Newent Glasshouse, Newent, Gloucestershire: Examination of Glass and Glassworking Waste
Author(s): David Dungworth
The chemical analysis of an assemblage of glass artefacts and glassworking debris (including crucibles) has provided information on glass manufacturing technology at the beginning of the 17th century. The Glasshouse at Newent was one of the last to have been fuelled with wood. An examination of the chemical composition of the exterior surfaces of the crucibles confirms that they were heated in a wood-fuelled furnace. The glassworking debris indicates the production of a high-lime low-alkali (HLLA) glass of composition similar to that produced both in other forest regions (the Weald and Staffordshire) as well as in early coal-fired furnaces. The compositional similarities between HLLA glass produced in wood- and coal-fuelled furnaces suggest that both employed similar strategies to obtain fluxes for glassmaking. These results cast some doubt on the idea that ‘forest’ glassmakers used the ash from the wood fuel as a flux.
- Report Number:
- 6/2010
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 29
- Keywords:
- Glass Post Medieval
