I also started my professional career in the glass container industry (Ravenhead) in the '60's before moving on to bigger and better things in flat glass (Pilkington).
Over the years many historically important kilns / furnaces etc in St Helens have been demolished - the world's 1st Float Unit for example.
We have to move with the times and replace the old with newer and better technology.
We can't save everything.

in my young days i remember Kiln Lane was the lane named after anything like that,was there a kiln on the lane at sometime in the deep past?.They usually name things after churches/monuments/famous names et all.

Rogues,my mother worked at Fosters/rockware during your time,think she worked on a m/c called a lear (wrong spelling)Alice Heaton,think her chargehand was a guy called Billy Carrol,also molly brown and another lady named brown worked on her shift.I also remember the christmas parties at the club,memories eh,

Was there myself around that time as production engineer on the furnaces and feeders, think Rockware went bust shortly after.

Now that the landscaping is nearly done on the new stadium bridge, will re visit and do a cleaner, special angle shot. Might run off a few prints, I take it that you want to go on the "I want one" list, Rogues.

dont wright off the kiln yet, there are talks about a fesability study. as for english heritage sticking their oar in, you might find they can put a lot of weight behind ventures like this

Will they put a lot of money in though?

looking at the pictures inside and out, its huge, so i'd estimate around a million quid at least to get it safe, then restored, then usable as a tourist attraction or anything else. I'd be very surprised if English heritage have that knocking about

Any links to the pics? I'd be interested to see what it looks like closer up. Agree that it would really finish the site off if English Heritage could do something with it.

there is a link in this thread somewhere! it was taken by those young hooligan type scaliwags who sneak into old or new buildings and take pictures, and cracking ones they are too! damn kids today!
good luck finding the link lol!

There you go www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/sho ... hp?t=51439

There you go www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/sho ... hp?t=51439

I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about how these things work.

You get money for this sort of thing by bidding to various funding sources, usually EU money but it can come from all sorts of different bodies such as the National Lottery. Getting English Heritage backing for your bid is massive tick on the bid and would mean a lot when it is considered by the people with the money.

English Heritage don't have much money themselves.