Alloa, Glasshouse Loan, Alloa Glass Works, Glass Cone
Glass Furnace (19th Century)
Site Name Alloa, Glasshouse Loan, Alloa Glass Works, Glass Cone
Classification Glass Furnace (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Alloa Glass Works, Glasshouse Loan, Northern Glass Cone
Canmore ID 47211
Site Number NS89SE 49.01
NGR NS 88003 92412
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/47211
- Council Clackmannan
- Parish Alloa
- Former Region Central
- Former District Clackmannan
- Former County Clackmannanshire
NS89SE 49.01 88003 92412.
Only surviving glass cone in Scotland c 1825 (HBD listings). The glass cone is situated within the grounds of United Glass (Alloa Glass Works). No changes to the NMR description were noted. Historic Buildings Directorate, listed buildings in the Burgh of Alloa, Clackmannan District, Central Region.
Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 24 February 1996.
This site has only been partially upgraded for SCRAN. For full details, please consult the Architecture Catalogues for Clackmannan District.
February 1998
For comparison see also XS/199-200: English Glass Cone, Sectional Drawing from "A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry"
REFERENCE - Scottish Record Office
Purchase of the glass works for the Earl of Mar
1825 GD 124/17/412
Note (1978)
Alloa Glass Cone NS 881 923 NS89SE
Conical brick structure built about 1825, houses a modern glass furnace.
RCAHMS 1978
(Hume 1979, 85-6)
Publication Account (1985)
Glass making was introduced to Alloa in 1750 by Lady Francis Erskine who persuaded a number of glassworkers to come from Bohemia to establish a works in the town. The factory has remained in production ever since and, although most of the plant is modem, it still retains a 19th century brick glass cone which is the last surviving example of its type in Scotland.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
Publication Account (1986)
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).
Field Visit (24 February 1996)
Only surviving glass cone in Scotland c 1825 (HBD listings). The glass cone is situated within the grounds of United Glass (Alloa Glass Works). No changes to the NMR description were noted. Historic Buildings Directorate, listed buildings in the Burgh of Alloa, Clackmannan District, Central Region.
Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 24 February 1996.
