Sheffield Evening Telegraph – Monday 04 July 1887

The Father of The South Yorkshire Glass Trade.

People who travel along the railway from Sheffield to Doncaster by night will not fail to notice the small but rapidly improving towns of Mexborough and Swinton, which are situated on the boundary line between the mining and manufacturing and the agricultural districts of South-West Yorkshire.

Tall chimneys, belching forth the blackest of smoke, fierce furnaces which glow in the darkness and throw lurid light on their surroundings, and small will-o’-the-wisp glimmers from the blow-pipes of scores of glass blowers, are to be seen on every hand. Those who journeyed through the picturesque Don valley forty years ago have reason to deplore the onward march of the manufacturer, who has succeeded in blurring one of the most interesting landscapes. But this has had its compensations, no less than its drawbacks, for on the land which once employed few agricultural labourers hundreds of men and boys are occupied in what was lucrative industry few years ago, and which will again flourish when British Governments have recognised the truth concerning the Free Trade doctrine.

The credit of introducing the manufacture of glass bottles into the South- West Yorkshire districts is largely due to Mr. Thomas Barron, the head of the firm of Messrs. Thomas Barron and Sons, Mexborough. In 1850, Mr. Barron, with his father (Mr. Joseph Barron), his brother Joseph, Benjamin Rylands, John Tillotson, James Tillotson, and Joseph Wilson, all practical glass blowers, determined to commence business on their own account. Mr. Joseph Barron, the elder, was man of an inventive turn of mind, and possessed considerable mechanical skill. While at Hunslet, near Leeds, where his son Thomas, the subject of our sketch, was born, he made a traction engine, which was the first seen in that town, although unfortunately it was not the last. Mr. Joseph Barron also invented a number of tools and appliances used in the glass industry. His business prospered, and he was the head of small glass manufactory at Worsborough Dale, when he decided to throw in his lot with the six men who commenced business in Mexborough.

Thomas Barron, his son, was born in 1812, and was apprenticed to Mr. John Bower, of Hunslet. After going through the mill in the customary manner he came out of his apprenticeship with a very good knowledge of the glass-blowing trade. Fifty years ago there were but few apprentices allowed in the trade, which was in a flourishing condition, and young Barron considered himself fortunate gaining an introduction to the industry. Subsequently he worked as a journeyman at the Aire and Works, Castleford, belonging to Messrs. Breffitt and Co., at which place Mr. Benjamin Rylands, the father of the present proprietor of the Stairfoot Works, was also employed. The seven men previously mentioned commenced business in a small pot furnace situated near the Don, formerly used by Messrs. Bates and Co.

For time the concern flourished amazingly. Every member of the firm worked the furnace, and the commercial part of the business was transacted by the elder Barron, who also worked occasionally as a fitter. The mode of making glass bottle ware was then exactly the same as present. The firm, trading under the title of the Don Glass Manufacturing Company, made scarcely anything but the ordinary wine bottles then in use, and their average weekly output was, during the first two years, 2,000 dozens.

At the expiration of that time Messrs. Benjamin Rylands, John Tillotson, James Tillotson, and Joseph Wilson left the concern, drawing out £480, and commenced business on their own account at the Swinton Works, now owned by the South Yorkshire Glass Bottle Manufacturing Company.

For nine years the three Barrens worked steadily at the furnace. Then Joseph Barron the younger determined to try his fortune alone, and accordingly separated from the firm, carrying with him the title of the Don Glass Works. This did not secure success, however, for the venture proved unfortunate, and the new manufactory was sold to Mr. James Montagu. Messrs. William Roebuck, Hartley Barron, Jos. Bullock, and Charles Bullock, subsequently took over the works. In short time Mr. Peter Waddington was taken into the firm, and Mr. H. Barron was paid out with a good round sum, afterwards starting the Bull Green Glass Works, which are situated near Denaby. He was succeeded by Mr. John Lowe, who carried the business until the land on which the works stood was submerged. Benjamin Rylands went to Stairfoot, where he traded until his death few years ago, and the two Tillotson’s and Wilson died at Swinton.

Joseph Barron, Sen., and his son, Joseph Barron, after working hard at their business, died at Mexborough, Mr. Thomas Barron thus being the only survivor the seven workman who entered Mexborough thirty-seven years ago, and who, their individual and collective have firmly established the glass-bottle trade in Mexborough, Wombwell, and Stairfoot.

After the removal of Joseph Barron from the firm Mr. Thomas Barron determined to call his manufactory the Phoenix Works, by which name is still known. His father died in 1856 at a good old age, and he was left practically alone in the management of his business, which was growing rapidly, and which has continued to increase, notwithstanding the introduction several other firms in the locality, notably the important one of Messrs. Kilner Brothers, of Conisboro’.

Extension after extension was made, until at the present moment the manufactory is one of the largest in the district. At one time he employed both unionists and non-unionists, and has had to battle hard for the latter on many occasions, many hundreds of pounds being wasted in this way. At length he found the task of defending the weak against the strong very thankless and unprofitable, and now none but unionists are employed.

About three years ago, hearing of the improved Siemens process melting glass, he determined to erect a new furnace on what known as the “continuous” system, the glass being melted and converted into bottles of the requisite description day and night alike.

