Glass making was first introduced to this country by the Romans and over the centuries has grown to make Britain a world leader in the production of high lead crystal.

It was in the early 1800's however, that this fascinating industry arrived in the small Staffordshire village of Tutbury, outside Burton-on-Trent. Encouraged by Henry Jackson, who started glass trading in Tutbury before selling up and moving to the USA (where his son became the legendary General 'Stonewall' Jackson), glass making developed over the years and is still flourishing today at Georgian Crystal.

Situated in the small intimate factory - once a silk mill - visitors are welcomed and invited at no cost to watch the modest team of highly skilled craftsmen practice their unique art, from glass blowing to the incredible art of cutting and engraving - an opportunity not to be missed!

A few lines to explain how crystal is made:

First we start with 'batch' which consists of white silica sand, litharge powder, potassium carbonate and 'cullet' which is crystal which does not make the grade, and the tops of glasses. At the end of one working week we can have about six cwt. of batch. To fill one pot we use approximately 9 cwt. of mixed batch and cullet which is then thrown into the pot mouth. The temperature of the pot at this time is 1400C. It takes approximately 36 hours for the mixture to melt, and this is called founding. The batch material is then called 'metal'. The working temperature of the metal is 1200C.

There are three men working per furnace. The Servitor, the Glass Blower and the Bit Gatherer. The glass temperature will drop to about 720C in the manufacturing process. The manufactured glass is then transferred into the muffle which remains at 500C until the days work is finished. The muffle then goes on to control during the night which reduces the temperature of the glass gradually which takes approximately 12 hours. The glass is then removed the following morning and taken to the process area.

The first process is to remove the top by means of scoring and then cracking off on a turntable with a mixture of oxygen and natural gas. This mixture of gases combine to make a knife like flame which makes the glass part where the score mark has been. This process is called 'cracking off'.

From there the glass goes to be smoothed on the top and inside and outside bevelled. These processes are done on diamond impregnated wheels. After this the glass is washed and dried , then marked with water repellent pens which make the guide lines for the glass decorator to cut the various cutting patterns.

After this cutting process each glass is washed and scrubbed ready for acid polishing. To acid polish the crystal is dipped into a mixture of hydrofluoric and sulphuric acid which polishes the crystal taking approximately 2 minutes per item.

From there the glass is graded, packed and dispatched to various parts of the world.

Our crystal is sold direct in our factory shop on the premises and a percentage by mail order.