Furnaces

"In the Spring and early Summer of 2005, we constructed and ran two Roman wood-fired glass furnaces at our workshops in Quarley, Hampshire. The project, staffed by volunteers, ran for several weeks in an attempt to discover information about the working conditions of ancient glassmakers.

The glass furnaces were based on information gleaned from the many excavations of Roman furnaces in recent years, using a quantity of original Roman bricks and tegulae (kindly supplied by archaeologists), and a clay daub. They were fuelled with wood, including beech and ash, and ran for 24 hours a day. Glass was blown by Mark (and by Bill Gudenrath for two days) during the daylight hours."