infoGlassworks (1977)
Amber Films (Producer)
20 mins, 16mm
Colour/optical
Documentary
**Available as DVD
Read the DVD Times review
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.
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