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Once one of Nailsea’s biggest employers: the town’s glassworks. And while the city’s glass industry is long gone, it is not forgotten with remnants of its existence still lingering.

The Glassworks opened in 1788 and is owned and operated by industrialist John Robert Lucas. Lucas saw the potential of readily available coal in the Nailsea area and opened Glassworks just off Nailsea Heath, the village’s common land.

The location of the Glassworks in this area led to the development of this part of Nailsea as the industrial heart of the town, and eventually led to the relocation of the center of the village from the medieval base of Holy Trinity Church to the northeast. from the city. village. The location was ideal due to the availability of coal for the kilns of the glass cones and the lime and sand necessary to manufacture the glass itself.

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However, it was a remote and inaccessible site. The turnpike to Bristol, today the A370, was two miles away accessed by a country lane, and the road through Wraxall was just a rough track.

This meant that the glass produced had to be very carefully wrapped and transported for sale in Bristol. Finally, when the railway opened, glass was shipped by rail from Nailsea and Backwell station.

Two Glass Cones were built, specialized in different products. One was for crown window glass and the other was for glass bottles.

Corona glass, from which the city’s shopping center takes its name, was one of the most common processes for making window glass until the 19th century and had a distinctive globe-shaped pattern on the glass. The site included offices for managers, finishing kilns, cutting and packing areas.

Housing for the workers was also built on the site. Part of a range of dwellings survives today on ‘Woodview Terrace’ and the cottages are an example of workers’ homes from the early industrial revolution.

There is a description of the Glassworks in the 1790s from the diary of Hannah More’s sister Patty, who wrote in her Mendip Annals about what she saw when she visited the Glassworks. She wrote: “The work of a greenhouse is an irregular thing, uncertain whether it is day or night; not only infringing on man’s rest, but also constantly infringing on the privileges of the Sabbath.

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“The high wages, the lavish eating and drinking, the barely covered bodies… a more hellish and horrible appearance.” As skilled workers, glassworkers received good wages, ate well, and due to the heat from the furnaces, wore little clothing and had a drinking allowance.

There is evidence of a door to the Royal Oak pub from the Glassworks building which housed the French ovens, now converted into homes in Glassworks Mews. A pub for Glassworkers was also established at Thatcher’s Brewery, which later became known as the Friendship Inn and has since been converted into homes.

Some of the glassworkers were non-conformists and a chapel was also built at Kingshill in 1792. At its height, the Nailsea site was the fourth largest glassworks in England.

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Processes changed over time and production shifted away from glass bottle making in the 1820s and eventually towards window glass. This involved making larger Victorian-style window slats instead of the small squares of crown glass that were previously produced.

Decorative pieces known as ‘Nailsea Glass’, identifiable by their distinctive combed white lines, were sometimes made from glass scraps at the end of the working day. Ultimately, logistical problems in transporting the glass from Nailsea, difficulties in making a profit, and fierce competition from other factories, led to the closure of the Glassworks in 1873.

The buildings were gradually demolished and some of the stone was reused in buildings along the High Street. Local historian Dr Jo Edwards said: “Although most of the glassworks are now sheltered under the Tesco and Millennium Park buildings, some remains can still be seen in the park and along the High Street.

“The Glassworks was of great importance to the development of Nailsea during the early Industrial Revolution and was the reason why the village developed away from the medieval center which was around Holy Trinity Church and the Tithe Barn. It brought to reformer Hannah More to the area, which had a great effect on the development of schooling and education in Nailsea.”

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