The Red House Cone is a glass cone located in

Wordsley Wordsley is a suburban area of Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and falls into the Stourbridge (DY8) postcode and address area, being just north of the River Stour. Wordsley is part of t ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, adjacent to the Stourbridge Canal bridge on the A491 High Street. It is a high conical brick structure with a diameter of , used for the production of glass. It was used by the Stuart Crystal firm till 1936, when the company moved to a new facility at Vine Street. It is one of only four complete cones remaining in the United Kingdom. It is one of four such structures in the UK and is currently maintained as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

Council. (The other three cones are at

Lemington Lemington is an area and electoral ward of Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England. History Lemington has a strong industrial history. It is famous for its brick glassworks cone, built in 1787. The River Tyne used to pass very close to Lem ...

, Catcliffe and

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; educated Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; gd, Alamhagh, possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot wher ...

). At the site are 10 businesses including glass artists, pottery, jewellers, textiles fine art and demonstrations of

glass blowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer''. A '' lampworke ...

along with a Coffee House and gift shop. A site, on which the cone stands, was sold by John and Ann Southwell and Rebecca Stokes to Richard Bradley, a wealthy glass-manufacturer, on 21 June 1788. The cone was built by Bradley in partnership with his brother-in-law, George Ensell, for the manufacture of window glass. Ensell installed a moving lehr in the cone, which remains today and is the only surviving one in the world. The cone received Grade II* listed building status on 23 September 1966. In April 2022, the Cone received a pledge of £1.5m from Dudley Council in order to restore the structure.

Representation in the media

The Red House Cone was featured in an episode of BBC Two's

Great British Railway Journeys ''Great British Railway Journeys'' is a 2010-2021 BBC documentary series presented by Michael Portillo, a former Conservative MP and Cabinet Minister who was instrumental in saving the Settle to Carlisle line from closure in 1989. The docum ...

, in the episode Sarah Cordingley taught

Michael Portillo Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (; born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as '' Great British Railway Journeys'' and '' Great Continental Railway Jour ...

how to make a

lampwork Lampworking is a type of glasswork in which a torch or lamp is used to melt the glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the moder ...

bead.

References

External links

Red House Cone
- official site {{coord, 52.476168, -2.157235, region:GB, display=title Museums in the West Midlands (county) Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley Grade II* listed buildings in the West Midlands (county) Glass museums and galleries Art museums and galleries in the West Midlands (county) Contemporary crafts museums Stourbridge