Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire (north central England), built between 1585 and 1599, is remarkable for the extensive use of glass in its facades. At the time of its construction, glass was a rare and exp…
Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire (north central England), built between 1585 and 1599, is remarkable for the extensive use of glass in its facades. At the time of its construction, glass was a rare and expensive luxury, used almost exclusively in Royal Palaces and in fact the Hall was built by Bess Hardwick, the richest woman in England after the Queen. Today, maintaining the splendour of the windows in the hall is not made easy due to the shortage of UK glassmakers able to produce panes with the same characteristics found in the original 16th century glass. The skill to make such glass was lost in England when the Sunderland company Harley Wood closed five years ago. Recently, the National Trust, which takes care of the property, has been importing replacement glass from Poland which has the necessary lack of refinement. However, a local rival has emerged in the form of a small glass workshop, The English Antique Glass Company, at Alvechurch near Birmingham. Here furnace maker Mike Tuffey and two glassmakers produce just 30 custom-made pieces of glass a day. “We blow cylinders, cut the ends off, split them longitudinally, reheat them and flatten them on a stone or concrete bed with a big block of wood. The glass is melted at 1,300 degrees (Celsius),” he says. “We also do crown glass, when we spin it and cut it into small panes and the bit in the middle where the iron is attached is taken for the bullions. Withdrawing the iron leaves a break in the glass which refracts the light. And we make Norman slabs – small panes with a lens effect because they are thicker in the middle.