The Red House Cone is located in Wordsley

Wordsley

Wordsley with Buckpool is a village south of Kingswinford although is the most northern suburb of Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England. Wordsley still retains its rural character because it abuts open countryside...

 in the West Midlands

West Midlands (county)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

, adjacent to the Stourbridge Canal

Stourbridge Canal

The Stourbridge Canal is a canal in the West Midlands of England. It links the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal with the Dudley Canal, and hence, via the Birmingham Canal Navigations, to Birmingham and the Black Country.-History:The Stourbridge and Dudley canals were originally proposed as a...

 bridge on the A491 High Street

A491 road

The A491 is an A road in Zone 4 of the Great Britain numbering scheme.-History:The road north of Oldswinford forms part of an ancient road, probably of Anglo-Saxon origin, joining the burhs of Worcester and Stafford...

. It is a 90 feet (27 m) high conical brick structure with a diameter of 60 feet (18 m), 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 cones remaining in the United Kingdom.

It is the best preserved of only four such structures in the UK and is currently used as a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 by Dudley

Dudley

Dudley is a large town in the West Midlands county of England. At the 2001 census , the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the 26th largest settlement in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without...

 Council. At the site are craft shops, demonstrations of glass blowing, a cafe, shop, and provision for temporary exhibits. Visitors are able to climb a platform to view more closely the interior of the cone.

Until mid 2009, Stuart Crystal still had their main retail unit on the site, and for many years previously had a factory unit on the opposite side of the road. The firm became part of the Waterford Wedgwood

Waterford Wedgwood

Waterford Wedgwood plc is the former holding entity for a group of companies headquartered in Ireland, which specialised in the manufacture of high quality china, porcelain and glass. The group was dominated by Tony O'Reilly and his immediate family, and the family of Mr. O'Reilly's second wife,...

 group which was world renowned, however went into administration in January 2009 meaning the store unfortunately closed.

A 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) site, on which the cone stands, was sold by John and Ann Southwell and Rebecca Stokes was sold to Richard Bradley, a wealthy glass-manufacturer, on June 21, 1788. It is believed that Bradley began construction on the site soon after purchase, meaning that the cone would date to around 1790. 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

Lehr (glassmaking)

A lehr is a temperature-controlled kiln for annealing objects made of glass. The name derives from the German verb lehren meaning to teach and is cognate with the English lere also meaning to learn or acquire knowledge of ....

 in the cone, which remains today and is the only surviving one in the world.

The cone received Grade II* listed building status on September 23, 1966.

External links

• Red House Cone - official site