NE', Vý TYNI E ýy No. V4 LOCATION THE DEVELOPMENTOF THE GLASS INDUSTRY ON THE RIVERS 1900. TYNE AND WEAR , 1700 - Catherine Ross A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Newcastle upon Tynes 1982. - 449a - rP '71'Y'kI i J;, 1 -I N 8 2.'R -' --'943 LOCATION PART 11 1850 - 1900. Text cut off in original - 450 - CHAPTER SIX: THE CHANGING FACE OF THE NORTH-EAST GLASS INDUSTRY, 1850 - 1900 To Collingwood Bruce writing in 1863, "probably no section of the manufactures of the Tyne and Wear has experienced more marked changes during 1 the last twenty five years than that of glass. ' Even looking at the industry from a distance the changes in the appearance and character of the north-east glass industry during the middle of the century are still striking. Looking at the glass industry during the last fifty years of the nineteenth century it is difficult to find much in common with the industry that had flourished in the region for the previous hundred and fifty years. By the 1870s local glass firms were operating on a new scale, the centre of the industry within the region had made a significant shift, certain branches of the industry had disappeared completely and new branches had become est- ablished. These changes were startling but they were to be followed by even more dramatic and disturbing changes during the last thirty years of the century. Again, the individual branches of the industry during this period will be looked at in detail in the following three chapters but it is worth beginning by looking at the north-east glass industry as a whole during the last half of the nineteenth century and the general factors influencing its development, or more accurately its decline, during this period. This broad development is perhaps best looked at in two roughly chronological phases. The first phase, occurring during the 1850s and 1860st saw a shift in the location of the industry away from the traditional inland centres of the industry to the coastal towns of South Shields and Sunderland. The second phase which occurred during the last thirty years of the century, saw the general decline of the industry, -and in particular the disappearance of its major branch, flat glass. Of these two phases, the second was - 450a- undoubtedly the more serious and must merit the fuller discussion. The shift away from the old inland centres was partly a consequence of the establishment of new glass firms at the coast, but also in part a consequence of the closure of many of the old firms on the Tyne. Many of th ese older firms, although undoubtedly ailing during the 1830s and early 1840s, postponed their closure until after the repeal of the glass duties with the result that in terms of numbers of firms, the shift to the coast did not become fully visible until the 1850s. In terms of quantities of glass produced, however, the shift was already apparent during the 1830s, as the 2 excise statistics (figure 23) illustrate. What caused this shift? There is no one obvious answer but a significant factor must have been the increase- ingly bad shipping facilities in the upper reaches of the Tyneq and in partic- ular the silting of the river, which prevented ships of large burden docking at Newcastle with ease. Newcastle Corporation, in whose care the river Tyne remained until the 1850s, proved far less diligent in meeting its responsibilities than its counterpart on the Wear, the River Wear Commissioners. On the Wear, docks capable of admitting ships of large burden had been constructed during the 1830s but it was not until the early 1860S that the Tyne was improved to match. According to one commentator, until the 1860s the Tyne remained substantially unimproved and unfit to 3_ meet the demands of its increasingly heavy industry: The Tyne may be taken in 1860, and perhaps 1861p just immediately preceding its improvementv as at its very lowest point of decadence as a navigable river. It might not at that time be absolutely in a worse state than it had occasionally reached previously; butv relatively to the trade carried on and to its position as regards neighbouring rivers$ it was at its very worst. Vessels of moderate size and draught were detained for weeks after loading unable to get to sea at the top of high water; other vessels were thumping and grounding on the bar in vain attempts to get to sea; and a state of things existed seriously detrimental and which, if continued, would have been most disastrous - indeed ruinous - to the trade and reputation of the port. 451 CWTS* B 1909000 - a) Quantity 1800000- 1709000- 1609000- 1509000- 1409000. A 130s,000- 120,9000" A- Returns for Newcastle and Gateshead 8- Returns for S. Shields & Sunderland 110,006" 1000000 1 30 b) Value L200jOOO B A Ll 00000 23 Figure Excise returns for the Northumberland and Durham collectionsp 1830 - 1839 - 452 - By the 1850s railways of course provided an alternative means of distributing goods but there is no doubt that water transport remained important for the glass industry9s raw material needs; notably clayl sand and soda. By the 1860s silversand from Fontainebleu in France had become the standard fine quality sand used for glass manufacture and Tyne customs entries provide evidence that several firms, including the Tyne Plate Glass Company and several of the pressed glass firms, imported Fontainebleu sand by sea in quantity. The Tyne Plate Glass Company is worth mentioning as typifying the shift to the coast within the region. When cast plate was first introduced at South Shields in 1816 the polishing works had been erected at Newcastle because of the town's better shipping facilities. In 1868 it was moved back to Shields andq interestingly the works' owners had considered this desirable at least eighteen years previously according to R. W. Swinburne9s 4 evidence to the Admiralty enquiry into the state of the Tyne in 1850: - In addition to your glass establishments at South Shieldso are you concerned in a similar establishment at Newcastle? - We have a part of our works at Newcastle, unfortunately so; we should be very glad to remove them to Shields if we could. The one exception to the general shift to the coast was the pressed glass industry. By the 1870s two of the four largest pressed glass firms in the region were inland, one at Newcastle and one at Gateshead where several smaller firms also existed and continued to exist to the end of the century. The survival of the flint glass industry at Gateshead is perhaps explained by the fact that flint or pressed glass goods, being less bulky than flat glass or bottles, were more suitable for railway transport; all the Gateshead pressed glass firms were well placed to enjoy good railway transport. It is Perhaps also partly explained by the greater initiative shown by the local pressed glass firms during this period enabling them to overcome difficulties which to other firms were insurmountable. Interestinglys pressed glass is frequently the exception to many of the generalisations made about the north- - 453 - east glass industry as a whole during this period. It was the one branch of the industry that adapted well to the post-repeal economic conditions and it was the one branch of the industry that experienced something of a growth rather than a decline during the last thikty years of the century. The decline of the industry in Newcastle during the 1849s and 1850s wasl oF i6e. following as we have seen, lamented by commentators at the timej but the events A decades were to give even greater cause for outcry. The second broad phase in the development of the north-east glass industry during the last half of the century is its rapid deterioration and decline from 1870 onwards. This was a period of severe difficulties and general depression for the British glass industry as a whole but for the north-east industry in particular. The north-east industry was a notorious casulty of the period and its deterioration was unsparingly described, not only by local newspapers but 5 by trade journals such as The Builder and The Pottery Gazette. When the British Association met in Newcastle in 1863 a whole chapter of its hand- book on local industries was devoted to glass. On its return in 1887 glass had been relegated to the small section on "Decayed Industries". Very few qualifications can be made to these gloomy contemporary observations. It cannot be doubted that the north-east glass industry did decline in the sense of losirg its traditional major importance in the national industry. The census returns (figure 24) show this quite clearly, despite an overall increase in the numbers employed in the local industry since the 1840s. Looking at the individual branches of the industry further confirms the area's loss. By 1900 only five bottle firms were left in the area as com- pared to eleven in 1870 and of these five only three - the Ayres Quay Bottle Company, the Londonderry Bottle works and Alexander & Austin - could be said to have been important firms. The manufacture of sheet and plate glass had disappeared from the area completely as had the manufacture of blown flint - 454 - few table ware. The blown flint trade was only represented by a small firms producing chimneys and globes for oil lamps and light bulbs. Only the pressed glass trade, which, by 1900, included eight firms producing a great variety of table and household ware, maintained the--north-east's traditional predominance in the glass industry.