Background Information
On 13th January 2003 Archaeologists from Birmingham University began a dig in Stone Street Car Park in Dudley. The team from the Field Archaeology Unit (BUFAU) were trying to find out what historic features survive beneath the present car park surface, particularly those associated with the former Dudley Flint Glassworks.
The Glassworks was built here in 1766 by Abiather Hawkes, was subsequently extended and ceased production in 1843. It was not demolished until 1886. The Ordnance Survey Map of 1883 (shown on the right) shows clearly the circular outline of a glass cone with attached buildings fronting onto Stone Street and Priory Street.
Based on other glass cone sites we know that both the cone and the square furnace and probably ancillary furnaces would have had underground flue systems of varying scale. It is not known whether any of the buildings on this site were cellared but it is likely. The Redhouse Cone in Wordsley gives us a good idea of how Dudley Flint Glassworks might have looked.
