Nailsea Glassworks

Nailsea Glassworks lies on the edge of Nailsea in Somerset, where the last brick cones and kilns stand beneath a Tesco car park. The factory opened in 1788 to turn local coal and imported sand into bottles and window glass. Two brick cones once rose above the site, one for window glass and one for bottles, until only fragments survived. The works grew into the fourth-largest glassworks in Britain by 1835, employing over a hundred men and boys who blew glass for markets across the UK and beyond. Partners such as John Hartley Chance and William Coathupe shaped the business, while the distinctive ‘Nailsea’ latticino style made by evening workers became prized by collectors. After Chance Brothers bought the site in 1870, dwindling coal supplies forced its closure in 1873. Today a small green space marks the scheduled monument, its remains preserved under clean sand. A converted kiln building now serves as a garage, while landscaped paths guide visitors past the faint outlines of the old cones. The site offers a quiet corner to imagine the roar of furnaces and the clink of glass leaving Nailsea for distant ports.