Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017675
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017675
At the date of survey in 1968 there were two large brick-built cones within the precinct of the Alloa Glass-work close to the N shore of the River Forth. The cones dated from about 1825, when the work was taken over and extended by the Edinburgh, Glasgow and Alloa Glass Company. The S cone, probably the slightly older of the two, was the main subject of the survey and was demolished in 1972; the other is one of the few left standing in the United Kingdom.
The demolished cone stood to an overall height of 79 ft (24.08m) above ground level; it was set on an octagonal and arcaded stone base 20 ft (6.10m) high and 65 ft (19.81m) across opposing faces , The bricks were of local manufacture, and for the first 11ft (3.35m) above the stone base were laid in alternate courses of headers and stretchers (English bond), the remainder being in an English gardenwall bond.
The base was constructed of coursed sandstone rubble masonry and incorporated eight semicircular arches with dressed voussoirs. The cone had been used in association with a succession of gas-furnaces, and there was no clear indication of the original coal-fired pot-furnace or annealing-oven.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
