established throughout the rest of the county and it was only during the 12th Century that French and Italian glass makers began to work in Surrey and Sussex.

However the demand for fuel by the southern glass makers was devastating the forests and James I passed an act banning them from using wood or charcoal.  The large deposits of cheap coal in Durham led to glass making returning to the North East.

The Sunderland Guild of Glass Makers established three glasshouses to produce bottles and glass for windows.  The industry had become very successful by the 19th Century with more glasshouses being built to make that glass that was being exported right across Europe.  Wearside glass makers were producing window glass and glass tableware, but bottles was still their main product and more bottles were produced in Sunderland than anywhere else in the North East.

Sunderland was always innovative in the producing of glass.  The Wear Glassworks was founded in 1836 by John and James Hartley at Deptford on the south bank of the river.  James Hartley received a patent in 1838 for his revolutionary new process for casting glass.  His rolled plate glass was extremely strong and translucent, but was still affordable.  This meant that it was perfect for the huge skylights and roof windows, needed for the new factories and railway sheds that were built across the country.  This rolled plate glass was exported throughout the world and the Wear Glass Works was granting licences to other companies to use their process.  They were producing one third of Britain’s plate glass by the 1860s.  The two brothers later experiment with coloured glass, eventually producing exquisite stained glass windows for chapels, churches and cathedrals.

The Wear Glassworks closed down in 1894, but the great tradition of Sunderland stained glass was continued by James Hartley’s grandson, James Jun and his partner, Alfred wood who was a talented colour mixer from Birmingham.  Coloured glass that was created by the Hartley Wood technique can be viewed in the House of Commons, St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminister Abbey.  The Hartley wood process is used in the Sunderland Glassworks and is demonstrated most day sat the National glass Centre in the city.

The Wear Flint Glassworks was struggling in 1885 when James A Jobling took it over and turned it into the largest and most successful of all British glass companies.

His assistant and nephew, Earnest Jobling Purser was a dynamic business man with vision.  He saw the potential of a new heat resistant glass that had been developed by the American company Corning and acquired the rights to produce Pyrex in 1921.

Wear Flint glassworks began making car headlight glasses and traffic signal lights during the 1930s and were producing four million headlamps each year by 1954.  It began to concentrate on producing such specialised glasses as Pyrex and Pyrosil in 1969.

Due to this long history of glass production, it is only right that the National Glass Centre has been built in Sunderland.  It is housed in a new purpose built building on the banks of the River Wear and has all the ingredients for a fun day out for people of all ages.

The Glass Tour is a major part of the centre’s experience.  It begins in the Sunderland Room where the history of the Sunderland Gall Industry through the use of stained glass panels.  Visitors then enter the interactive world of the kaleidoscope gallery which has video walls and touchscreens which tell the public how glass relates to everyday life.

Next they penetrate the heart of the National Glass Centre, the Glass Factory.  It is here that students from the University of Sunderland’s Glass and Ceramics department give a bird’s eye view of all the processes involved in glass manufacturing.

 The tour’s final stop is when guests can sit in the Glass Studio to watch the centre’s team of skilled glass makers carry out special demonstrations of their art throughout the day.

People can then spoil themselves by dropping into the Throwingstones Restaurant and Café or by visiting the Glass Gift Shp.

School parties are welcome at the centre which has various National Curriculum packs available, these include literacy, art, geography, science, key stage two history and key stage four GCSE art.  It is capable of addressing other areas of the National Curriculum and would be pleased to discuss helping teachers to design a tailor made project.  There are various workshops held in the Glass Studio which use stained glass, engraving and sandblasting techniques.

The Pod can be hired for small business meetings, seminars or training courses with all catering being provided by Throwingstones.  The National Glass Centre also offers wedding facilities.

Glass, which is fragile yet strong, beautiful yet functional is still produced by the same methods as it was two millennium ago and yet is still at the cutting edge of today’s technology.

The National Glass Centre on Liberty Way is open from 10:00 to 17:00 each day, except Christmas Day and New year’s Day and admission is free though a charge is made for the Glass Tour.

Further information can be obtained on 0191 515 5555 and there is a website on