Verreville Glass and Pottery Works, Glasgow facts for kids

Verreville Glassworks was a large factory that made glass and later pottery. It was built in 1777 on the north side of the River Clyde in a village called Finnieston. The factory stopped making glass in 1842. Its tall glasshouse cone, which was 120 feet high, and other buildings were then changed into a pottery factory. This pottery factory kept working until 1918.

We know a lot about how these factories worked from old records and documents. Also, archaeologists dug up the site in 2005. The archaeological excavation, done by Headland Archaeology, found several buildings and structures from both the glass and pottery factories.

History of Verreville Works

The Verreville Glassworks was started in 1777 by a group of business people from Glasgow. Workers from England and Germany helped build the huge glass cone. This cone was 120 feet tall and was a very famous landmark in Glasgow at the time.

Around 1786, the company joined with the Glasgow Bottlework Company. Then, in 1806, the business was sold to the Dumbarton Glass Company. Right away, the new owners sold it to a man named John Geddes. He agreed not to make window glass or bottles there.

John Geddes then started the ‘Glasgow and Verreville Glass and Pottery Company’. His company quickly grew and began selling products to North America and Ireland. However, making pottery was a very competitive business. Soon, John Geddes went bankrupt, meaning he ran out of money.

In 1830, a former manager named Robert Montgomery took over the pottery. But Montgomery's time with the pottery was also short. By 1833, he too went bankrupt. The glassworks then closed down in 1834.

The glassworks and John Geddes's house (Verreville House) were bought by Robert Alexander Kidston. He was a partner in another nearby pottery called Anderston Pottery. By this time, the Verreville pottery had two kilns for earthenware and one for china.

Kidston tried to make better quality products. He started making porcelain, brought in skilled workers from Staffordshire, England, and made the factory bigger. But by 1841, he also had money problems. A group of people, including Robert Cochran, took over the company. The Cochran family later owned a much bigger pottery in Glasgow called Britannia Pottery.

It seems that glassmaking stopped completely in 1842. After that, several smaller pottery kilns were built inside the original glassworks cone. Only white and earthenware products were made at this time. The Cochran family continued to run the pottery until it finally closed in 1918.

Digging Up the Past

The Headland excavations in 2005 found many interesting things. These discoveries showed three main periods of the factory's life. First, there was the glassmaking time (around 1777 to the mid-1840s). Second, the early pottery making phase (late 1840s to about 1859). And third, the later pottery works (after 1859 to about 1918).

Glassmaking Discoveries

The oldest things found at the site were linked to making glass.

The Glassworking Cone

Archaeologists found evidence of the huge glass cone structure. They saw four brick pillars placed evenly apart. These were made of handmade red bricks and formed a half-circle. This was likely the northern half of the original eight-sided glass cone built in 1777. These pillars might have held up an arched outer wall, allowing people to enter the glass cone.

A series of flues led into the middle of the 'glass cone'. The largest flue was made of handmade red brick with a curved ceiling. The inside of the brick was black from soot. The floor was black sand, which had a lot of broken glass, called cullet. These flues would have pulled cold air into a central glass furnace. This main furnace was destroyed by buildings built after the 1920s.

The Glassworking Hovel

The square-shaped building (called a hovel) that held the glass cone was only found by one wall during the dig. Two parts of a handmade red brick wall were dug up. These were thought to be the original northern wall of the hovel. Later stone pillars had cut into these walls, but they still stood about 2 meters high. The western wall had parts of a double archway, which might have been an original entrance into the glass cone.

The Fritting Floors

Two glass working 'floor' structures were found. The northern one was built with yellow refractory bricks. These are special bricks that can handle very high heat. It had single brick walls placed regularly. The floor base was covered in a thick layer of melted glass. The southern structure looked similar but was heavily damaged. These structures are thought to be "fritting" or melting floors. This is where the raw materials for glass were first melted.

Pottery Making Discoveries

Archaeologists also found many things related to the pottery factory.

Yard Area

A very hard-packed surface of crushed flint covered the eastern part of the site. Some parts of this surface had been fixed with rounded stones. There were clear signs of wear, including possible ruts from carts.

Pottery Buildings

Five buildings used for making pottery were found during the dig. These included a pottery drying room, workshops, and furnaces. They all seemed to be from when the pottery factory expanded around 1820.

The Kilns

Six brick-built kilns were found. All of them were broken and damaged by modern buildings and later 19th-century buildings. All that was left of each kiln were parts of circular structures. These formed the base of the kilns used for firing pottery.

Each kiln had several rectangular ash pits. These were spaced evenly along the edges of the main kiln bases. They contained ash and kiln furniture (special supports used inside kilns). These pits collected burnt material that fell from the fires above. Around each kiln were cobbled floors. These floors sloped down to the edges of the ash pits, making it easy to empty them.

Three kilns were found inside where the large circular glass cone used to be. Historical records say that after the glass cone stopped being used (around 1840), several small pottery kilns were built inside it. This meant they reused the old glass cone building to house the new pottery kilns.

The Later Pottery Works

During the last 50 years that the factory was open, existing buildings were changed for new uses and new technology. Steam power was now used in the factory.

The archaeological findings from the final years of the Verreville Pottery factory show how complex making pottery was. This included processing clay, shaping it, drying it, and firing the pots. Clay would arrive at the factory by a small rail line in the warehouse. It would then be mixed with water using paddles (this is called "blunging"). After that, it was put into tanks and then into a "slip drying room" to let the water evaporate.

Next, the clay would be "thrown" or "wedged" to remove air bubbles. Then it was molded or "slip cast" into shapes. After this, the pottery was put into a "pot drying room" and finally into the kilns for firing.

Archaeologists found remains of a slip drying oven, a tunnel furnace, and a pot drying room. They also found evidence that the warehouse, courtyard, and workshop had been changed. A rectangular oven had also been removed.