Stourbridge Glass

The Stourbridge area has been a major glassmaking centre for 400 years and there is still a thriving industry in Stourbridge today. The industry was established at the beginning of the 17th century by glassmakers from Lorraine in north-eastern France, who were attracted to the area by the availability of coal for fuel and fireclay for making furnaces and melting pots. The first products were window glass and bottles, and it was not until the end of the 17th century that the glasshouses began to make the lead glass tableware for which the area is famous today. The golden age of the Stourbridge glass industry was the Victorian period when firms introduced a dazzling array of cameo, coloured glass and crystal that equalled the best in the world. Today the major factories specialise in cut crystal while the tradition of coloured glass is kept alive by a growing number of small glassmaking studios.

Unfortunately the last ten years have seen the loss of the four major companies. In 1990 Thomas Webb and Sons closed, in 1995 Webb Corbett was closed by Royal Doulton and in the late 1990s Royal Brierley Crystal went bankrupt. In November 2001 the closure of Stuart Crystal was announced by the parent company Waterford Wedgwood, with the loss of 220 jobs. Plowden & Thompson, specialists in coloured and scientific glass, is the only glass factory still operating in an original glass cone site. There are three crystal manufacturers left in the area - Tudor Crystal, Staffordshire Crystal and Royal Brierley Crystal, all of which welcome the public to come and view the glassmakers at work. As well as these three crystal companies, the Stourbridge glass industry now consists of some small traditional cut glass manufacturers and a handful of studio glassmakers who have come of age and are creating exciting and innovative glass.

To find out more about the history of the Museum and its collections, please use the links at the side.

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