Friday, November 19, 2010

We asked Jane Spillman, Curator of American Glass at CMoG to give us some background on Broadfield House Museum

Broadfield House Museum opened in 1980 as part of the Dudley Museums group. It covers the history of British glassmaking from the 17th century to the present, but concentrates on the Stourbridge area, since that was the center of British glassmaking in the 18th and especially the 19th centuries. The original collection was formed by combining the Stourbridge Borough Collection and the Brierley Hill glass collection (housed in the local library) and these two public collections were put together at Broadfield House, a 19th century historic house which was offered to the Dudley Museum for this purpose. In the 30 years which the museum has been open, the collection has grown much larger and the museum has an excellent library and a glass studio as well. Unfortunately, the local government is thinking of closing the museum, in order to save money, and putting the collection in storage.

Where that was first suggested a few months ago, there was such an outcry that the idea was dropped, but since the borough still has financial problems, it has resurfaced, and the museum may yet be closed.

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