Embedded Files
1930s
The Webb family ended their interest in the glass industry soon after the liquidation in 1929. In debt for much of the 1930s, they eventually settled for a quieter life in North Wales.
As for the factory, it was relaunched in early 1930 as "Molineaux Webb Glassworks." A contemporary historical article on the Lancashire glass industry from C.P. Hampson in 1932 states "the works manager was a man named Skerratt, whose grandson at present controls the firm." This has to be the Mr. John Skerratt (or a descendant) who was on the directors / managers register for the company in 1924. It looks likely that there was a management buy out of the firm once it left the hands of the Webb family, some time between 1929 and 1932.
The next few years are excellently described by Glen & Stephen Thistlewood’s Carnival Glass website, which details an attempt by the Czech glass company Rindskopf to keep Molineaux and Webb operating as a going concern. A discussion with staff at the Manchester Archives confirms the comments on the website that Czech and German workers were imported into Manchester.
The Carnival Glass website has a series of photographs taken circa 1933 showing the factory after a major fire, which seems to have ended Rindskopf's interest. This was also the last year that the company was listed in local telphone directories.
In 1935 the buildings were put up for sale at auction:
THE MANCHESTER FLINT GLASS CO. LTD
By Order of W.S. Berry Esq., Receiver for the debenture-holder.
FOR SALE BY AUCTION (unless previously sold by private treaty), on the premises, on TUESDAY the 21st MAY, 1935 at 11am.
FREEHOLD AND LEASEHOLD CANALSIDE PROPERTY
known as
The Manchester Flint Glass Works, Kirby Street, Ancoats,
Site Area about 6,022 square yards.
Partly covered with substantial well-lighted buildings.
FLOOR SPACE ABOUT 6,000 SQ. YDS.
Subject to Ground Rents amounting to £283 18s 6d per annum
To be immediately followed in lots in detail of the
GLASS-MAKING PLANT & MACHINERY,
including
a Stiefel Pattern 30-Ton CONTINUOUS OIL-FIRED RECUPERATIVE TANK, TWO 2 1/2 Ton RECUPERATIVE DAY TANKS, Nine Ulrich and Christl HAND-POWER CONTINENTAL PRESSES, Two Flatting Machines, Two Lehrs, Continuous Oil-fired and Pan Annealing Furnaces, 54in to 108in wide; Twelve Glory Holes, a Bailey Twin-Cylinder MOTOR-DRIVEN AIR COMPRESSOR, 164 cubic feet per minute; Six MOTOR-DRIVEN FANS, LATHES, Drilling machines, Vices, Shalting, Benches, Large Quantity of GLASS MOULDS, various; Oil Storage Tanks, Office Furniture, and numerous other effects.
SPECIAL NOTE - These assets will only thus be dealt with if not previously disposed of as a whole, and any offer for the Glass Works as equipped with Plant and Machinery would be favourably considered prior to the auction.
1940s
The name of the company was reused by a business in Birmingham, and by 1940, there was a firm called Molineaux, Webb & Co operating at 121-127 Hurst Street in Birmingham, which principally made lenses for navigation lamps. Meanwhile back in Manchester, the original buildings were still in use for glassmaking, and had come under the control of the Wiedeman family.
Joseph Wiedeman had come over in 1932 with staff from the Rindskopf factory and joined as a foreman. His father had also worked in the glass industry as a chandelier maker in Czechoslovakia. Many of the workers at Molineaux Webb were interned during the war, and the factory was barely maintained in working order. Following the resumption of activities after the war, Wiedeman became owner of the factory, now the Kirby Street Glassworks, and owned a further five houses in the vicinity.
1950s
Glassware production continued but the factory had not undergone automation and pressing was still being done by hand. This left the business unable to compete with equivalent factories in France and elsewhere, which were automated, so tableware was abandoned and they turned to mirror production. Business was at times rocky, and at one point they asked Henry Bingham of Sheffield to take over (suspect Bingham was from the silversmiths Walker & Hall, an old Molineaux Webb customer).
1960s
In 1967, a number of photographs were taken showing the site still in active operation as the "Kirby Street Glass Works." These photographs are with the Manchester Archives. The most interesting one shows the name of the company still surviving in part on the brick work as "X WEBB & CO LIMITED" - image available to view here.
A series of further images showing activity inside the factory can be seen by going to the Manchester Local Image Collection search page, and entering "kirby street glass"
1970s
Joseph Wiedeman filed for bankruptcy in 1969 and in 1970 there was a compulsory purchase order placed on the whole of Kirby Street. The area contained many old factories built in the early 19th century and a regenerative clearout was underway. At the time the factory closed, one of the Lehr units was being used as a garage lockup. The nearby canal was full of old glass fragments from nearly 150 years of production. The factory contained reminders of its past as a tableware maker, such as the moulds which had once produced design registered glassware. These moulds were junked as builders rubble during the demolition of the factory. In 1976 the whole site was levelled to make way for the Cardroom Estate. A new road layout was put down over the former site and the name of Kirby Street was removed, replaced by Cardroom Road.
The Wiedeman family continued with their mirror making business, now renamed Mancunian Glass & Mirrors. They moved to Hyde, and then to Salford, finally named Mancunian Glass Ltd. Their interest in glass ended in 2001 when the business moved into aluminium window frame production. They retain some cutting wheels from the Kirby Street business, with other cutting machines given to Northern Glass in Glossop.
You can see the Joseph Wiedeman sign at Kirby Street here
The mirror silvering room here
Joseph Wiedeman at work here
21st Century Regeneration
The Cardroom Estate did not last long. When we visited Ancoats in 2007 the whole area of the estate and Old Mill Street were being redeveloped into city centre flats. The only surviving building from Victorian times was the Ancoats Hospital, also scheduled to be converted into flats.
2008 - The flattened Cardroom Estate photographed from Redhill Street, Ancoats
The Molineaux & Webb factory was once situated on the left side of the waste ground
2008 - The remains of Kirby Street, Ancoats
Molineaux & Webb were on the right side of the road, near to camera.
At the top end of the right side, on the junction with Mill Street, the church of St. Jude once stood
The last remaining Victorian building, Ancoats Hospital, can be seen on Mill Street
2007 - Ancoats Hospital on Mill Street
2007 - The southern half of (Old) Mill Street, Ancoats
Three of the five founders of Molineaux & Webb, and many of their employees, once lived here
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