Glassworks
Amber Films 1977
One of the series of Amber’s 1970s celebrating work and the working environments of the Tyne and the wider North East, the film is a wordless record of a handmade industrial glass factory in Lemington on Tyneside.
The hand-drawing of glass capillary tubes was a craft which had almost disappeared through mechanisation, but the delicate process was still practised at Lemington, where, through the application of hand, eye and lung-power, the skilled craftsmen produced narrow-bore tubes with remarkable accuracy.
The film parallels this activity with that downstairs in the ‘pot-loft’, where the slow, once closely guarded process of constructing by hand the huge refractory pots is shown from start to finish, the film culminating in the dramatic pot-change.
The glass industry had a long association with the Tyne, where having by his industry and great expense perfected that manufacture (of glass) by sea coal, or pit coal at Newcastle, Sir Robert Mansell persuaded James I to prohibit the burning of wood in glassmaking, out of a concern for the nation’s trees. As with Amber’s other industrial documentaries, the group was advised on the importance of recording the disappearing work places by Tyneside social historian Stafford Linsley.
AMBER FILMS
Made with financial assistance from Northern Arts and BP Oil Ltd.
Location
Glass Tubes & Components Ltd of Lemington
Joe McCarthy & Sons, Tyneside
Credits
Camera: Peter Roberts
Sound: Graham Denman & Roger Schindler
Editing: Roger Schindler
Direction: Murray Martin & Peter Roberts
Made with financial assistance from Northern Arts & British Petroleum
Thanks to: Glass Tubes & Components Ltd of Lemington, Joe McCarthy & Sons, Stafford Linsley
Cast
As themselves:
Workers at Glass Tubes & Components Ltd
Workers at Joe McCarthy & Sons
Keywords
Industry, newcastle, North East, Tyne, Glass, Glass Blowing, Industrial Glass, Capillary Tubes, Carboys, Lemington, Pot Loft, Refractory Pot, Oven, Kiln
Associated Work
DVD:
Available on Tyne Documentaries DVD. Follow the link if you would like to buy it.
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