Up to the past few years adversity was unknown in connection with the Phoenix Works, but there came a time when the all-conquering Teuton cast a covetous eye in the direction of the British glass industry. From that time there has been no rest for bottle manufacturers. The company at one time used to export largely, but owing to fierce competition, principally on the part of Germany, the foreign trade has fallen off woefully, with what results to the hardworking glass-blowers of Mexborough can be well conceived. Mr. Barron is very sore on the point “Free ” Trade. His urbanity and good temper are well-known; he would be the last in the district to be alluded to as a crotcheteer; and his conclusions bear the impress of soundness in every particular. He characterises the action of foreigners as robbery, but does not forget that the action of successive Governments during the past half century has led up to the present depressed condition of the great glass industry. He states that German traders, who seem to possess much of the industry of the “Heathen Chinese,” are the habit of buying old glass in London for ten shillings a ton, shipping it to Germany as ballast, and returning it into our markets, there underselling in many instances our own manufacturers. People will say this is not an injustice. But let them look below the surface. In order to obtain old glass Yorkshire from London by rail 15s. per ton would have to be paid by the manufacturer, and cannot be obtained under that sum. Then, again, on account of the lower wages paid by workmen in Germany, the Continental manufacturers compete successfully with our makers in almost every branch of the glass trade.

Mr. Barron is a strong Fair Trader, and he believes that a small duty placed on imported glass ware would resuscitate trade, and give the impetus to glass manufacture it so sorely needs. He puts the pertinent query—why should Germany be considered? We get cheap corn, but we don’t get it from Germany or France; it comes principally from America. Latterly, Mr. Barron says, English glass manufacturers have been cut out altogether in some articles by their rivals. The Germans, he states, can compete with us everything. This the Case, when the English manufacturer is perched in a position resembling that of an ” Aunt Sally ” at a fair, and shied at and struck with every prohibitive duty imposed by the foreigner.

No one who looks at Mr. Barron’s jovial countenance can charge him with pessimism Acceding to his view, however, the outlook for glass manufacturers and their workmen in the near future is a very depressing one. The trade in the north of England has been almost ruined, and especially is this the case in Lancashire. All the black bottle trade has departed from that part of the country and the Lancashire manufacturers have had to fall back upon the making the class of wares manufactured in Yorkshire, with disastrous effects upon both. The prospect, although lively enough, is by no means diverting—at least to the English manufacturer.

The Germans may enjoy it. There is a triangular fight going on at present which can only end the defeat of the British manufacturer. German and English makers are battling desperately for supremacy in the market, and the foreigners are worsting us by reason of the Free Trade system, which allows them to strike their opponents below the belt, while the English makers are precluded from returning the compliment. On the other hand, our manufacturers are forced, by bitter necessity, to cut prices down to the, utmost limit in the wares which are present unaffected by the competition of Continental rivals, for with the chance better profits the omnipresent irrepressible German would scent them, vulture-Iike and swoop upon them from his eyrie. In Yorkshire Sunderland, Newcastle, and Lancashire profitable trading is well-nigh impossible, and even Scotland has felt the pinch.

Mr Gladstone’s measure for cheapening foreign wines had the effect of scotching our already half-defunct industry. Before that politician tried to make the working man a winebibber by Act of Parliament foreign wines used to be imported this country in casks, and bottled here. Now the bottle and wine come together as usual; but not the English bottle. The trade in British wines is almost extinct, and glass bottle makers are without another market for their wares. With a painful attempt at a laugh Mr Barron in the habit of saying that never sees wine now, although he sometimes hears about it. Blows are struck at the trade from within as well from without. Mr. Barron used to do a roaring Australasian business. Only last season, however, a duty of ls. 6d. per gross was placed upon imported water bottles by the Government of New South Wales. Since that time not a single order has been received from that colony. There are some glass works in New South Wales, and the Government of the colony are desirous of making them profitable and of keeping out “the foreigner” the same time.

Like many other persons, Mr. Barron of opinion that even if the industry prospers in Australia the duty will not be removed. If it had not been for the Trade Marks Act, the English bottle trade, would have departed a long ago, with the sugar and silk industries, to the limbo created by blind statesmen. The only remedy, in Mr. Barron’s opinion, for the depression in the glass trade is the imposition of small duty imported glass bottles. This would cause a decaying industry to flourish, help thousands of struggling workmen and poor tradespeople, and be indirectly great benefit to the whole of the community.

A word concerning Mr. Barron. He is about 75 years of age, and those who know anything about the trade in which he has engaged all his life will understand that this itself is a wonderful circumstance. Glass-blowers seldom reach the three score and ten. Two years ago, when the Siemens furnace was opened on his premises, he accomplished a wonderful feat for a man of his years. He was habit of blowing the first bottle at the opening his new furnaces; and the late Mr. James Rogers, who was acquainted with this circumstance, jocularly remarked that he would fill the bottle blown by Mr. Barron with ‘ whisky, whatever his size. To his astonishment, and that of the workmen, the veteran blew and made a gallon bottle, although he had reached his seventieth year. Mr. Barron prides himself on being the oldest glass-blower the trade. He has been member of the Mexborough Local Board and an overseer of the poor but, although staunch Conservative, has never taken part in election strife.

Honoured by his fellow-townsmen, and respected by all who know him, he stands out as a monument of what can be achieved by perseverance rightly directed. His workmen proud to man of “owd Tomma Barron,” as they quaintly term him, and would anything to serve him. May we never be without such self-made men.