Howden Pans Glasshouse

This glasshouse is recorded as standing in 1692 by Brand. The Henzell and Tyzack families worked a glasshouse here from as early as 1686. Broad glass was the main product. For some years before 1772, the broad glasshouse was worked by Matthew Ridley and Co. The date of the transfer of the business from the Henzell and Tyzacks to the Ridleys was between 1754 and 1760. In 1772, Ridley and Co converted the glasshouse into a plate glass factory. In June 1773 the glasshouse was badly damaged by fire. Plate glass was not being made at Howdon in 1776, because there was only one plate glasshouse on the Tyne at that time, Cooksons (HER 2340). A reference to Joseph Tyzack, broad glass maker, in 1781, suggests that the old manufacture was restarted. If the works were rebuilt after the fire, they were no longer under Ridley's auspices. Sir Matthew Ridley was M.P. for Morpeth. His fire-stone quarries at Blyth supplied the glass industry.