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Organisation · 1822–1981 at Smethwick (as Chance Brothers & Co. from 1836)

Chance Brothers & Co.

Glassmakers of Spon Lane, Smethwick: the first in England to make sheet glass as a regular trade (1832), makers of the Crystal Palace glass and patent plate, and world-famous lighthouse engineers.

Long range of old brick industrial buildings beside a canal, with a railway alongside and a motorway viaduct behind.
Oosoom, 2007. Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Robert Lucas Chance bought the British Crown Glass Company’s works at Spon Lane, Smethwick, in 1822 (the firm itself counted from 1824). His brother William became a partner in 1832, and after a spell as Chances & Hartleys the business became Chance Brothers & Co. in 1836.

Glass for windows

In 1832 Chance began making sheet glass with French and Belgian blowers, the first regular manufacture of it in England. James Timmins Chance’s patent of 1838 for grinding and polishing sheet glass produced “patent plate”, and the firm glazed the Houses of Parliament. In 1850–51 it made the sheet glass for the Crystal Palace, over 956,000 square feet according to Historic England. It also made alkali and acids, at Oldbury from 1835, and coloured and stained glass until 1867.

Lighthouses and optics

From about 1850, and seriously from 1855 under James Chance, the firm made lighthouse lenses and then complete lighthouses. After Chance worked with Michael Faraday for Trinity House in 1860, it rebuilt many of the French-made lights round Britain’s coasts and was trusted to design new ones. Historic England describes the lighthouse works as “pre-eminent globally”. In the First World War Chance made optical glass for gunsights and binoculars, and in the Second World War cathode-ray tubes for radar.

Later years

The firm became a private limited company in 1889 and Chance Brothers Ltd in 1935. Pilkington Brothers bought a large interest from 1936 and full control in the 1950s. Flat glass ended at Smethwick in 1976 and the works closed in 1981. The remaining tube-glass business moved to Malvern, where it became independent as Chance Glass Ltd in 1992.

Pictures

  • Engraving of a huge glass building with an arched transept, seen from a road with carriages and people.
    The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, 1851Read & Co., engravers and printers, 1851. Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  • Tall glass lighthouse lens of stacked prisms in a brass frame, in a museum gallery.
    Lighthouse optic made by Chance Brothers, 1866, 11 November 2015Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, 11 November 2015. Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Drawing of three men in white overalls and masks pushing long poles through a hatch into a glowing furnace.
    Glass-blowers ‘gathering’ from the furnace, Chance Brothers, 1943Mervyn Peake, 1943. Imperial War Museums, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

On the map

2 places connected with Chance Brothers & Co.. Tap a number for directions — some sites are private homes or gardens, so each place’s page says what you can see from the street.

11. West Smethwick Park — Surviving22. Chance’s Glassworks, Spon Lane — Partly surviving, At risk
Map © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Old map: Ordnance Survey six-inch, 1888–1913, reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland (CC BY 4.0). A dashed ring means the position is approximate; a shaded ring means only the general area is known.
  1. West Smethwick Park — Surviving · Directions to West Smethwick Park (opens Google Maps)
  2. Chance’s Glassworks, Spon Lane — Partly surviving, At risk · Directions to Chance’s Glassworks, Spon Lane (opens Google Maps)

Open on the full map →

Key dates

  1. 1822 (traditionally 1824) — Robert Lucas Chance buys the Spon Lane glassworksRobert Lucas Chance buys the British Crown Glass Company’s works beside the Birmingham Canal at Spon Lane, Smethwick. The firm later dates its founding to 1824. It grows into Chance Brothers.
  2. August 1832 — Sheet glass made at Spon LaneWith French and Belgian blowers, Chance begins making cylinder sheet glass in No. 2 glasshouse, “the French house”: the first regular manufacture of sheet glass in England.
  3. 1838 — James Timmins Chance patents ‘patent plate’James Timmins Chance patents a process for grinding and polishing sheet glass (no. 7618). ‘Patent plate’ is later used to glaze the Houses of Parliament.
  4. 1850–51 — Smethwick glass for the Crystal PalaceChance Brothers makes the sheet glass for Paxton’s Crystal Palace, over 956,000 square feet in panes 49 by 10 inches. Most of the ironwork comes from Fox, Henderson & Co., also of Smethwick.
  5. c. 1855 — Chance lighthouse works under wayAfter a start around 1850, lighthouse-lens making begins in earnest at Spon Lane under James Timmins Chance. Work with Faraday at Whitby in 1860 makes Chance a leading maker of lighthouses worldwide.
  6. 1981 — Chance’s Spon Lane glassworks closesFlat-glass production at Smethwick, ended in 1976, is followed by the closure of the whole works after more than 150 years. Eight listed buildings and buried furnaces survive.

The full timeline →

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Sources and further reading
  1. Smethwick: Economic history, in A History of the County of Stafford, vol. 17, pp. 107–118 — M. W. Greenslade (ed.), Victoria County History, 1976
  2. Chances Glassworks, Smethwick — National Heritage List for England entry 1021387 (scheduled monument) — Historic England, 2005
  3. Chance Brothers and Co — Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History
  4. Chance, Sir James Timmins, first baronet (1814–1902) — Charles Welch, Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, vol. 1 (Smith, Elder), 1912
  5. Glass-blowers ‘Gathering’ from the Furnace (Art.IWM ART LD 2851) — Imperial War Museums. Ref. Art.IWM ART LD 2851

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