Local Parishes
Catcliffe
Catcliffe Glass Cone
A well-known landmark at Catcliffe,the 70 foot brick cone, is one of two cone furnaces which were built on the site in 1740 by William Fenney.
His wife's parents - the Foxes had owned the Bolsterstone Glasshouse, south of Stocksbridge, in the early 18th century. John Fox (1682-1738) ran the Bolsterstone glasshouse for a while, before running a pottery kiln at Sheffield Manor.
In 1759 the Catcliffe works were taken over by the wealthy May family. Joseph and Thomas are listed in Baines directory of 1822 as Glass Manufacturers.
In 1833 the partnership of Booth and Blunn took over. Henry Booth was an iron and steel magnate while Thomas Blunn had been described as a Glass blower. The works were the responsibility of Samuel Blunn in 1856 and his family had operated as Blunn Brothers until its closure in 1884.
The census of 1871 records Joseph Ramsbottom Blunn, aged 40, born in Sheffield, as a Glass Manufacturer employing 17 men and 7 boys. Samuel Blunn, living next door at Rother Villa, is recorded as being a Landowner.
In 1901 it was reopened by the firm C. Wilcocks and Co. who eventually went bankrupt.
During the first World war, prisoners were housed here and in the General Strike of 1926 it was used as a canteen.
The flues for the furnaces ran underneath the cone. The height of the cone helped produced a draught of air through the furnace which increased the heat generated by the coal that was used as fuel.
The cone - the earliest surviving example of its type, survives partly because it stayed in use until the early 20th century.
In 1962, the area was excavated by Sheffield City Museum due to the threat of demolition. The Museum holds some examples of bottles and cruets made in Catcliffe.
There are around 500 pieces of glass in the Decorative Art Collection , many of which are from South Yorkshire factories such as Catcliffe. The South Yorkshire region became established as a source of good quality glassware, manufacturing bottles and flint and window glass.
The Victorians used many different types of bottles for wines, spirits etc, scent, snuff, ink, oil, and vinegar.Bottles were also supplied to the chemists.
Reference: G.D.Lewis, "The Catcliffe Glassworks" , The Journal of Industrial Archaeology , Jan 1965 , 1, no.4 : 206-211 published by The Lambarde Press
Identifying Catcliffe Glass
It seems there is no way to identify where a piece
of glass was made simply from its form or design. By the 19th century these
were fairly universal across the country. Some glassworks did produce
catalogues of products, but even if you could find one for the Catcliffe
works (and my source is not aware of any) you could probably only prove that
the works produced a certain type of glass, not that any example of that
type was actually made there.
Another possible source of information is the Turner Museum of Glass at the University of Sheffield
Access to the site is from the west side of Main Street, Catcliffe.
Benjamin Huntsman , who by devising a process of crucible steel making, transformed the nature of steel making in Sheffield and made an important contribution to the Industrial Revolution. It is said that Huntsman moved to Handsworth because of the proximity of the glassworks at Catcliffe. Huntsman found that he could benefit from the experience of the glass makers and conducted experiments in secret.