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The 11th century saw the emergence in Germany of new ways of making sheet glass by blowing spheres. The spheres were then formed into cylinders and then cut while still hot, after which the sheets were flattened. This technique was perfected in 13th century Venice around 1295. What made Venetian Murano glass significantly different was that the local quartz pebbles were almost pure silica, which made the clearest and purest glass. The Venetian ability to produce this superior form of glass resulted in a trade advantage over other glass producing lands.
https://www.thoughtco.com/middle-ages-timeline-1992478
Glass making eventually returned to Britain with the re-build of Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, after a fire had destroyed the older Norman Cathedral, The glass was inspired by the building of Chartres Cathedral in France just prior to this, whose Glass makers were imported from the Middle East, as there were no persons with the required skills in Europe at that time. So the original glass makers of Chartres were Muslims and this is evident in some of the windows there.
The Glass maker who came to make the glass was called Lawrence Le Viteraux (The Glass), he set up in Kent. The glass being made was very rough and ready during the Middle Ages in Britain and a lot was still being imported from the Continent. There was a bit of a scorched earth policy for the glass makers as they made their wares in the ~Forest or in medieval time the Weald. Welding, the modern word means to join metal together using heat, the origination of the word comes from the medieval word for forest as all the work was done there. A lot of deforestation occurred during this period, which lasted right until James 1st was on the throne and he decreed that 'No Glass can be made using wood as fuel, save there being a single tree left standing upon this isle'. Therefore a new fuel had to be utilised and coal was the obvious choice.
Aside – Gaffer, is the medieval word for Glass maker – 'Glasser' the F & S were not defined at this time.
Coal was a difficult fuel to use as it does not burn clean like wood does so the furnaces had to be completely redesigned to allow for this new fuel. They came up with a Glass cone with covered pots to keep the glass clean. These edifices became landmarks in the the glass making centres around the country.
There is little known about the history of glassmaking in Britain during the next one thousand years, although we do know that glassmaking survived as a trade. In early 2004, a Saxon burial chamber was unearthed in Prittlewell in Essex and amongst the artefacts buried with the early Saxon was a beautifully preserved and intact blue glass bowl.
Glassmaking underwent a renaissance in the and 14th centuries. The revival began in Venice (a city which is still thought of as the glass capital of the world) and spread throughout Northern Europe. It would have been very likely that all towns of any size would have had their own glassmaker.
In Britain, during the reign of James I, a law was passed which forbade the use of wood as a fuel for trades. The effect of this was that glassmakers, along with potters and other craftsmen who needed substantial amounts of fuel, had to move to areas where there were alternative fuel sources. Bristol was one such place, having mined coal in the wooded areas to the north of the city since Tudor times. Other areas were the Midlands (even today, Stoke on Trent is renowned for its potteries and Stourbridge for its glass), the North East (again Sunderland was a major centre for glass and today has the National Glass Centre) and London where some of the most well-known firms operated including Whitefriars.
Bristol not only had a good supply of fuel but it had established trading links along the River Severn and out to the Atlantic and was second only to London in terms of economic importance. It also had easy access to other raw materials used in glassmaking such as sand from the Redcliffe Caves, kelp from Bridgwater, clay from further north along the Severn.
The city made very good use of its strategic importance and soon became one of the most important glassmaking centres in Europe. By the late eighteenth century there were some twenty glassmaking firms in Bristol. Most made crown (or window) glass or bottles but a good proportion made a beautiful range of flint glass tableware that was to become the city's legacy. Flint glass is known today as lead crystal.
http://www.bristol-glass.co.uk/history.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/middle-ages-timeline-1992478
Glass making eventually returned to Britain with the re-build of Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, after a fire had destroyed the older Norman Cathedral, The glass was inspired by the building of Chartres Cathedral in France just prior to this, whose Glass makers were imported from the Middle East, as there were no persons with the required skills in Europe at that time. So the original glass makers of Chartres were Muslims and this is evident in some of the windows there.
The Glass maker who came to make the glass was called Lawrence Le Viteraux (The Glass), he set up in Kent. The glass being made was very rough and ready during the Middle Ages in Britain and a lot was still being imported from the Continent. There was a bit of a scorched earth policy for the glass makers as they made their wares in the ~Forest or in medieval time the Weald. Welding, the modern word means to join metal together using heat, the origination of the word comes from the medieval word for forest as all the work was done there. A lot of deforestation occurred during this period, which lasted right until James 1st was on the throne and he decreed that 'No Glass can be made using wood as fuel, save there being a single tree left standing upon this isle'. Therefore a new fuel had to be utilised and coal was the obvious choice.
Aside – Gaffer, is the medieval word for Glass maker – 'Glasser' the F & S were not defined at this time.
Coal was a difficult fuel to use as it does not burn clean like wood does so the furnaces had to be completely redesigned to allow for this new fuel. They came up with a Glass cone with covered pots to keep the glass clean. These edifices became landmarks in the the glass making centres around the country.
There is little known about the history of glassmaking in Britain during the next one thousand years, although we do know that glassmaking survived as a trade. In early 2004, a Saxon burial chamber was unearthed in Prittlewell in Essex and amongst the artefacts buried with the early Saxon was a beautifully preserved and intact blue glass bowl.
Glassmaking underwent a renaissance in the and 14th centuries. The revival began in Venice (a city which is still thought of as the glass capital of the world) and spread throughout Northern Europe. It would have been very likely that all towns of any size would have had their own glassmaker.
In Britain, during the reign of James I, a law was passed which forbade the use of wood as a fuel for trades. The effect of this was that glassmakers, along with potters and other craftsmen who needed substantial amounts of fuel, had to move to areas where there were alternative fuel sources. Bristol was one such place, having mined coal in the wooded areas to the north of the city since Tudor times. Other areas were the Midlands (even today, Stoke on Trent is renowned for its potteries and Stourbridge for its glass), the North East (again Sunderland was a major centre for glass and today has the National Glass Centre) and London where some of the most well-known firms operated including Whitefriars.
Bristol not only had a good supply of fuel but it had established trading links along the River Severn and out to the Atlantic and was second only to London in terms of economic importance. It also had easy access to other raw materials used in glassmaking such as sand from the Redcliffe Caves, kelp from Bridgwater, clay from further north along the Severn.
The city made very good use of its strategic importance and soon became one of the most important glassmaking centres in Europe. By the late eighteenth century there were some twenty glassmaking firms in Bristol. Most made crown (or window) glass or bottles but a good proportion made a beautiful range of flint glass tableware that was to become the city's legacy. Flint glass is known today as lead crystal.
http://www.bristol-glass.co.uk/history.html
