The
Glass Makers of Amblecote
Our Churchyard is the
final resting place for a considerable number of men
and women who worked in the glass industry and its allied trades.
Joseph Cole
(1806-1866)
His memorial reads in typical Victorian overstatement
‘In Memory of Joseph Cole
Stourbridge and Wychbury House Pedmore
who died July 8th, 1866 in his Sixtieth Year.
He was deservedly esteemed, his accomplishments were exceptional,
his position was the result of merit, and his name is perpetuated by his
example.'
Edward Deeley
(1801 – 1884)
Richard Mountford Deeley
(1825 – 1909)
Commemorated on, but
not interred in, the family vault.
Edwin
was apprenticed to the Dial Glassworks at the age of twelve years. He
became
the manager and was made a partner in the firm in 1844. Richard who
was
Edward’s
son was apprenticed at the Dial and later became a travelling
representative
of
the firm. The firm made many utility items such as soda
water and sauce bottles.
William Evans (Bill)
(1911-1993)
Bill was a
glass blower at Royal Brierley Crystal for the whole of his working
life.
He was secretary of the Flint Glassmakers Union, a member and the last
Chairman of Amblecote Urban District Council which ceased to exist in 1966.
William Fritsche
(1853-1924)
William Fritsche arrived
in England from Meisterdorf in Bohemia around 1870 and
is claimed to be the finest copper wheel engraver ever to have worked in this
country.
Working for Thomas Webb, he executed traditional style engraving and
helped to
develop a new style called Rock Crystal. He ran the ‘Red Lion’ in
Brettell Lane
where he also lived.
To see some of his work
William Greathead
(1799-1867)
Born
in Louth in Lincolnshire he worked for William Gammon of Aston in
Birmingham.
He came to work in Dudley in 1839 and went into partnership
with Dudley MP
Thomas Hawkes in 1841. In 1850 he helped form Davis,
Greathead and Green in Brettell
Lane a
company
which exhibited at the
Great
Exhibition of 1851. In 1853 the firm moved to the
Dial Glassworks.
John Guest
(1841-1888)
A member of an
important family who made furnaces for the glass
industry.
He had a
significant holding in the Platts Glassworks.
Silas Hingley
(1831-1919)
Levi Hingley
(1829-1905)
Charles Edward Hingley
Albert Harold Hingley
Silas Hingley
Levi Hingley
Here
we have a dynasty of Glass makers during the 19th and early 20th
Centuries.
Levi founded a glass decorating workshop in King William Street,
Silas was an
apprentice
glass
maker in Dudley. Jabez, another brother
worked for Levi. Levi
had two sons, George and
Alfred and Silas three sons,
William, Charles and
Harold and these all
became part of the
family business
which purchased the
Albert Glassworks in
Wordsley that survived until 1948.
Harry Ernest Kny
(1887-1917)
The son of an
immigrant Bohemian glassmaker, Frederick Engelbert Kny, his
two
brothers, William and Ludwig, worked as glass artists with their father.
Harry joined the British Army and died of disease in Salonica in November,
1917.
He is remembered on the Lych Gate War Memorial.
William Mullett
(1851-1933)
William assisted Thomas and George Woodhall who were renowned for
working
with Cameo Glass. In this designs were carved through several layers
of coloured
glass
onto
a dark background. The process was painstaking and
required great concentration
and skill
on the part of the artist. It was a very
expensive to produce even at a time of
relative prosperity.
Joseph Webb
(1813-1869)
Joseph was from a line of
glass makers. He worked on the shop floor with
several firms.
He went into partnership with his cousin Edward at the
Holloway End Glassworks
in
1844
and in 1850 he bought the Colbourne Hill
Glassworks and while there developed
a
process for pressed glass where glass
is
simply pressed into moulds He
registered
21 designs from 1851 to 1885.
Adolph Zinkie
(1845-1926)
He
came to Amblecote from Bohemia during the mid part of the 19th
Century and
then settled
permanently, marrying an Englishwoman
Ann Humphries in 1866.
*
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Acknowledgement
Some information contained on this page is courtesy of the
Amblecote
History Society
from their leaflet 'Monuments to the Glassmakers -
Holy Trinity Amblecote'
to
obtain a copy please
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